@jamesmitchner and @crowbar. I so agree with both of you.
So many Americans are trying to keep up this illusion that they are wealthy. We have perpetuated this Utopia wherein all Americans must have the latest greatest phone, buy new cars every 3 years, take yearly magnificent vacations, and mainly just live large. It doesn’t matter that our income doesn’t support that lifestyle. This debt issue is becoming a ticking time bomb as at some point the debt situation is so grave that the whole house of card starts to collapse.
I am going to share a secret. The majority of the wealthy don’t live that way. Read the “Millionaire Next Door”. I will share a tale. Unbeknownst to me, I had dinner with an oil billionaire. In Houston, I love this dive restaurant that has a goat speciality. You must have two to order. At the bar, I was sitting next to this weathered man in his 70s wearing Wranglers. He looked like a small time rancher and drove a 20 year old Ford truck. We had goat together. After he left, I tried to pay my bill and the bartender laughed. He told me the the gentleman was an oil billionaire. He had nothing to prove. Enough said.
I listened to the NPR story. Maybe if some of these people stopped buying their morning lattes at Starbucks, held on to that car for 6-8 years, and lived less; they might be able to have an emergency fund of 3-6 months.