Here are some stats regarding US money management that I found from these websites:
http://character-education.info/Money/money-studies-and-statistics3.htm
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-industry-facts-personal-debt-statistics-1276.php
* 93% of retirees carry some debt
* Real Median Household Income = $48,201
* Official Poverty Rate = 12.3%
* People without health insurance = 15.8%, or 47 million (From U.S. Census)
* 32% "love" their jobs. "Only 9% dislike or hate their jobs."
* "Being married is also strongly related to life satisfaction and happiness, and may be a more important predictor of these states of mind than income."
* "Over half of Americans under 30 expect to be rich some day, but by the time Americans reach the age of 65, only 8% have that dream."
* A new Gallup Poll Social Audit on gambling shows that 57% of Americans have bought a lottery ticket in the last 12 months...."
* "...according to a Gallup poll conducted October 21-24, (1999) 60% of American households are now invested in the stock market."
* 73% of teens whose families discussed the importance of savings reported saving 25% or more of their income.
* A high school diploma increased earnings by $600 per month over those who never completed high school.
* "Thirty-four percent of the adult population (18 and over) had degrees or certificates above the high school level in 2001."
* Average credit card debt per household with credit card debt: $15,799
* Average number of credit cards held by cardholders: 3.5, as of yearend 2008
* Total U.S. revolving debt (98 percent of which is made up of credit card debt): $793.1 billion, as of May 2011
* Total U.S. consumer debt: $2.43 trillion, as of May 2011
* In 2006, the United States Census Bureau determined that there were nearly 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the U.S. A stack of all those credit cards would reach more than 70 miles into space -- and be almost as tall as 13 Mount Everests.
* Half of college undergraduates had four or more credit cards in 2008. That's up from 43 percent in 2004 and just 32 percent in 2000.
* 76 percent of undergraduates have credit cards, and the average undergrad has $2,200 in credit card. Additionally, they will amass almost $20,000 in student debt.
* At about 20 percent, New Hampshire and New Jersey have the largest concentration of consumers with 10 or more credit cards.
* 58 percent of Hispanics have not used a credit card in the past 30 days.
* Penalty fees from credit cards will add up to about $20.5 billion in 2009, according to R. K. Hammer, a consultant to the credit card industry.
* 36 percent of respondents said they didn't know the interest rate on the card they use most often.
* In the last 12 months, 15 percent of American adults, or nearly 34 million people, have been late making a credit card payment and 8 percent (18 million people) have missed a payment entirely
* Nearly one in three Americans -- 29 percent -- said that in some of the past 12 months, they paid only the minimum payment on their credit cards.
* When finances are tight, 59 percent of people would pay their credit card bills last. A majority -- 52 percent -- would pay the mortgage first and 38 percent say they would pay for utilities before paying other obligations.
* The first widely accepted plastic charge card was issued in 1958 by American Express.
* Between 1989 and 2006, the nation's total credit card charges increased from about $69 billion a year to more than $1.8 trillion. (Source: Demos.org, April 2008)
* It is estimated that there are 10,000 payment card transactions made every second around the world.
* The number of U.S. identity fraud victims rose 12 percent to 11.1 million adults last year, the highest level since the survey began in 2003.
