At Bloggled, we strive to keep you informed. Sometimes the data isn’t pretty, but it definitely is eye opening. Take some time to read these facts in a two parts series title “Just the Facts Ma’am”. As always, we welcome your comments and additional information you might have. GET BLOGGLED!

Finance Facts

• Credit card debt averages $9,200 per household (2x level of 1995). (Source: Federal Reserve)
• 50% of credit card holders pay the minimum payment required each month. (Source: Geary)
• 50% of consumer debt and 26% of mortgage debt is on a variable rate payment schedule. (Source: Lehman Brothers: Wall St. Journal, 7/19/05)
• Americans have $8.8 trillion of mortgage debt. An increase of 42% since 2001 and double since 1998. (Source: Federal Reserve)
• Household consumption is 70% of U.S. GDP. (Source: Federal Reserve)
• U.S. Savings rate was 8% in 1980. It’s zero today.
• Compared to 1975, monthly budgets, American families spend 90% more on child care, 38% more on taxes and 58% more on automobiles. (Source: Elizabeth Warren, Professor Harvard University: Law Professor Book, “All Your Worth.”)
• The median income for full time U.S. workers is $40,798, which is lower in real dollars than it was in 1973. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
• Since 2000 family household income has declined $1669 while productivity has risen 15%. This is the first time since the industrial revolution that wages are falling while productivity and profits are rising. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
• Number of Americans in poverty is now 37 million. Ranks of those in poverty grew 1.1 million even though 2.2 million new jobs were created. (U.S. Census Bureau) The largest increase in poverty is in white households up to age 64.
• Young workers (Gen21) have been hit hardest as the average college graduate now has $20,000 of college related debt. This is double 1995 average. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Gen21 are more likely to not have health insurance pensions, or own a home. The percentage of young families owning homes is less than it was in 1980 and the homeowners under age 40 are much more likely to have adjustable rate mortgages. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Children of the top 20% of income class are less likely to have college loan debt and more likely to own a home with a fixed rate mortgage than children of middle class parents.
• Every worker in America is now saddled with $350,000 in tax obligation to pay for unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government. This has easily gone up since the Bailout Package(Equal to $47 trillion)
  The U.S. trade deficit is twice as high in real terms as it was in 1985 when we were afraid of the Japanese imports. It is 6.5% of GDP.
• Over half of the increases in gasoline prices since August 2005 have been added to personal credit card balances.
• Gen21 is growing. Today there are 70 million Americans under 17. By 2050 there will be 96 million. (U.S. Department of Labor)
• Over the past 5 years, wage and job growth have stagnated while housing prices, healthcare costs and consumer debt has soared.
• Economists worry when interest rates rise and consumer spending declines, our economy will stagnate. (Source: USA Today)
• The American way of increasing our standard of living: Phase 1: Add a wage earner to our households. (1970-1995) Phase 2: Increase our consumer debt. (1996-2005) Phase 3: …?
• The U.S. has the smallest percentage of middle class households of all developed nations except one: Russia (Source: OCED)

Tags: bloggled facts, finance facts

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