Credit Card Debt Skyrockets Among U.S. Seniors, USA Today Says
quote.bloomberg.com
Personal Wealth
Fri, 10 May 2002, 10:17am EDT
Credit Card Debt Skyrockets Among U.S. Seniors, USA Today Says
By Amy Strahan Butler
Washington, April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Household debt for U.S. residents 65 years of age and older skyrocketed 164 percent on average over an eight-year period to $20,302, according to SRI Consulting Business Intelligence, USA Today reported.
That's faster than the increases in debt younger people accumulated during the same period, and indicates that many senior citizens are using credit cards when Social Security checks and retirement savings can't handle unexpected medical expenses, according to the newspaper.
``Older people tend to be used to living within their income until some crisis happens,'' Tiff Worley, president of Auriton Solutions, a non-profit debt-counseling agency, told USA Today.
Roughly 82,000 residents 65 and older filed for bankruptcy in 2001, more than double the number that filed in 1991, according to the newspaper.
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WHODATHUNKIT ?
...even "they" (seniors) drank the Debt-Orgy Kool-Aid ?
...watch what happens when both the "greatest generation" and the "Boomers" take another 30-50% hit to their 401K's and net worth during the part deux of the unfolding of this seminal BEAR.
It will change America.
We are a nation of debtors and borrowers; the Kings of Deficit Spending and we simply do not save.
Additionally we have bought into the notion of near full exposure to the US Stock Market (and the Real Estate Bubble) for nearly all of our net worth.
Europeans have a much higher rate of defined benefit pension plans - we chose to gamble in the markets.
We have no savings...or a savings mindset; as do the Europeans & Japanese.
History that will change the next couple of decades for America is unfolding before our eyes... and very, very few are reacting intelligently to what is so evident for anyone who just says no to Uncle Al's Kool-Aid.
America had better prepare very quickly for the pentultimate rainy day, must dramatically reduce exposure to stocks, had better start viewing DEBT - as 4-LETTER WORD and must become a Nation of SAVERS...very quickly; or we are going to be caught with our decadanet largess-pants down... at a most inopportune time in history. |
