The Consumer Debt Crisis Lingers On

Living paycheck to paycheck does not get easier the longer you do it.  With each passing pay period, you only become more tired, even as the outstanding balances on your debts do not budge.  Before you know it, you are engaging in revenge bedtime procrastination, reading fascinating and intellectually challenging books when you should be sleeping so that you can get up early for work tomorrow.  The news about the economy only adds insult to injury.  On paper, it looks like the economy is doing well, but your income is not enough to pay for necessities.  Your credit cards max out every month once the credit card company applies the interest charge on the purchases you made several years ago, when money started getting tight enough that running up a balance on your credit card was your only choice.  Financial long COVID is a pain, and its symptoms show no symptoms of subsiding.  New data about the economy in the third quarter of 2024 are out, but they are cold comfort for the millions of Floridians living paycheck to paycheck.  If you are exhausted from living paycheck to paycheck for as long as you can remember, contact a Miami debt lawyer.

The K-Shaped Recovery Curve Rears Its Ugly Head Again

Economists have released the latest quarterly report about consumer debt in the United States, and it contains some data that seem encouraging at first glance.  Incomes grew faster than new debts in the third quarter of 2024, so now the total debt to income ratio of American households is 82 percent, compared to 86 percent at the beginning of 2020.

This is news that can bring encouragement only to economists.  The rest of us do not care what the nation’s collective debt to income ratio is.  Instead, we are focused on paying the next bill before it incurs another late fee, and on that front, the news is anything but encouraging.  11.1 percent of consumer credit card accounts have a balance that is more than 30 days past due.  The last time this many consumers were this late on their credit card payments was at the beginning of 2012, just before the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As usual, the worst of the credit card debt is concentrated among the most vulnerable consumers, the ones who are young and new to the workforce, as well as low-income workers of all ages.  The economy seems fine if you are an economist or if you have a high enough income that you can live in the same gated community with economists.  For everyone else, it stinks, but a debt relief lawyer can help you exercise your rights to get relief from predatory debts.

Work With a Debt Lawyer About Getting Out of Seemingly Endless Debt

A South Florida debt lawyer can help you find a practical solution if your credit card is spiraling out of control, despite your best efforts to pay it down.  Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Miami, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-fall-further-behind-on-debts-new-york-fed-finds-223535832.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJ0zZEGAwA8zrcUZhwIY-8gVwtTh0eih24LpDmbFZe0Dt2KCzptz_e1hW63T_bCuz5Ybs5Cw8rQldLCaR4I1XWOJK6L2ugXBDnHZz5ZrB3Qr3TW4SrEUDBzFi_mGlk1kGgs-8P4gVkUQeQdkPKgRFn6c2Uf8Zk_Y7GNaB8QSRANW