Roughly three-quarters of Americans have some kind of debt, and 18% spend more than half of their monthly income paying off lenders other than home mortgage lenders.
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. has published those sobering figures about why your prospects, and some of your customers, are so broke in a summary of results from a recent online survey of 2,749 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.
About 29% of the participants said they had mortgage debt, and 27% said they had no debt.
About 19% reported having credit card bills, and 10% said they were paying off loans used to pay for education for themselves or their family members.
Many of the consumers with debt are in no position whatsoever to buy life insurance, annuities, disability insurance or long-term care insurance: 14% of the participants with debt said they expect to be in debt for the rest of their lives.
The participants said they spent about 40% of their monthly income on discretionary expenses, such as travel and entertainment, and they said they spent twice as much of their income on those discretionary expenses as they spent on health care.
