If you’re depressed looking at your own Visa bill these days, just consider this: altogether, American households owe roughly a combined $13 trillion in debt.
Now, of course that includes all mortgages on houses, car loans and college debt, but still -- $13 trillion.
According to MarketWatch, that’s a whopping $116 billion more than the total combined debt just three months ago. Yahoo! News adds that our total debt is $605 billion higher than it was this time last year.
The vast majority of our debt, understandably, comes from mortgages. The second highest category is student loans, which sit at a combined $1.3 trillion or so, while auto loans come in a close third.
Perhaps most staggering is the fact that about 4.6 percent of all our combined credit card debt is at least 90 days delinquent. Nearly 10 percent of all student loan debt is also delinquent, and that’s not counting all the loans that are currently differed or in grace periods, MarketWatch adds.
Eyeballing MarketWatch’s handy chart on the topic, Americans’ total debt is nearly twice as high as it was back in 2003 – just 14 years ago. The Wall Street Journal notes that our combined debt has now reached a historic record numerically, but adds the current total hasn't been adjusted for inflation or population growth.