Extra money, double or five times current income you are getting now, is just about how much most banks are willing to give as debt. Besides that, there are still credit lines from mega retail stores purchases like Courts. Students can get study loans for their education from tertiary institutions. Car sellers are giving 0% upfront for purchases and so does property developers with deferred payment scheme.
The economy is doing well thus everyone wants business, what would business become without taking risk. Even though one or two percent will default, the others are paying installments regularly and financier does not have to sell another item, with scheme to get interest on these credit sales on going for 24 to 36 months. They do hope by then you will need a replacement again for the first set you have bought, in their store.
As companies get public listed, they are granted unlimited financial resources and their main focus apart from growing the business with products its to improve earnings year after year. To do this, they aggressively compete especially with smaller companies for bigger market share. In addition, schemes and technique for better mousetrap on the consumers. There is no hard and fuss rule about how much is too much debt for the consumers. It’s up to banks and companies to do the background credit search of their borrowers before extending credits. Besides, in a worst-case scenario, the penalty for debt defaulters is bankruptcy.
On an individual standpoint of view the positive economy outlook and better salary received every month triggered the need to spend on tomorrow income today. Be it for family, personal, home or travel excessive exposure to advertising and marketing means they are the target audience. The fact is that people are complex and display many risk profile on different situation depending on what capacity they are. Tendency to spend more on credit than they can afford to earn in a lifetime are not necessary profile of the high-risk takers. Pushed into desperate position in a society, people may tend to take higher risk to conform rather than be penalized as an outcast.
A family with small children may be conservative and careful on living off debt, yet another may do otherwise. Part of the reasons for such a behavior is psychological and values system they are cultivated in the years of growing up. It is more challenging for financial planners to set debt program that’s applicable across the board for majority of households. By nature, everyone needs are different and on top of varied expectations in life, each individual’s potential are unlimited. Thus structuring debt, could only stunt their opportunity ahead. Also, include psychological counseling to understand about controlling urge to buy on credit.
Eventually, what this comes down to is that there has to be program to instill the habit of savings and create value with ownership other than debt instruments. How much is too much debt will be balancing the negative with positive mechanism of savings using the same compounding interest concept. Such will help save many more people in the event of economy downturn or period of long unemployment by adjusting lifestyle and habits.