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WORLD> Health
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Poll: Debt hurts your body, too
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-10 10:24 Revolving consumer debt, almost all from credit cards, now totals $957 billion, compared with $800 billion in 2004, according to the Federal Reserve. Average car loans are up, too, to $27,397, from $24,888 four years ago. Home mortgages total $10.5 trillion, compared with $7.8 trillion in 2004. If that's not enough to rattle you, consider this. The share of households' after-tax income that goes to serving financial obligations was nearly 20 percent in 2007, up from 18.5 percent in 2004, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Economy.com. No wonder people are feeling stressed. So, why do they let debt spiral out of control? A significant life crisis like a major health problem or the loss of a job drives many people into debt. Others build up bills "trying to keep up with the Joneses" according to Patricia Drentea, associate professor of sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who studies debt and stress. For the middle class and beyond, it could be a push for a bigger house, an SUV, high-tech TVs, computers and other electronic gadgets, gym memberships, nicer clothes and restaurants. The list goes on and on. Indeed, the survey found that upwardly mobile, middle-class families were among those who had the most debt stress. Others were women, couples with small children, low-income working families, Democrats and those who graduated high school but haven't taken college courses. Those least likely to be stressed from debt include men, retirees, empty nesters, college graduates and Republicans. The AP-AOL Health poll involved telephone interviews with 1,002 adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii and was conducted from March 24 to April 3 by Abt SRBI Inc. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Cynthia Roberts, 36, of Tawas City, Mich., is "slowly crawling out of the hole that I've been buried in for four years." At that time, she lost her job as a convenience store manager as she battled health problems. She eventually lost her home to foreclosure. These days, Roberts, a mother of four, the oldest in the Army, makes a living through a series of odd jobs — hauling metal to the scrap yard, selling firewood, mowing lawns and cleaning houses. She's now making payments on utility bills and on her car. But not her credit card, where hundreds of dollars in charges are several years old. At the height of her financial troubles, "I couldn't function," she remembers. "I'm surprised I'm not in a white straitjacket in a nut house. It was that bad. I had to go for counseling because I was freaking out." |
