According to financial experts, the percentage of Americans in debt is around 80%. 8 in 10 Americans have some form of consumer debt, and the average debt in America is $38,000 not including mortgage debt. Owing money just seems to be a way of life for Americans, as collectively we have $14 trillion in debt.
The average U.S. household with debt now owes $155,622, or more than $15 trillion altogether, including debt from credit cards, mortgages, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, student loans and other household obligations — up 6.2% from a year ago.
That means most American adults either carry a mortgage, owe on a car, face monthly student loan payments, roll over charges on their credit cards—or all of the above. And yet, over half of Americans surveyed (53%) say that debt reduction is a top priority—while nearly a quarter (23%) say they have no debt.
A good goal is to be debt-free by retirement age, either 65 or earlier if you want. If you have other goals, such as taking a sabbatical or starting a business, you should make sure that your debt isn't going to hold you back.
Japan, with its population of 127,185,332, has the highest national debt in the world at 234.18% of its GDP, followed by Greece at 181.78%. Japan's national debt currently sits at ¥1,028 trillion ($9.087 trillion USD).
Even though household net worth is on the rise in America (at $141 trillion in the summer of 2021)—so is debt. The total personal debt in the U.S. is at an all-time high of $14.96 trillion. The average American debt (per U.S. adult) is $58,604 and 77% of American households have at least some type of debt.
The average American's savings varies by household and demographic. As of 2019, per the U.S. Federal Reserve, the median transaction account balance (checking and savings combined) for the American family was $5,300; the mean (or average) transaction account balance was $41,600.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recommends you keep your debt-to-income ratio below 43%. Statistically speaking, people with debts exceeding 43 percent often have trouble making their monthly payments. The highest ratio you can have and still be able to obtain a qualified mortgage is also 43 percent.
The federal net debt rose by $253.4 billion in 2020 to reach $942.5 billion or 42.7% of GDP, compared with 29.8% in 2019.
If you're carrying serious credit card debt — like $15,000 or more — you're not alone. The average household with revolving credit card debt — that is, debt that they carry from one month to the next — had more than $7,000 worth of revolving balances in 2019. That's just the average.
This means that total household debt (not including house payments) shouldn't exceed 20% of your net household income. (Your net income is how much you actually “bring home” after taxes in your paycheck.) Ideally, monthly payments shouldn't exceed 10% of the NET amount you bring home.
It found that about 54% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. And nearly 40% of high earners — those making more than $100,000 annually — said they live that way.
“We would recommend between $100 to $300 of cash in your wallet, but also having a reserve of $1,000 or so in a safe at home,” Anderson says. Depending on your spending habits, a couple hundred dollars may be more than enough for your daily expenses or not enough.
You may be starting to think about your retirement goals more seriously. By age 40, you should have saved a little over $175,000 if you're earning an average salary and follow the general guideline that you should have saved about three times your salary by that time.
Since they are now the country's largest generation—83.1 million people, according to the US Census Bureau—the millennial debt crisis is a national issue. Millennials are the most indebted generation in history. A quarter of all US citizens aged 18 to 34 owe more than $30,000.
According to the new "State of Credit 2021" report from Experian, one of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Gen Xers have the highest credit card debt and highest levels of mortgage and non-mortgage debt of any generation, on average.
Members of Generation X have the highest average credit card debt at $7,155, followed by baby boomers and millennials, according to credit bureau Experian's latest consumer findings.
How much does the average person have in their bank account? The median balance among different types of bank accounts is $5,300, according to the Federal Reserve's 2019 Survey of Consumer Finance. That includes checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts and prepaid debit cards.
In the United States, there is no limit on how much cash you can carry on domestic flights. When travelling internationally to the US (and most other countries) $10,000 USD (or equivalent) is the cash limit without declaring the cash you are bringing in to limit money laundering efforts.
Under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks and other financial institutions must report cash deposits greater than $10,000. But since many criminals are aware of that requirement, banks also are supposed to report any suspicious transactions, including deposit patterns below $10,000.
According to Bankrate's survey, 25% of Americans have no emergency savings. That's why the high savings rate during the pandemic does not tell a full story, said Greg McBride with Bankrate. “That has certainly not fallen evenly across all households,” he said. Low-income households had a hard time saving.
About 30.7% of households earned over $100,000 in 2020. In 2019, around 15.5% of Americans earned between $100,000 and $149,999; about 8.3% of the population earned between $150,000 and $199,999; and about 10.3% of the population earned over $200,000.
One way to do this is by checking what's called the five C's of credit: character, capacity, capital, collateral and conditions.
The 50-20-30 rule is a money management technique that divides your paycheck into three categories: 50% for the essentials, 20% for savings and 30% for everything else.