Credit Card Debt Management

We’ve discussed the Utah State University study that showed debt has a tremendous effect on the health of a marriage. Another interesting highlight from the study was the fact that couples with a high school degree only were more likely to bring debt into the marriage than couples with a college degree.

According to the Journal Extension publication of the study:

We found that 24% of husbands and wives in the study with a high school degree brought no debt into the marriage, whereas, 36% of husbands and wives who had at least a bachelor’s degree brought no debt into the marriage. …other research shows that, on average, college graduates earn more money than high school graduates. Therefore, college graduates may have been better able to pay down their debt prior to marriage, even if a portion of that debt was a result of paying for their college education. It may also be that college graduates, through their coursework, are provided with more opportunities to gain knowledge about finances and debt management than high school graduates who marry.

Is this fair? This is further proof that students need a better education on all things financial - especially credit cards - before they graduate high school! One might think couples with college degrees might be more likely to bring debt into the marriage because of student loans. However, this type of debt made up only 23 percent of all the different types of debt brought into marriage, ranking it third. The top two types of debt brought into marriages were automobiles and credit cards at 55 percent and 48 percent, respectively.

So here we have a study showing us that debt has a profound effect on marriage and more debt is brought into marriage by high school graduates. There has been a historic and persistent lack of instruction on all things financial (and particularly debt management) within the education system. And we wonder why the divorce rate is so high? Money fights are most common of all marital fights, according to the study! It is time for teachers and parents to stop shying away from money talk and instead make money management the new conversation topic du jour.