Most Americans are concerned about the social security crisis and the national debt, and rightly so. Both issues desperately need to be addressed. Indeed, the national economy is so large and complex and the scope of these issues is so massive that it is difficult for most of us to get our mind around them. But there is another issue – not unrelated – that isn’t difficult to grasp and it is something everyone can actually do something about: personal consumer debt.
There were 1.6 million personal bankruptcies last year (representing 2.14 million people) and about the same is predicted for 2004. In 1980 there were only 300,000 personal bankruptcies. In 2001 consumers owed 7.4 trillion dollars! Total household debt – credit cards, car loans, mortgages – is now over 100% of disposable (after taxes) income! Evidently we have embraced the credit card slogan, “Think of it as money!”
It seems as if we are culturally addicted to spending. It doesn’t help that we have predatory lenders who focus on naïve college students and are constantly assaulting all of us with solicitations. Even though the average credit card holder has 9 credit cards there were 3.3 billion credit card solicitations in 2001. No wonder it seems like we get this junk mail weekly – it averages 30 solicitations per year per household. I am pretty sure I get more than my share!
The bottom line is that most of us spend more than we earn in order to live in a manner to which we feel entitled. It is hard to hold our government accountable for spending money they do not have when we so freely spend money we do not have. So why not take action by doing something that you can do: stop spending so much! Don’t wait for the New Year; start now by spending less over Christmas and decide to enjoy the much richer things in life that money cannot purchase, like friends and family.
It is tragic that the Christmas season has become such a focal point for giving and accumulating so many trinkets. How ironic that at the time we celebrate the birth of the Savior who came to set us free by paying our debt to God, we spend so much that we indenture ourselves to servicing an ever increasing mountain of financial debt.
“Owe no one anything except to love one another” (Romans 13:8). The apostle Paul is speaking of moral obligations and not necessarily money management. But it turns out that this is sound financial advice as well!
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