Americans now owe $1.13 trillion in credit card debt

  • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    One of my young coworkers had been running a huge balance on her card for two years. She was making minimum payments every month and didnt understand why the number wasnt going down…

    I had to sit her down and explain how interest works and helped her figure out how to take a lower interest loan to wipe out the credit card debt and get a repayment plan going

    I wonder what would have happened to her if i didnt overhear her phone conversation and decided to be nosy and ask her about the credit situation…

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      Yeah, at least when I went through school, personal finance wasn’t taught.

      I think that in fifth grade, we learned to write a check and balance a checkbook. I think that that was the net extent of it that showed up in formal schooling.

      In the one home economics class I took, maybe seventh grade, I crocheted a Halloween wreath, but we never actually touched on personal finance. If it was gonna happen, that is where it was going to be covered.

      Really came down to what your parents knew and taught you, I suppose.

      • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        personal finance wasn’t taught

        Pretty sure this is by design… How many other people are in the same boat as my coworker? How many millions are they making off people like her?

        Even for myself… I didnt get to the point where i was in her situation, but my own financial literacy wasnt that good just a few years ago… I had no knowledge of investments or anything. My parents raised me to just give all my money to the bank to take care of

        Wasnt until i took the time to learn the basics when i realized the bank is NOT your friend. You’ll take 100% of the hit when the economy has a meltdown like 2008, but when you have a massive 10 year bull run and the SP500 goes 4x, you might see half of those gains in the bank mutual fund…

        I pulled all my mutual funds and started self directed investing… Way better gains than the bank

        Banks are totally profiting off our ignorance and fear of numbers