1 in 10 Americans say they will die in debt MARKETWATCH 11:14 AM ET 1/11/2017 The under-30 age group is most sure that won't happen to them
Debt may follow many of us to the grave.
More than 1 in 10 Americans (12%) think they'll die in debt, according to a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults from CreditCards.com released on Wednesday (http://www.creditcards.com). That's a dramatic improvement from the 21% who said that in 2015.
This drop may be due, in part, to increased consumer confidence, says Matt Schulz, the senior industry analyst for CreditCards.com. But it's troubling because Americans now have more debt than they have in years. "I'm worried that some people are getting carried away," he says. "Credit card debt has been rising steadily for more than five years. It seems like a lot of people are forgetting the painful lessons of the Great Recession."
The under-30 age group is most sure that dying in debt won't happen to them. Meanwhile, the older you get, the more likely you are to think you'll carry debt with your forever, with more than one in four people 65 and up saying they'll never get out of debt.
Age Percentage who say they will die in debt 18-29 4% 30-49 11% 50-64 14% 65 and up 28% Source: CreditCards.com Dying with debt certainly isn't the worst thing. In many cases (though not all), your surviving family members won't have to pay the debt you accrued while you were alive (instead, they become the responsibility of your estate). Though, of course, there are exceptions like if a surviving person like a spouse co-signed a loan with you or is a joint account holder with you (s:/www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/debts-after-death-life-insurance/). And, while it's ideal usually to be debt-free (so you're not paying interest on any debt), some kinds of debt are often worse to carry with you for a long time than others, says Schulz -- in particular credit card debt, thanks to the fact that interest rates tend to be higher than other types of debt, which makes it more costly.
Still, many financial experts say that carrying debt -- even a mortgage -- into retirement is a big no-no. Since most Americans are already vastly under-saved for retirement -- among workers ages 55 and older, nearly six in 10 have saved less than $100,000 for retirement, and nearly one in four have saved less than $1,000, according to the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute -- these debt payments will eat into your relatively fixed (and likely somewhat paltry) retirement income.
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