Most Common Types Of Debt Among Retired People

Florida has been a popular destination for retirees for decades.  That will never change, as long as icy driveways, hills, and staircases are scarier to seniors than the alligators and hurricane force winds you find in Florida are.  Retirees are a constant, but their financial situation has changed since restaurants in Aventura started offering early bird specials for the elderly residents of its beachfront condominiums.  While some retirement destinations in Florida are, and always have been, posher than others, today a greater percentage of seniors have some kinds of debt.  News headlines are full of gloom and doom about how Millennials and the generations after them have been in debt their whole lives and have little hope of breaking even, but debt has become a problem for seniors, too.  The most common types of debts vary by age group; Grandpa probably didn’t spend the pandemic lockdown buying electronics on buy now pay later (BNPL) installment plans.  A Boca Raton debt lawyer can help you if you are struggling with debt and approaching retirement age.

Seniors and Credit Card Debt

Credit card debt is the most common type of debt among retired people; two out of every five retirees carry a balance on a credit card.  Some seniors use credit cards in an effort to reap rewards such as discounted airline tickets and then pay off the balance every month, but others use them the way that the younger generations do, namely as a short-term solution to a long-term shortage of funds.  This kind of credit card debt is scarier when you are retired than when you are in the workforce and your income potential is theoretically limitless.  Retirees tend to be good candidates for settling credit card debt for less than its original amount.

Home Mortgage Loans

Many seniors who retire to Florida take out a mortgage loan when they buy a house in the Sunshine State.  Home mortgage loans tend not to be financially ruinous because most buyers put a sizable down payment on the house when they sell the house they owned up north before retirement.  Likewise, loan officers work diligently to ensure that the retired borrowers will be able to pay the mortgage payments, and some buyers have spent years planning for a retirement where they will spend the first ten or 15 years paying a home mortgage.  Another reason that a home mortgage loan is less risky than credit card debt is that you build equity as you pay it.  The end goal is to enable your descendants to inherit a house that is unencumbered by a mortgage or one where only a small amount of mortgage debt remains outstanding.

Contact a South Florida Debt Lawyer About Getting Out of Debt When You Are Out of the Workforce

A South Florida debt lawyer can help you if you are retired and struggling to keep up with the payments on your credit card, home mortgage loan, or other debts.  Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Boca Raton, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

moneytalksnews.com/slideshows/the-most-common-debts-among-retirees/