American is Broke - The two Income Trap

What can you do?

Consider keeping one parent home. If the working parent gets laid off both parents can look for work. Keeping one parent at home also saves on a wide range of costs and the second salary is taxed much more than the first.

Downsize fixed costs. People who are stretched thin during ordinary times are just one unexpected crisis away from a financial meltdown. Understanding that medical emergencies, layoffs, divorces, etc. happen, it is important to leave some wiggle room after the fixed costs. In an emergency it is much easier to cut back on luxuries, so cutting back on housing, auto and education expenses is a better way to give your family an insurance buffer than cutting back on the entertainment and recreation budgets.

Don't buy a house that you can't afford. Just because a bank is willing to loan you the money, doesn't mean you can afford it. Many banks engage in a practice of "loan to own" whereby they offer sub-prime mortgages they know will cause their customers great pain. They collect huge profits on the interest as long as the homeowner can struggle to make the payments and then make a bigger profit on the house once the loan goes into default and the bank forecloses. If you can't put 20% down you probably shouldn't buy the house. If the bank is only willing to offer a sub-prime rate, don't take it.

Have a backup plan in place. Know what costs you can cut in advance and where you will search for added income if a crisis interrupts your current situation. Put some money aside in savings. Just don't count on the stock and bond markets or other real estate investments. Those tend to go bad when the most people are experiencing financial crisis.

Want more facts?

More than 1.5 million American families declared bankruptcy last year. More than 18 million families would have been better off financially if they had declared bankruptcy, but out of a sense of responsibility, pride, stubbornness or ignorance continued to try and pay their bills. In bankruptcy the filing family gets to hang onto its home, but most other debts get wiped clean.

The biggest reason for the rise in debt between 1980 and 2004 was the effective elimination of usury laws that resulted from a US Supreme Court decision in 1978. Before then, states could effectively limit predatory lending practices that took advantage of distressed and mathematically challenged consumers (similar to the way heroine and crack dealers take advantage of addicts). After the decision, banks incorporated in South Dakota and Delaware could charge very high interest rates and they rushed to make loans to people that pushed them into deep levels of indebtedness that led to deep reductions in their standard of living.

Some advice for people already in DEEP financial trouble:

Avoid the blame game. Around 90% of families get in trouble because something bad happened to them. Financial stress can lead to serious domestic problems, which can lead to much more financial stress. Sure, we all have responsibilities to our creditors, but our responsibilities to our children and families are a higher priority.

Decide which financial assets are most important and pay for those first. The house? The car? Health insurance when you have an existing medical condition? Calls from collectors will be extremely annoying, but it is not cost effective for creditors to actually reposes goods. If you pay for too many of the non-essentials, you may end up losing the essentials.

Don't get suckered into consolidating your debt. Financial institutions will offer to let you roll over your debts into second mortgages. However, you need to have a realistic eye on the possibility of bankruptcy. Once you get out of bankruptcy, you will have a much larger and more expensive debt burden on the house and will be more likely to lose it if you consolidated those debts.