Average American Family Credit Card Debt

The real question is who caters more to the average american family?
Lets say the couple is married both work with one child and makes an anual income of 45,000
Lets say they own a home that cost them 60,000 with a payment of 650 a month.
They own one family vehicle thats almost paid for lets say the payment is 300
Factor in utilities and food and lets say they have no credit card debt
Which party would this family benefit more from a democrat or a republican president?
And I want specifics on how and why they would benefit from either parties political views for the average american household

Financially they would benefit from many Democratic programs. But party support is not entirely about what makes sense from a financial standpoint, or even whether a person favors programs that are supportted by one party or another.

Often, people like that feel so helpless that they look for people to scapegoat for their problems. The Republican party is the party of scapegoating the poor and powerless in this country, so they might be more comfortable voting Republican.∠°)

2009-03-01 10:24:31 by B@By GiRL

US issues $7 trillion debt, supply to stabilize finance.yahoo.com AP source: Census worker hanged with 'fed' on body www.google.com Moody ...

I will be upfront with you, I am no economist. But I am an average American who is worried about what I am hearing in the news about the economy. Ie: the value of the dollar, Mortgage crisis, fed droping rates, Price of oil, price of wheat, etc.
We are an average family of 4.5 people (baby on the way!)
We currently have $1000 in EXTRA cash right now. My husband is opting for new living room furniture. But with the gloom-and-doom recession looming, I wonder if we need to be wiser with our $$. Should we SAVE, SAVE, SAVE as much as we can for a "rainy day", or should we kiss that $1,000 goodbye and throw it into paying down our Credit Card Debt as fast as we can? Buy a bunch of Flour and food storage?
I just wonder what the SAFEST course of action is for any American family right now, with the way the economy is headed.

It is always wise to have extra cash in an emergency fund, especially when you have children and a baby on the way...you just never know what could happen. So, if by extra cash, you mean in addition to the emergency fund, then you should pay down your debt. If you don't have an emergency fund then this money should be kept for emergencies.
I don't think it is necessary to stock up on food though (besides, even flour expires...so you might be out money in the end if you have to throw food away).

2008-03-18 09:23:25 by momof2kiddos

Price: $22.95

Particularly, a family member thinks I may have "too much" available credit.

I have 6 credit cards. An American Express Clear, a Bank of America American Express, Chase Visa, Discover More, Bank of America Platinum Plus, Citi Platinum Mastercard.

These total $68,200 worth of available credit. However, I only utilize about $4,000 of this (which is spread out over 2 cards, even). I'm paying that $4k down so that I can have no credit card debt within about 3 months.

Is it 'bad' for me to have that much available credit? I've had some of these cards for years, and some happened to give me some really crazy limits (such as that American Express Clear that has $25k available credit). Will this much available credit hurt my credit score or prevent me from getting my own house in like 2-3 years or so? My credit score (checked recently) is about 760 as an average of the three credit bureau scores.

So, yes or no...does this much available credit cause me any problems down the road with something like a mortgage?
And...to the people who have a thumbs down, it's not me. lol I let other people decide which is and isn't the "right" answer. :-)

No, as long as your using it like you say you are and it is actually probably helping you because it shows that you can handle having the available credit without going crazy and your credit score speaks for its self.

2009-05-12 18:10:36 by Anonymous

The US Senate is trying to steam-roll the American public by disguising the Bush/Paulson $700billion Wall Street/NYC payout/bail-out/hand-out by tacking on non-related items - which the inept Henry Reed led Senate should pass independently and separately of the proposed predatory lenders' hand-out of tax-payer money.

The heroes of the middle-class and American worker are those in the US House of Representatives who stood against bludgeoning their constituents and all of working-class America yesterday by voting against the $700billion Bush/Paulson fraud.

Such House Representative's as (TN) Thompson, (TX) Hensarling, (NJ) Garrett and (OR) DiFazio and (TX) Doggett (just naming a few) put American families first, not predatory lenders' lobbyists in Washington by voting against the tproposed tax-payer bailout of Wall Street/NYC millionaires and billionaires. (Yes, Ohio and California as well as Georgia are to be recocgnized as well).

These Representatives realize that the US government already has the tools needed to ensure that the American financial system does not freeze up as threatened by Bush/Paulson and their proposed $700billion swan-song. The FDIC, Small Business Administration and Federal Reserve - can ensure money is available to US business and institutions.

Such is the degree of corruption in the US Senate that it is staggering and anyone backing the Paulson fraud IS NOT admitting the severe damage such unprecedented addition to the US deficit will do to American families... all because Henry Paulson wants to reward predatory lenders and their greed by giving them tax-payer money, supposedly "buying up" caustic credit card debt, caustic mortgage debt - even caustic auto loan debt without addressing the problem which is the root cause of all this - predatory lending.

Sure, Wall Street was encouraged by both Senate leaders and Pelosi along with Barney Frank to signal that the fraud should have passed. And yes, the corrupt on Wall Street tried to stagger the market yesterday, but they failed. Wall Street crooks only undercut themselves the now high-lighted 777 points or in essence less than 7%, which is not such a huge drop in a market that has seen volatility as the gluttonous greed of the predatory lenders has been showing signs of its own finality.
Sure the predatory lenders got themselves in this mess and everyone is hurting from their abuse of the system, but Wall Street, not the US taxpayer is better positioned to directly deal with the repercussions caused by their greed and bad decisions.
Wall Street, not the US taxpayer, should be forced to deal with their caustic debt and almost worthless "paper" - by incurring a fee on every single transaction of the stock exchange, both NYNEX and NASDAQ.
Such a fee will no doubt build into the resource for which Wall Street can bail out themselves, not the US taxpayer.
The American working class does not need to short-change its children at the dinner table, taking away a meal to make ends meet just to shore-up the accounts of millionaires and billionaires of Wall Street/NYC and its fat-cat bankers, brokers and lobbyists.

That ugly quote about lipstick on a pig comes to mind as the US Senate has failed America.


Congressional leaders have embraced predatory lenders and their greed with this $700billion bailout/handout at the expense of the middle class/average American tax-payer.
What Washington has not told you is that printing an extra $700billion is going to greatly increase inflation, further devaluing home property values, spiking fuel prices and increasing cost of food and every other daily expenditure of the American worker.
In no way does the "revamped" bailout package address the root cause of the current "credit" issues suffered upon the American worker by Wall Street/fat-cat bankers' greed, nor does the $700billion bailout/handout to Wall Street/NYC greed offer sufficient or immediate help in stabilizing the housing market.
Americans can look to further devaluations of their homes, savings and any earnings for at least the next two years because of the Washington stiff-arming this $700billion bailout/handout to the financial industry at tax-payer expense.
Washington is not telling you the truth about the negative repercussions of such extravagant handouts to the rich at the expense of the US common man, ma, pa, bro and sis on Main Street.
IF your Congressional leaders vote for adopting the $700billion Wall Street bailout, either they have not been given the full picture, or they are in the pockets of the financial industry lobbyists taking what middle class Americans have earned away from them.
The bailout continues to be a fraud perpetrated on the US taxpayer. Wall Street executives will continue to take their undeserved exorbitant salary for creating such a debacle. "Parachute" packages are not the only CEO/executive expense that the tax payer is expected to pay.
The /US economy has proven its resiliency aq

Obama is on right now saying that this bail out most likely won't solve the problem and that there will be more problems, but we need to pass it. I can guarantee that anyone that votes for this will not get my vote. Not one person!

2008-10-01 14:01:21 by Dan Coker Dallas TX

I’m having trouble trying to be happy with how much I make. I make the “American average,” but other friends are going to law school and becoming doctors and telling family members to go into something that will make money. They joke that I chose the wrong major in college. I always thought I’d be happy living with a comfortable amount (which I would had I not got myself into heavy credit card debt) and I’m not a competitive person, but I’ve been told it’s a competitive world and that money makes the world go round and round. Could you please honestly explain the realities of money as you see it so that maybe I can make some sense of it all?

6 You need money to survive in todays' world. Most everyone has the dream of owning a home,nice car and having a family. Nothing wrong with that. I graduated from a community college and made good money as a nurse.My husband worked at the mill. We bought a home, had nice cars and credit cards for anything we wanted or the kids needed. The mill closed down,I ended up on disability and we lost everything we had. We were rebuilding our lives when a flood destroyed what little we had. We now rent a home and are retired. We bought a 14 year old car just to go to doctors and grocery store. Long story short- You learn to manage and be thankful for what you have. We have each other and that' matters more than money.

2009-06-15 15:03:27 by Gretchen