Kenneth Corbin at Barron's asked me about a statistic that should worry every retirement plan: nearly a third of Americans 30 and older have more credit card debt than retirement savings, and it does not go away with age. Among people 60 to 69, 28% say their card debt exceeds their savings. Past 70, it is still 22%.
My answer was blunt. I see some version of this in my office more often than people would guess. Retirement does not create the debt. It exposes it. A fixed income meets a variable set of expenses, groceries, prescriptions, a car repair, and the gap gets bridged with plastic. One month becomes twelve, and the balance compounds at 20% plus while the retiree assumes it is temporary.
The worse mistake is what comes next. I have had clients try to invest their way out of a debt hole, chasing returns to outrun a 22% interest rate. That math never works. No portfolio outpaces revolving credit card debt reliably enough to bet a retirement on it.
If you are carrying a balance into retirement, or watching a parent do it, the fix is not a better investment. It is a specific plan: what gets paid down first, what gets restructured, and what monthly number actually closes the gap without new debt.
Read the full article at Barron's →
