The best habit you can get into if you want to become debt-free, according to a financial planner (via CNBCMakeIt)
The main reason experts are so jazzed about the average American's financial health right now is that it really has gotten so much better during the pandemic. On the individual level, personal debt has dropped even more, according to Northwestern Mutual's survey. Not including mortgages, adults in the U.S. have $23,325 in debt, the lowest number Northwestern Mutual has recorded since it began asking that question in 2017.
"On net, the consumer is in a better place coming out of the pandemic," says Christian Mitchell, chief customer officer at Northwestern Mutual. "The amount of debt that consumers are carrying has been reduced." That may seem reasonable in the short term, especially with interest rates as low as they currently are, Mitchell says, but it may become more of an issue in the not-too-distant future.In the early, economically uncertain months of the pandemic, a lot of people felt they had to put off paying nonessential debts.