11/26/2014 – How the Grinch saved your Retirement (MarketWatch)

Is Christmas a season of giving, or is it a season of feeling? If you engage in emotional shopping such as surprising everyone with an expensive vacation, purchasing a new vehicle, gifting large amounts of cash to family members or children, then you are obviously treating Christmas as a sentiment. Sentiments are noble and the notion of generosity is also. But if you are within 10 years of planning for a retirement, it is time to put the brakes on large expenditures. Now is the season to be working to pay off your consumer debt. According to the Federal Reserve, the average U.S. household credit card debt stands at $15,593. Credit card debt is the third largest source of household indebtedness in the U.S. If you are 10 years out or even less from retiring, you need to start looking seriously at your own household debt income ratio. American consumers owe in total $11.62 trillion in debt, which increased 3.4% from 2013.

Read the full article at MarketWatch.