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American consumers are faced with rising costs for basic necessities including food, housing and healthcare. Coupled with declining wages, this is a recipe for potential financial disaster. In fact for the first time in history, personal debt has surpassed personal income.
Fact: Temptation is everywhere and starts when we are still in our teens. Invitations for home equity loans, interest-free financing and credit card offers routinely flood our mailboxes. The average person has 8 credit cards. College students are not exempt from jumping on the merry-go-round. According to NellieMae, 83% of undergraduate students carry a credit card. The number shoots up dramatically for graduate students. Ninety-six percent of them weigh in with an average of 6 credit cards and carry balances over $2,000.
Fact: More than fifty percent of us carry $10,000 in credit card debt.
Fact: Two million people filed for personal bankruptcy in 2005.
Fact: The Federal Reserve places consumer debt at over $2 trillion.
At Let's Talk About Debt, we want to help consumers understand and practice sound financial management. On this site there are tools to evaluate financial well being, ways to remedy credit issues and links to other useful consumer credit sites. Basic information regarding consumer credit and debt can be found in the FAQ section while the Glossary page outlines terms used by lenders and financial institutions.
We hope the information on this site will help keep you financially fit.
Creditors have better memories than debtors.
-Benjamin Franklin
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