Average Debt By Age (2026 Edition)

Start a free trial, and get 50% off your first year of Monarch Core Tier with code MONEYGUY at https://bit.ly/monarch-moneyguy Americans are carrying staggering amounts of debt by age, but how does your debt compare? Brian and Bo break down the average debt for Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X, including credit card debt, student loans, car loans, and mortgages. More importantly, they explain which debts could derail your investing, retirement savings, emergency fund, and path to financial independence. Whether you're wondering how much debt is normal for your age, when to pay off debt vs. invest, how much car you can afford, or whether you should pay off your mortgage early, this episode gives you a framework for making smarter money decisions. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Jump start your journey with our FREE financial resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reach your goals faster with our products⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take the relationship to the next level: become a client⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube for early access and go beyond the podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with us on social media for more content⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Brian Preston?

  How much debt do you have? And how does it compare to other people your age?

• 0:04Speaker 01

  Brian, I am so excited because today we're going to walk through how much debt each generation has and how to handle different types of debt in each stage of life. And we'll share a couple of personal stories that show how dangerous that debt can really be.

• 0:19Brian Preston?

  So I'm Brian, he's Bo, and this is the Money Guy Show where two financial advisors show you a better way to do money, including a better way to do debt. And with that, let's dive right in.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  Brian, it's no surprise right now that debt is one of the biggest problems facing Americans. And I feel like it's been that way for a while. And it also seems like it's getting even worse. If you look at the numbers, the average American right now owes $22,000 in debt, and that does not even include their mortgage.

• 0:56Brian Preston?

  Well, I think it goes even deeper because we're seeing a stat, 64% of people with credit card debt are delaying very important decisions in their life because of the debt itself.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  And that it's not even delaying financial decisions, this is delaying like life decisions, which I think is even more devastating.

• 1:12Brian Preston?

  It breaks my heart. You know, I've gotten to this sentimental stage where I want people be happy, get married, have kids, and to see 5% of people are delaying both marriage and children, or even buying a home, spending on healthcare, health as well. These type of things, or even helping out friends and family if they've got financial struggles, debt is obviously going to be a weight on these positive things in your life.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  So that's debt is slowing down the life decisions that people are making, but it's also not surprisingly slowing down major financial decisions. Look at this, 23% of respondents, according to Bankrate, said that they have slowed down their investing because of debt payments. 21% said they have slowed down being able to buy or upgrade a vehicle because of debt payments. 17% said, I am not able to be as generous as I want to be. I've not been donating charity because of debt payments. And this one, Brian, is maybe the most scary. Hey, because I've got this debt, because it lives on my balance sheet, I can't even save up now for an emergency fund. 34% of respondents said that because of the debt they have in their books, they can't

• 2:18Speaker 01

  even build up that fund that's going to keep their life out of the financial ditch.

• 2:23Brian Preston?

  Well, that's what your emergency fund is really your safety barrier to keep you from making desperate decisions. So when you see a stat like 44% of Americans have more savings than credit card debt, that I think the other side is even more shocking. That means 56% of you are actually out there, still right there on the cusp of having to make those desperate decisions.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  And what's crazy is we looked at this number last year, it was actually 53%. So the fact that 44% of Americans have more savings, we're moving in the wrong direction. More and more of the American populace is letting debt take control of them. And we do not believe that should be the case. As a matter of fact, we actually genuinely believe that there is a better way to do money.

• 3:08Brian Preston?

  Yeah, and a big part of what we plan on doing on today's show, going through each generation, telling you all the things you need to be careful of. And what I love is that we're actually going to sprinkle in some personal stories so you don't have to make these mistakes.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  All right, Brian, let's start at the beginning. Let's talk about Gen Z'ers. And for those of you out there, these are folks that are aged 18 to 28. And when you think about your financial journey, when you think about starting out, this decade, this generation, this period of your life is likely when your dollars have absolutely the most power that they're going to have over your entire working career.

• 3:44Brian Preston?

  Yeah, but you're ripe to fall into this trap because when you're 18 to 28 years of age, I mean, you've been a student. You've also, if you didn't grow up with money, you've lived in this life to where like, man, I want this, I want that. And you also remember the social cred you got from like making bad decisions, or what you were, could be bad decisions. Think about your high school and even college experience. Everybody with a nice car seemed to just live a little bit better life. That's the way it felt like when I was in high school. So you get your first job right out of college, and here you are, you're ripe for that whisper in your ear, you owe this to yourself. It's okay, you can use debt to get you the things you've always wanted. That is the mistake.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  And look, Brian, now I'm going to argue, this doesn't just happen to bad decision makers. This can even happen to financial mutants. Let me tell you the story of a young man who had a fully paid for burgundy red Ford F-150 that was perfect, nothing wrong with it, lasted him all the way through his college years, and it was a great truck, dependable, no issues, low mileage. But he was doing well in school and he graduated and he said, you know what? Now that I've finally got my job offer, now that I'm finally going to be in my big boy job, making real money, you know what I need? Now I need to look the part. I can't drive the F-150. I used to drive to baseball practice that I had the high school girlfriend in. No, I need the like financial professional car.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  So what I did, I mean, what this young person did is they went out and said, you know, what kind of car screams financial success? Well, I didn't want to be egregious. I didn't want to get the BMW or the Mercedes or something just silly. I wanted to get something just slightly nicer. I didn't go Honda, I didn't go Toyota, I went Acura. And I remember I got a 2005 Acura TL, and I bought it used because I thought I was making sound financial decisions. And so what I did is I traded in this paid for F-150, it had no issues at all, and I went and borrowed money to buy. All I did was put in the trade in value. I don't remember how much it was, but it was a low down payment.

• 5:56Speaker 01

  I financed that Acura TL over the course of 60 months. The interest rate on that, Brian, this was back in 2008, 9.25% interest. And get this, because all I had was an offer letter, I didn't have much credit history, I actually had to have my dad co-sign on the car loan with me. So I still remember it was a $267 a month payment. I don't know why that's safe, but 267. So before I opened the first Roth, before I saved the first dollar, I was satisfying what I would consider high interest auto debt right from Jump Street, and there was no reason for it, no excuse for it, no purpose for it.

• 6:39Brian Preston?

  Paid for F-150 to 9% greater Acura TL, not so sure it gave you the look you thought it was giving you.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  No, it might've looked cool, but man, did my balance sheet not. And I think a lot of folks in Gen Z, folks this age are falling into this same trap. Because look at these numbers. If we talk about student loan debt, the average student loan debt right now for a Gen Z-er that has student loan debt is about $22,000. The average auto debt for a Gen Z-er that has auto debt, about $21,000.

• 7:14Brian Preston?

  Here's the wannabe Bo's.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  For Gen Z'ers that have bought homes, average mortgage debt about $262,000.

• 7:22Brian Preston?

  That's for Gen Z'ers, because that's already ahead of the curve, by the way. Because most people don't even have a home when they're Gen Z.

• 7:28Speaker 01

  For Gen Z'ers who carry credit card balances, which you should not do, but the average credit card balance is about $3,500. So if you look at the average total balance across all Gen Z'ers, just not just the ones...

• 7:41Brian Preston?

  Even the ones that don't have debt.

• 7:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, not just the ones that have debt, the entire Gen Z population from age 18 to 28, the average Gen Z-er is carrying about $34,000 of debt on their balance sheet right now. It is so hard to get a head start in life if you're starting from behind in the hole.

• 8:02Brian Preston?

  So let's talk about pitfalls to avoid, because this is such an important age. You know, half of our content is on the wealth multiplier and how valuable every dollar you have that comes in. So if you've got all this money going towards things like student loans, man, oh man, that's not a great start.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  And look, don't mishear us. We think education is great. We think that higher education is great. We want people, if there's a justifiable reason for you to go pursue a degree, don't mishear us. And a lot of folks come from a situation where they not, might not have a family that can pay for it, they might not have the means or method to be able to satisfy that. So you have to take on student loans. We are not saying that student loans in and of themselves are bad. What we're saying is that a lot of people do it the wrong way. So if you're going to be someone who takes out a student loan, what we want you to do is begin with the end in mind.

• 8:52Brian Preston?

  Yeah, and a good way to kind of protect yourself from that is our first year financing rule, meaning that look at your first year potential salary. It's easy to go find through Bureau of Labor Statistics or other things, even maybe the college you're looking, ask them, hey, what do first years make in this career field? Just make sure your student loans don't exceed that first year of income.

• 9:12Speaker 01

  And if you're someone who's counseling your kids and they're about to go out to school, let's be careful not to let college be the default fallback. Because I feel like far too often, people go out and they get degrees, they don't care about it, universities, they don't matter, and they end up racking up all this student loan debt and then not even going into the field in which they studied. Make sure if you're going to go to college, you're going to pursue a degree, you're going to pursue a vocation, you understand the path that you're trying to go down. Don't let yourself falling, don't let yourself fall into the trap of racking up that student loan debt for no reason.

• 9:46Brian Preston?

  And auto loans, look, where you start matters, as I've already kind of covered with 88 times over, every valuable dollar out there. And as Bo shares, he's even fallen in this trap, because I think, like I said, a lot of people are really trying to boost their social credit, what they think others will think of them because of the car they drive, to the detriment of their future financial independence.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  So one thing I would encourage, if you are a young person and you have a car that works, don't be in a rush to get out of that car. Don't be in a rush to just upgrade simply for the sake of upgrading. But if you do need to upgrade your car, need to improve because you're starting a family or it's no longer dependable, we want you to follow 238. Put down 20%, don't finance it for any more than three years or 36 months, and make sure that your total auto payments do not exceed 8% of your gross income. Two little caveats. If you're buying a luxury brand, I would argue my Acura TL fell into this category, you need to pay it off in one year. If you cannot pay cash for it, you can not afford it. Don't let 238 be the bridge that allows you to live out ahead of

• 10:50Speaker 01

  your means. And you want to make sure that the amount you're saving on a monthly basis exceeds what your car payment is. If that's not true, you're doing it wrong.

• 10:59Brian Preston?

  And then credit cards. Look, this one's easy because credit card use is A-OK. Credit card debt, no way. So if you are in any way whatsoever having to use credit card debt, even at 0%, I think you're using it wrong.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Now, look, here's the one bright spot, Brian. Gen Z right now has the lowest average credit card balance of any other generation. Perhaps that's on purpose. Perhaps it's just because they're young. But if that's true of you and you have a low credit card balance or no credit card balance, keep that good thing up. Don't squander it. Don't let yourself be one of those negative statistics. Brian, you won't believe what my wife got me as a wedding gift.

• 11:36Brian Preston?

  Oh, she's pretty thoughtful. So I bet it was pretty good.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  Nope. It was student loan debt. But that's okay. And we knew pretty quickly in our marriage, that was something we wanted to prioritize and get knocked out.

• 11:47Brian Preston?

  We were just talking about how debt eats up your margin and slows down your wealth building.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  Then look, even though it wasn't an astronomical amount, it was still a big relief when we finally got it paid off. And what I wish we had at the time was Monarch's debt simulator. Because with the debt simulator, I can put in my actual balances, my actual payments, and it shows me my projected debt-free date.

• 12:08Brian Preston?

  And here's what's really cool about it. You can run different payment scenarios side by side and instantly see how much sooner each one gets you to paying off your debt.

• 12:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. Monarch makes tracking your debt super easy. Just a quick check in on your laptop or your phone, and you'll know exactly where your money is.

• 12:28Brian Preston?

  Bottom line, Monarch can help you break the debt cycle so you can use more of your army of dollar bills for building wealth.

• 12:34Speaker 01

  Getting debt behind us was an important part of our money story. And whatever chapter you're in right now, Monarch can help you move forward.

• 12:41Brian Preston?

  So write your own money story with Monarch. Use code MONEYGUY at monarch.com. You get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50.

• 12:51Speaker 01

  And that's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code MONEYGUY.

• 12:56Brian Preston?

  The next group we want to cover is millennials. That's ages 29 to 44. And man, oh, man, is there a lot going on. Bo, you're actually in this phase. This is what we call the messy middle because you're short on both time and resources. And man, oh, man, is life coming at you.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  It literally feels like there are a thousand different things pulling you in a thousand different directions, both life-wise, but also money-wise. You've got all these different commitments, all these different things vying for the dollars in the back of your pocket, and you have very, very little disposable income. It is, in fact, a very messy period of life.

• 13:31Brian Preston?

  If you want to just put in some stats with this, the average age of first-time mothers is 28 years of age. The median age for first-time home buyers is sadly 40 years of age. So you can see in this, this, this age group right here of 29 to 44, lots of things pulling at your back pocket. But also, this is still fruitful times to be saving for the future. So we don't want debt to derail you.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  But there's pressure. This is also the age where now there's pressure to get the nicer car, the better place to live, more activities for yourself or for your kids. And what's really, really frustrating is that the banks and the financial institutions out there, Brian, they have even found creative ways to subsidize your life so that you can have those nicer things, even if you can't afford them.

• 14:17Brian Preston?

  Now, you, you, I know you've shared with me that you had a personal story to share about a close friend of yours that fell into this debt trap. Because it is one of those things where it seems like for $200 at a time, you can afford anything.

• 14:29Speaker 01

  That's exactly what was going on. And I remember how this happened. They decided, hey, okay, we needed, our family's growing, we need a new car. So we went and bought a new car. They're like, okay, it's a couple hundred bucks a month. We can afford that. And like, well, we got this family now. We want to be able to travel. So we're going to buy the pull behind trailer. We're just going to finance that. And it's only a couple hundred bucks. And then we do this, and it's a couple hundred bucks. We do this, and it's a couple hundred bucks. And it wasn't because they were necessarily trying to live beyond their means. They weren't trying to fake it. They weren't trying to put a show out there. They were not educated on just because you can afford the monthly payment does not mean you can afford the thing. Because what happened is after a year and then two years and three, what they recognize is all they had was all this stuff, and all of their money was going to debt payments. And they were just making minimum payments on every single

• 15:14Speaker 01

  thing. And they're like, well, we can't actually afford any of this. All we're doing is keeping our head above water. And I think a lot of millennials, a lot of people in this messy middle, make that exact same mistake. Not on purpose. It's an error of omission, not an error of commission. They did not recognize the trouble they were getting themselves into.

• 15:34Brian Preston?

  Look, banks, we have an entire system that is encouraging overconsumption. So it's, that's why it's important. Let's give everybody context or perspective. What were the actual average debts for millennials?

• 15:45Speaker 01

  So for millennials who carry student loan debt, the average student loan debt balance is about $33,000. For millennials that have auto debt, it's about $25,000. For millennials that are in homes, their average mortgage is about a $320,000 balance. And the average millennial is actually carrying a $7,000 balance on their credit card. That's not how much they're putting on there a month. That's how much they're carrying month over month over month. So if you look at all of the millennials, the entire population from age 29 to 44, and you just look at the average debt balance for this generation.

• 16:19Brian Preston?

  Even those with zero debt.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  Even those with no debt, it's about $132,000.

• 16:25Brian Preston?

  So this is a big jump up from the Gen Z'ers. So this is important for us to kind of walk through the pitfalls. And not a big surprise, the first one is just like we said this for Gen Z'ers, here it is for millennials, auto loans. Because you said it, lifestyle creep. Everybody's still living in high school, trying to impress people that just don't care. Because we all remember how insecure we felt when we were sophomores and juniors in high school. Don't fall in this trap. Know what you can afford.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  And look, it's about making wise decisions that look different from the world around you. Brian, how many times you had this conversation? You see a young family, and they're like, hey, we need a bigger car. We need something. Hey, great. Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna. And all of a sudden, you just, you just see them. No, no, no, no. We, we need the, we need the Escalade. We need the Suburban. We need the fill in the blank. That might not be necessary. Be true to yourself and know what you can afford. And if you don't know what you can afford, we have a great resource for you. Go to moneyguy.com/resources and check out our car buying calculator. If you use this tool, it will help make sure that you're not driving your wealth around.

• 17:31Brian Preston?

  Well, you know, it's funny you say it because I know, like y'all know, I do not love my, my wife's attraction to these European SUVs. But imagine my shock when we're making our bad decision at the dealership in our 50s, and I see this young couple with three little kids climbing into the same car that my wife is looking at. And I'm like, the timing of these big purchases definitely matters. So don't fall into the, it's a definite pitfall. Avoid those auto loans.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  And then it's pretty sad that credit card balance, on average, for millennials was around $7,000. What that means is that millennials are making the decision to take money from their future self in order to pay for the life that they want to live today. If you find yourself having to swipe to be able to afford the vacation, afford the furniture, afford the trip, afford the fill in the blank, and you're not able to pay it off in full that month, we would argue that you cannot afford that thing. There is absolutely no reason for you to have a credit card balance that you're carrying month over month.

• 18:39Brian Preston?

  You pay it off every month, or you're not a credit card person. Mortgages. If you think about this, be careful about becoming house-rich, life-poor. Because look, housing has got a lot of things working against it right now. Not only are interest rates through the ceiling and through the, truthfully, they're out in space somewhere. It's ridiculous where interest rates are. And then if you take, take it post-pandemic, even home affordability on what houses cost because of all that inflation, these is, this is not a recipe for making you feel like it's a great time to be buying a house that lets you feel comfortable from a monthly budget standpoint.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  And look, I'm going to be honest, this is especially difficult for millennials because this is why millennials likely are currently have the highest average mortgage balance of any other generation. Because at this, at this stage, you might have had the starter home, and now it's time, the family's grown, you want to move into the larger home, and you end up making a decision, getting into a house that you can't afford, or maybe you can afford it, but it crowds out all the rest of your life. If you want to not be that person, when it comes to buying a home, we want you to follow 3525 on your first home. That's 3% down. Make sure you can be in the home for at least five years, and make sure that the monthly housing cost does not exceed 25% of your gross income. That's for your first home. If you're a millennial that's upgrading, we still want you to follow

• 20:02Speaker 01

  a rule, but now we want you to put at least 20% down. So there's no PMI. We still want you to make sure you can be there for at least five to seven years. And we still do not want your monthly housing cost to exceed 25% of your monthly gross income.

• 20:15Brian Preston?

  And then to close out this section, student loans. Look, this one's going to be a little different. Because remember, this is 29 to 44 years of age. So you're more than likely not a student anymore. So where, how do student loans, how is that a pitfall or a risk? Well, a lot of you, we want you to be careful of being a debt crusader. Because a lot, you're going to have so many things vying for your money, every dollar that's coming in every month. We want you, look, if you have an interest rate that is what we consider not high interest rate, because a lot of you do have student loans with lower interest rates, we still want you funding your Roth IRA. We still want you funding the financial order of operations. So go and understand what we consider high interest rate. For those who are 20 to 29 years of age, prioritize your loan only if they're

• 20:57Brian Preston?

  greater than 6%. If you're 30 to 39 years of age, has to be greater than 5%. 40 to 49, that's 4% or greater. Just know these numbers so that you don't mis-prioritize and be a debt crusader to the detriment of your future self.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  We want every dollar that you have to be working as hard as you can. We've already established, this is the era where you are in the messy middle, and your dollars are being stretched as thin as they can be. Don't waste them by pursuing a less than efficient, less than optimal financial goal, like paying off low-interest debt too soon. All right, Brian, let's move now to our next generation. These are your people, the Gen X'ers, the folks that are age 45 to 60.

• 21:42Brian Preston?

  By the way, you blink and somehow you wake up and you're this age and you're like, how in the heck did I get here? It's like a Talking Heads song. We're going to base this off of the success side of things. Maybe you've done a lot of good things in those younger years, your twenties and thirties and forties. Now you're in your mid forties, all the way up to sixties. That's Gen Xers. I'm in this category right here and you might've made your first million dollars the boring way, the slow and steady way with the S and P 500. But you start having this success and I think the overconfidence can build up in a way too, to where you think maybe I ought to go towards the sexy sizzle side of creating wealth.

• 22:21Speaker 01

  Well, all of a sudden, there's this idea, there must be something else. There must be more. Surely that thing that got me from zero dollars to a million dollars can't be the thing that's going to be from a million to two million, three million. And we've even seen, Brian, we literally have seen people who had won the game financially, but because of this very thing, at this very station and season of life, blew the whole thing.

• 22:45Brian Preston?

  Yeah, let's talk about, how do I bring that this is a person that made money as the S and P 500 in other ways, but now debt has blown it up? Well, we personally experienced, we had a good friend in the community, had a portfolio of, they were successful with a small business entrepreneurial type thing that made them where they were set for life, probably at the age that I am right now, because they had adult children. This person who had already won the game of finance for life.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  Probably like deck, like millions upon millions of dollars.

• 23:15Brian Preston?

  Probably beyond deck a millionaire. I'm willing, I'm comfortable saying, I think this person without a doubt had won the game. But then an adult child convinced them, hey, let's start a business where we start doing development. And you know what's great about real estate is also the curse of real estate is what we called levered debt. Meaning yes, you can go and levered debt is a great amplifier of your success if things all work out. But this person loaded up the balance sheet with a lot of debt, even though they'd already won it, because if you have a deck of millionaire of assets, you can go and the banks will give you lots of money. We all know what happened after 2008, all the way up to like 2011, the music stopped for real estate.

• 23:57Brian Preston?

  And a lot of these loans all got called and this thing went to zero. They lost absolutely everything because a lot of those assets they had were also collateralizing all the real estate that they had. And this is the thing, because you're like, how does this happen? I think you see this with doctors, you see it with others. A lot of people will get into complex transactions and it can have debt as the backbone that you need to be very careful of.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  And the thing is, the reason why this is so dangerous for Gen Xers is you're the ones that can actually do it. It's difficult for a Gen Zer to go out there and borrow a million dollars. If you've been saving, been building, been investing, been growing your portfolio, you are now like that turkey leg out in the desert that Bugs Bunny begins seeing. The bank recognizes that you actually have the means to borrow that kind of money. And we see the debt balances increase. Look at this, for Gen Xers that have student loan debt, the average student loan debt balance, almost $40,000, $38,400. More than 25 million student loan borrowers right now actually owe more today than when they originally

• 25:01Speaker 01

  took out that loan, because what's happening, they are paying minimum payments, missing payments, allowing these loans to negatively amortize and they don't believe they will ever actually get this debt paid off. That is a sad, sad, sad statistic.

• 25:17Brian Preston?

  And I think for Gen Xers, because as you said, they had the most out of all the generations, this is likely also adding kids to the balance sheet as well. So I mean, you're doing those parental loans as well. So this is student loans can be really bad to your financial future if you're not paying attention to, hey, what's the return on investment for what I'm actually doing with this student loan debt?

• 25:38Speaker 01

  When it comes to automobiles, Gen Xers that carry an automobile loan balance have a current average balance of about $28,000. Their average mortgage debt is about $286,000 and their average credit card debt has actually increased from millennials. The average Gen Xer that carries a credit card balance, carries a balance of $9,600 month over month. If you look at the average debt of all Gen Xers, both those that have debt and those that don't have debt, the total average debt balance for those that are aged 45 to 60 is $158,000.

• 26:15Brian Preston?

  Now realize, this is a generation's getting closest, right on the cusp of retirement. So we'd like to see some of these debt numbers getting close to zero. So you're truly financially independent. So I think this is probably a great time to transition. What are some of the pitfalls to avoid if you're in your forties and fifties? Mortgage, look, I think if you're 45 and beyond and you're way ahead of the curve, there's nothing wrong with completely extinguishing the debt. But if you're like the majority of Americans and you're beyond, behind on your savings for the future, do not be a debt crusader on this to the detriment of actually saving and really fortifying that you will have financial independence in the future.

• 26:55Speaker 01

  Well, I think, and it's a noble cause, Brian, how many folks we talk to, like, okay, yeah, I know I'm behind, I know I haven't been saving, I know I haven't been doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but if I can at least get the mortgage paid off, if I can at least, yeah, I'm not doing the 401k, I'm not doing the Roth, if I can at least just pay off the mortgage, then I'll be okay. I don't think that folks recognize, having a paid for house is a wonderful, great, fantastic thing, but you don't get to go back and build retirement assets later on. You cannot eat the house. So if you're not saving appropriately and instead you're prioritizing paying off that mortgage, there's a really good chance that you are getting your financial order out of whack.

• 27:32Brian Preston?

  That's why it's step nine of the financial order of operations. And I think a last little note to close this section out is if you are upgrading your house, because this also, a lot of people think that they need the bigger house, even though the kids might be getting close to leaving, make sure you're at least putting down a large down payment and also having a plan how you really extinguish that debt as you approach retirement.

• 27:52Speaker 01

  Now, you may have noticed that Gen Xers also had the largest credit card balance of any of the generations. And I would argue that if you have a credit card balance in your twenties, I'm going to give you a pass. Maybe you just didn't recognize what you're doing, you had to get caught up. Or maybe in your thirties, you made some messy middle decisions. If you were in Gen X and you were still carrying a credit card balance, I'm going to argue by this stage and station of life, you are not a credit card person. So perhaps the best decision that you can make is to cut up the credit cards and not use them anymore. Pay in cash, use a debit card, you are not a credit card person.

• 28:30Brian Preston?

  And then if you think about auto loans, look, this one kind of shocked me to see how big the auto loan balance was for Gen Xers. I don't like to think at this stage of life, you should be paying closer to paying cash for your vehicles. This is not like you needed 238 because you just didn't have enough time to build up savings, but you needed reliable transportation to get you from point A to point B, so you could get to your job. This is people who are obviously just way too comfortable with financing their autos or either trading in too soon. And that's why we think the best thing you can do is drive your cars seven to 10 years. And if you are going to upgrade to luxury vehicles at this stage of life, nothing wrong with it, as long as you're at step eight of the financial order of operations and you can pay them off within a year.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  And then we already said, these are folks that are aged 45 to 60. Student loans are still on your balance sheet. If you're in your forties and you have student loans and they're greater than 4%, we want you to pay those off. You've been carrying these for the last 20 years of your working career, get rid of them. And if you still have student loans that are yours in your fifties, knock them out. I can't believe they're literally one in two student loan borrowers, 50% of folks with student loan balance right now, think they will never actually pay them off. What that says is, one in two people think they'll never truly be financially independent. They never actually believe they will break the debt chains. We do not believe that has to be the truth for you.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  You can do money differently.

• 30:00Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, this is, I love this, this statement. We try to put it out there because we want to be a flame so that you can fly to this as a point of optimism. How your journey started does not define how it ends. Both of us come from pretty humble beginnings and we've done this. And I think it's because we've taken an active role. I think too many people don't realize that we all have the option to become part of the hero's journey. Meaning no matter, even if you come from very humble beginnings, if you take an active role in your financial life with small, small decisions, you can create dramatic and huge results, but you can't sleep on the little things. And debt is definitely to your detriment if you're not paying attention.

• 30:42Speaker 01

  One of the very best things you can do, if you want to take an active role in your financial life, go to moneyguy.com/resources and take advantage of all of the free tools, all of the calculators, all of the education out there, so that you can start doing your financial life better.

• 30:59Brian Preston?

  Yeah. And by the way, I talk about hero's journey, a lot of you probably, you recognize yourself in these stories that we shared and also the success that you've created if you've done this right and you're a true financial mutant. And for those of you, the success and the good decisions, they've created a level of complexity now. You're beyond just taking the free resources because you're like, man, if I make any type of mistake, this is not a thousand bucks, this is not even $10,000. I'm literally, might be costing myself hundreds, if not seven figure decisions with some of these things. Or you start thinking about, hey, I need to use this money in retirement. How am I going to handle Roth conversions? How am I going to handle required minimum distributions? Because there's a better way to do money and we can help you with those complexities.

• 31:43Brian Preston?

  Consider taking the relationship to the next level. If we've loved on you through these educator moments, where we've given you these free resources, but now you've reached a level of success, we'll leave the porch light on for you. We invite you to come in, we'd love to work with you, work with clients all across the country. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy team, out.

• 32:03Speaker 02

  The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson. Brian and Bo are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities, laws, and regulations. Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through the Money Guy Show. The information provided is for informational purposes only, may not be suitable for all investors and does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. All investments involve a degree of risk, including the risk of loss.