Sep 21st, 2019 | Money Podcast

MILLENNIALS AVERAGE $28,000 IN DEBT and you'll never believe what most of that debt is for. It's not what you think! Also, a medical professional who's marrying his medical professional girlfriend is troubled that she doesn't want to help him pay off his $230,000 in student loan debt once they're married. What should he do? Tom weighs in!

Got a money question? Let's see it: tom@blowmeuptom.com.

 

HOUR 1

Comments

Submitted by Nobody of note on

I'm one of those rare younger millennials (age 25) with no student or credit card debt, and I'll admit getting away with no student debt was relatively difficult. College was slightly more work than high school and not the party scene/snooze fest you see in movies, and I had to take difficult classes and put effort into earning good grades. When you want someone else to pay you to go to college, you have treat it like a real job where you have to perform to a standard to keep on getting paid. So I can understand why a lot of people take on debt so they can party for a few years with an occasional essay or test thrown in the mix.

But credit card debt? Getting away with no credit card debt was stupidly easy. Sure I heard the horror stories of crippling debt from commercials when I was younger and stressed about it for the first year I had a credit card, but then I realized how easy it was to simply not buy what I didn't have money for. I just used my account balance as spending limit instead of a credit limit. And better yet, after a few years of doing that, credit card companies are practically throwing free money at me for using their cards. This past year, between travel benefits and cash-back offers, I made well over 1500 dollars in credit card benefits. And it's easy!

Student debt is borne from laziness. And that's okay, humans are inherently lazy creatures. We're always trying to find the easiest way to do everything. Credit card debt, on the other hand, is borne of stupidity. And there's no excuse for stupidity.

Submitted by TallTim on

...that a majority of the credit card debt was run up by women?

As for the "M" generation, they are uniquely screwed for a variety of reasons, the biggest being that an education doesn't guarantee any kind of success in the job market. Education costs have spiked way over any other kind, and its getting impossible to keep up.

The responsible ones will be okay, but the idiots will be on the street or in a relative's basement. (If they aren't already.)

The worst part? In 6 - 9 months we're going to have a global recession that no one has ever seen, and its going to hurt - bad. Even the rich will get hit. (Depending on their portfolio, but most will get wrecked.)

Submitted by Nobody of note on

I think the percentage of consumer credit card debt held by women was already covered in a previous podcast, and anyone who bets against you there is an idiot. The most figure I remember is two-thirds. Two thirds of credit card debt in America is held by women. Some kinds of debt are necessary and even beneficial if you're smart about it, but there is nothing necessary or beneficial about credit card debt. It's a tax on stupidity and impatience.

Submitted by TallTim on

Here's the underlying secret. Women don't rationally think things through - they are creatures of emotion. If something makes them FEEL a certain way, they'll buy it. If they FEEL they need it, not that they have any practical reason to, they'll buy it.

Its just about how she FEELS about something in any given moment. Also works for the relationship question too. Every time she says "I love you" what you should be doing is prepending that statement with "I FEEL right now that I love you".

Because as we know that can flip like a light switch without any warning to "I'm not HAPPY". Whenever a chick calls her ex "abusive", what she really means is he probably constrained her spending and told her the reality of her situation. Any control by a man is considered "abusive", even if its intended to prevent disaster.

Glad I could help.

Submitted by Nobody of note on

None of that is news to me. Unfortunately it's just suddenly taboo to say anything about women that isn't undying praise, regardless of how true it is.

Generally speaking, women have always been emotional while men tend to be more rational. We ask "what purpose does this serve?" Women ask "how does this make me feel?" That's why advertising and consumerism in general has always been geared towards women (so it would make sense that most CONSUMER debt is held by women). It's much easier and much more profitable to manipulate the emotions of the average woman than the rationality of the average man. This isn't new or secret information. It's just suddenly wrong to say it.

Submitted by nihal on

Ok.. I know I am going to be contradicted by my opinion, but I have been thinking about this for way too long to come up with this conclusion. In my opinion, being in debt is ok.... IF you are paying it off AND not paying a high amount of interest.

If you are spending 15,000 dollars, making minimum payment and then pay 21 percent APR, this is bad.... really bad.

BUT... These days, credit cards are offering 18 months of NO INTEREST. They are literally loaning you money for 18 months before you can pay that off. That is a LONG time! You can literally get into 15,000 dollars in credit card debt, pay it off in the next 18 months and it would be as if you spend 15,000 dollars in the 18 month time span!

Face it... at a young age, some people need to spend this amount of money on themselves. This is why they want to spend a lot of money. They are investing in themselves, before they become old. The problem with these people is, they don't plan for it. They spend money on the wrong things which prevents them to buy what they really want.

However, choosing to live beyond your means for a year and paying that off slowly, I see nothing wrong with that. If you think about it, our country is in debt with other nations like China. We need to stop being guilty for being in debt, especially when we are making the payments.