Scary Points To Ponder On Credit And Finances

I read and interesting article about finances and credit selected a few ponder points from it to post here. The entire article is worth a read and can be found at http://credit.about.com/library/weekly/aa100902a.htm

Did you know:

A trend-reporting publication suggests that there is an increased trend of men worth more at age 18 than at age 65. That's a scarry thought.

We surpassed 1 million bankruptcies per year 7 years ago, and it hasn't let up since.

IRS tells us that 85% of those reaching age 65 do not have $200 in the bank and that 87% retire on less than $250 per week for life.

The amount of national debt equates to a stack of $1000 bills laid one on top of the other (flat side on flat side) 67 miles high.

A $2000 sofa financed at 19.8% interest with minimum monthly payments will take 31 years and 2 months to pay off and you will pay more than $10,000. The debt will outlast the sofa!

Let's say you regularly buy a new car and pay $300 per month. If you do that for just 1/2 of your working life or twenty years, you will be giving up money which if invested at 10%, would build to $227,810.65. That amount would generate $1,936.39 per month for the rest of your life.

The average American consumer can eliminate all debt including their mortgage with the money currently earned in an average of 7.5 years.