Overall Debt
 

JCL:
I agree with your recognition that all debt is one of the most important factors to consider and deal appropriately with in one's planning for retirement. For those who own a primary home acquired with the assistance of a mortgage, understanding the duration length of the mortgage and the final pay off date are key. If you can afford to do so, by paying additional principal each month will accelerate your final pay off date and also reduce the total amount of money you pay in interest. Ideally, you will pay off that mortgage at the time you retire or better yet, before hand.
Credit Card debt is an expensive debt, that unlike the current tax law regarding mortgage interest, is not tax deductible. The closer you get to your planned retirement age the less and less you should be purchasing anything that will result in a balance due that is carried over from month to month, resulting in expensive interest penalty charges.
The same holds true for any other type of personal loans, automobile loans, etc.
The idea is to start your retirement as debt-free as is reasonably possible.

I also agree with your astute observation that both the US Government and we, the citizens of the United States, have both been living beyond our means for well over the past 25 years. When our previous President responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the proclamation that the American public should "go shopping" to demonstrate that the terrorists did not adversely affect our economy, it was a perverse approval from our government leader(s) to "bless" spending more than we earned, and accumulate more and more debt. Whether it was consumer credit and/or mortgage debt, both he and we were equally guilty of believing (wrongfully so....), that assuming more debt would be ok and also was the most appropriate response. Remember that our society's combined debt level, pre-Sept. 2008, was quite staggering and at an all time high. I will leave it at that and not get into the larger protracted debate of our country's staggering national debt.

It took the devastating effects of the Great Recession that started in 2007-2008 to make most Americans wake up and realize that their overall lack or poor rate of savings and accumulated debt. would bankrupt them, let alone provide any financial reserve for their retirement years. Or they would loose their home where they were "underwater" with their mortgage.
We all know people who say that they now realize that they cannot afford to ever retire and therefore do not plan to do so. That may be true yet also may be naive since you really do not have control over your job if you are an employee, nor do you know what your future health ultimately will be like. Yet this, "throw up your hands in surrender..." attitude where they say they will rely on whatever the US Federal Government will give them in the form of Social Security and Medicare, is both sad and frightening. For many people this is essentially their strategy for their retirement.
Then there are others who just say: "God will provide for me".
I just shake my head...

I think that most of our society still has that consumerist capitalist ideology and, while somewhat tempered, still has the urge for instant gratification of "buying" on credit, something / anything new, immediately, because they rationalize that "they deserve it...".
I and many others have been guilty of this and I realize now that if you have the self discipline to delay or stifle this urge, that you will very quickly realize that the object of your obsessive desire really was and is not that important, whereas saving your money is.....

Only time will tell, as we slowly and steadily recover from the damaging effects of this recent recession, if we Americans that are nearing retirement, as well as those who are in their 30's and 40's, really have learned this important lesson and have changed their and our habits.

AVB-AMG
:driver: