Debt

Researchers find one in four people grapple with compulsive overspending during the holiday season. An overwhelming 56% of respondents feel pressured to spend money during the holidays, with family emerging as the primary source of financial strain.

More than 75% of respondents experience what researchers call “money wounds” — emotional difficulties stemming from financial challenges that cut to the core of personal well-being.

The study reveals that low self-esteem, compulsive overspending, and shame from past financial mistakes emerge as the most common “money wounds.” The financial stress takes a significant emotional toll. 68% of those experiencing money wounds report that these challenges hold them back from feeling fulfilled and successful.

Many of those with money wounds admit to avoiding their financial troubles during the holidays. This avoidance manifests in various ways: refrain from buying gifts (37%), declining party invitations (33%), and avoid checking their bank account balances (29%).

Perhaps most heartbreaking is the social isolation that follows. 42% of respondents say they’ll become distant from others to avoid experiencing spending pressure. This distancing comes at an emotional cost, with participants reporting feelings of shame, guilt, and loneliness.

There is a glimmer of hope. 61% of respondents are actively trying to embrace the philosophy that “money and spending don’t equal happiness.” However, the road to recovery is long. On average, respondents believe it takes six years for a money wound to heal. More sobering still, many don’t believe financial trauma ever completely resolves.

As the holiday season approaches, the serves as a powerful reminder of the emotional complexity behind financial stress, urging compassion, understanding, and support for those struggling with money-related challenges.

Tarryn Pitt loves scouring thrift shops for treasures, from vintage canning jars to velveteen armchairs. “I’ve been thrifting my whole life — it’s one of my favorite things to do, at least once or twice a week,” she said. “Pretty much all of my home decor came from a thrift store.”

She was browsing in secondhand stores where she lives in Prineville, Oregon, when she got an idea about her upcoming wedding. The average cost of a wedding in the United States is about $33,000 — an amount she said she found extravagant and also created a lot of environmental waste.

“I wanted something that was unique and fit my personality,” said Pitt, 25. “A thrift store wedding dinner seemed like the perfect answer.”

She and her fiancé, Holt Porfily, are inviting 307 guests to their outdoor mountain wedding in Sisters, Oregon. All of the wedding tableware and decorations at the outdoor meal will be thrifted.

“It’s honestly not just about saving money for us, though,” Pitt said. “What we’re doing is super sustainable, and I love giving old things new life.”

So far, she said, she has spent less than $2,000 on her wedding dinnerware and decorations, about half of what she priced out to rent similar items.

In late December, she posted a TikTok video of some of the plates she had found during one of her thrift shop excursions. Pitt said she was shocked when the video received more than 3.6 million views and 2,200 comments.

Pitt said the response has been so positive that she now plans to keep only a few plates after the wedding, and she hopes to rent the rest to other interested brides and grooms. She said she will keep the price low for obvious reasons.

If you have money problems, maybe you need to hire a “financial therapist.” A recent Wall Street Journal article states:

Do you worry a lot about higher food and gas bills? Fight with your spouse over spending splurges? Fear you’ll outlive your savings? Some people seek to ease such money anxieties by hiring a financial therapist.

Many Americans are worried about their personal finances. In a survey of about 3,000 U.S. adults conducted in October 2024 by Fidelity Investments, more than one-third of respondents said they were in “worse financial shape” than in the previous year. Some 55% of those respondents blamed inflation and cost-of-living increases.

Similarly, 52% of 2,365 Americans polled for Bankrate.com said money negatively affected their mental health in 2023. That is 10 percentage points higher than in 2022. Financially anxious and stressed individuals are less likely to plan for retirement, prior research has concluded.

The goal of financial therapists ultimately is to help people make good financial decisions. This is typically done by raising their clients’ awareness of how their emotions and unconscious beliefs have affected their sometimes messy experiences with money.

Needs for such help often arise following a job loss, bankruptcy, or marital partner’s financial infidelity—when one spouse hides or misrepresents financial information from the other. Even something seemingly positive, such as getting a big inheritance or winning a lottery, can cause financial anxiety.

“Folks are craving help with financial well-being,’’ says the president of the Financial Therapy Association.

Elevated stress is draining young Americans’ wallets as “doom spending” becomes their go-to coping mechanism.

According to a recent study from Intuit Credit Karma, 60% of Americans are feeling anxious about the state of the world, particularly over the cost of living and inflation. With these concerns taking a toll on mental health, 27% of Americans admit they’re “doom spending” — spending more money despite financial worries. This trend is especially popular among Gen Z (37%) and millennials (39%), with one in four sharing that spending helps them cope with anxiety, stress, and uncertainty.

What’s behind the current spike in this trend? Constant online negativity. More than half of Gen Z (53%) and millennials (49%) say the steady stream of bad news on social media drives them to spend more to relieve stress.

Nearly half (44%) of Americans reported feeling pessimistic about their financial future, and a substantial portion of young people are forgoing savings entirely. This has left many young adults seeing core financial goals, like paying off debt or saving to upgrade their living situation, as far out of reach.

For Christians, financial expert Art Rainer suggests that reprioritizing money is a key place to start:

So, where do we get it wrong? We’re putting our hope for security, our hope for a better future, a hope for a sense of satisfaction and contentment on money. And it gets us into a lot of financial trouble. We get into cycles of discontentment and dissatisfaction. And then of course, we continue to try to get more. And it just never works out. Money in and of itself is not a bad thing. We can use those things for God’s purpose and for His glory.

As 29-year-old Neha Wright checked her mailbox and brought in the latest batch of bills, she realized the moment had finally arrived: Her childhood love of receiving a letter in the mail had officially been replaced with a very adult fear of receiving a letter in the mail.

Neha’s parents recall that as a kid, she would teem with excitement when she got a letter addressed to her and would run to open it. Neha’s mother said, “Most of the time it was something boring like a postcard from a cousin or a school paper. She’d check the mailbox every evening after school if she knew a letter was on the way.”

Now that she’s reached adulthood, seeing a letter in the mail sends a chill down Neha’s spine, and its sort of up in the air whether she will open it at all. She continued, “It’s almost always my electric bill or a notice from my bank, two of the scariest things a girl can receive. I’m pretty sure that if I don’t open it, I can’t be legally held responsible for the contents!”

According to her bank, this is untrue, but when reporters tried to inform Neha of this, she simply closed her eyes, held her hands over her ears, and said, “Lalalalalalala.”

Neha said, “It’s hard to imagine there was once a time where I loved receiving mail, because it meant $20 from my grandparents. Imagine opening mail and gaining money? That must’ve been awesome!”

Neha’s adulthood disdain for mail does not, however, apply to packages, which have retained their childlike wonder. If anything, Neha’s joy at receiving a package has only grown. “Oh, yeah, letters and packages are very different,” Neha continued. “Letters are scary and packages are tiny little glimmers of hope that carry things like clothing and skincare products. I’m super pro-package.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Obviously, this is a humorous, but not so hypothetical, situation. How many of us overspend during the holidays, or put an expensive trip on our credit card, only to be shocked when the bill arrives whether by mail or email?

The number of Americans carrying a credit card balance is climbing, with many using their credit to cover unexpected or emergency expenses, a new Bankrate report reveals.

The share of credit card holders that carry a balance has increased to 49%—up from 39% in 2021. This is likely due to the increased cost of credit card debt over the past two years. The average interest rate has climbed from an average of 16.45% in 2021 to 24.37% as of March 2024 according to Investopedia.

Of those with credit card debt, 43% say they carry a balance because of an unexpected or emergency expense, most commonly medical bills or car and home repairs. However, financial experts don’t recommend financing these costs with your credit card, if you can help it.

Credit cards tend to have high interest rates compared with other types of loans, which makes them a terrible option for debt financing. This is why experts recommend keeping your outstanding balance at $0 each month, if possible.

Paying only the monthly minimum payment is better than nothing. However, those payments only cover a fraction of the balance owed. The longer you take to pay the balance, the more interest you’ll be charged, since it accrues daily.

Daniel Skeel serves on the faculty of UPenn Law School, specializing in bankruptcy law. In recent years he has been increasingly bold in bringing his faith to bear on his scholarship. Much of that witness can be traced to what he sees as the New Testament’s inescapable—and inescapably radical—understanding of debt (and debtors).

Skeel reflects,

There came a point, where I realized that the story of the Gospel, and the idea of the fresh start with bankruptcy, are very closely parallel. The idea is that you’re indebted beyond your ability ever to escape that indebtedness (and) you can’t get out on your own. It’s almost exactly the same trajectory as the idea of who Jesus is from an evangelical perspective. (It) emphasizes that reconciliation with God can come only by embracing Christ as the Savior, not through a believer’s good works.

This sort of language might cause some hearers to balk (how simplistic!), but its pastoral traction cannot be denied. Not among those carrying student loans, not among those with mortgages, to say nothing of those asked to repay a “debt” to society. Debts weigh on people, and the prospect of the clean slate has a gut-level allure and immediacy, whatever your financial situation.

In other words, it’s not an accident that Jesus used so much debt language. It’s not something to be minimized. And not just because it’s timeless, but because it’s profound. What other type of imagery could make the burden of sin—and sin’s forgiveness—more concrete?

A beautiful wedding does not a wonderful marriage make. We know that and yet many couples get drawn into the business of weddings and the price tag can create a burden and stress for years. According to The Knot, the average cost of a wedding in 2022 was $30,000, including the ceremony and reception.

Just for reference, warehouse workers, nursing assistants and shuttle drivers make less than $36,000 a year on average. You also could buy a new car for $30,000 or pay for the cost of tuition, housing, and meal plan at a major university for the same price. There is also a massive cost burden for attendees. According to The Balance it costs individual members of a bridal party more than $700 to attend a wedding, including travel, accommodations, and clothing.

But, hey, you can always read up on the dozens of articles highlighting how to save money when planning a wedding … such as “open a new savings account earmarked just for the wedding.” Is that what we have allowed the industry to push us toward? Opening a new savings account just to finance a wedding?

Possible Preaching Angle:

Maybe it is time for us all to rethink our cultural obsession with elaborate weddings – and the staggering financial behemoth it has created.

For some shoppers, the upcoming holiday season may lead to piling on more debt. About 25% of Americans are still paying off holiday debt from 2022, according to WalletHub.

But those already carrying a balance could find themselves sinking further into the red if they don’t get a handle on their credit card debt. “If you’re in a hole, stop digging,” says Ted Rossman, Bankrate’s senior industry analyst.

One reason you may want to avoid racking up more debt is that higher interest rates are making it more expensive to pay down. As of November, the average credit card interest rate has risen from around 16% to nearly 21%. This is due to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in March 2020 in an effort to combat inflation.

A higher interest rate means it could take longer and be more expensive to pay down your credit card debt. Rossman says, “Even a more modest $1,000 balance (from last year’s holiday gifts, perhaps) would keep someone in debt for 40 months and cost them $390 in interest if they only make minimum payments at [the current average rate of] 20.72%.”

Ree is a single mom trying to navigate the rising cost of living, Ree has been feeling "stressed and upset" most days, with the battle only intensified by personal issues. Ree told Yahoo News Australia she was feeling anxious at the prospect of making ends meet before visiting her local Woolworths store.

However, two strangers' patience while she discarded several items at the checkout because she "couldn't afford" them truly made all the difference. She said, “The lady behind me asked the cashier to ring up everything I had put back because she was going to pay for them for me.”

After thanking the stranger and explaining that payment wasn't necessary, Ree was told the stranger was insistent on buying the discarded items for her. "I explained my situation to her and she said she knew how it felt to not be able to pay for things in the past."

In a time of emotional strife, the stranger's kind act has had a profound impact on Ree—one that she struggles to articulate. When asked what it meant to her, she simply replied with one word: "Everything. From the bottom of my heart thank you for making a truly awful situation so much easier in the moment. I walked out crying."

Possible Preaching Angle:

All of us are spiritually bankrupt with no way to pay our debt of sin. Jesus stepped up and fully paid the price for us (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 2:24; 1 John 2:2).

A Wall Street Journal article begins with this story about the increased debt load many Americans are carrying:

Danielle Smith and her family thought they had finally escaped the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle they had fallen into. They saved money during the pandemic while they were stuck at home. They used stimulus checks to chip away at $20,000 in credit card debt and enjoyed a reprieve from monthly payments on their $160,000 in student loans.

Lately, they have been hit with one unexpected expense after another, from an out-of-pocket MRI to a broken water heater. They also took trips with their four children that they had put off because of Covid, including to Walt Disney World, local museums, and the zoo. By 2022, their credit-card debt had doubled to nearly $40,000. Ms. Smith said, “It’s just a never-ending cycle of playing catch-up.”

The article noted that American millennials in their 30s have racked up debt at a historic clip since the pandemic. Their total balances hit more than $3.8 trillion in the fourth quarter, a 27% jump from late 2019. That is the steepest increase of any age group. It is also their fastest pace of debt accumulation over a three-year period since the 2008 financial crisis.

Many adults under 35 have stopped playing it safe with money. Instead of banking as much of their pay as they used to, they’re saving less, spending more, and pursuing passion projects or risky careers. A recent study found that 45 percent of people aged 18 to 35 “don’t see a point in saving until things return to normal.”

One 27-year-old said she was prudent about almost everything until the end of last year, when she had an epiphany: “I don’t want to spend my life being so careful and cautious.” Another young adult cited the shaky state of the world. “I’m not going to deprive myself some of the comforts of life now for a future that feels like it could be ripped away from me at any moment … I’m going to spend my money now.”

Many younger adults say the isolation of pandemic life triggered the decision to enjoy the moment, no matter the financial consequences. For others, the motivation has come from worries over climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, domestic political instability, soaring inflation, through-the-roof housing costs, and a topsy-turvy stock market.

According to a report in the Washington Post, the most influential voices in police reform aren’t necessarily politicians or even other police officers. Instead, those most likely to create behavioral changes in policing are municipal insurance agents. As in many other situations, the thing that often ends up getting people’s attention is money. That was the case in St. Ann, Missouri.

After a series of high-profile police chases that resulted in property damage and/or bystander injury, St. Ann was targeted by activists and sued by civilians for how their officers conducted traffic pursuits. But when police chief Aaron Jimenez was unwilling to change his department’s procedures, he faced an ultimatum from insurer which provided liability coverage for the city and its police department. If the department didn’t restrict its officers use of dangerous traffic pursuits, their insurance coverage was going to get canceled. And when city officials looked for other coverage options, it became clear that doing so would double their insurance costs.

Jimenez said in an interview, “I didn’t really have a choice, If I didn’t do it, the insurance rates were going to go way up. I was going to have to lose 10 officers to pay for it.”

Of course, insurance costs for any policy will rise after a series of claims against the policy. When citizens of a jurisdiction are successful in suing their police department for wrongful death, excessive use of force, or other similar claims, the money awarded to the plaintiffs is usually paid by such an insurer. So, ultimatums like this are often the only effective way to hold police agencies accountable for their misbehavior. In such agencies, it’s literally too expensive not to change.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Change; Discipline – When we do not respond to God’s warnings by changing our behavior, God will strongly motivate us through his discipline, which can include consequences; 2) Accountability; Finances - As members of society, we should exercise accountability with one another, especially with how we apportion our funds. Finances can speak when other avenues are closed.

You know the person. You work with them, or you’re friends with them, or maybe you even that person. They are youngish. Fit-ish. Always tracking their steps, sleep, heart rate, and meditation streaks. But these trackers overlook one metric: blood pressure. Those two numbers measure how well your blood vessels handle the 2,000 gallons of blood your heart pumps around your body in a day. And young people’s vessels aren’t doing the job so well.

Blue Cross Blue Shield recently released data from the claims of 55 million people. From 2014 to 2017, the prevalence of high blood pressure in people ages 21 to 36 jumped 16%. So, what exactly do we mean by “high”? We mean blood pressure that measures above 130 systolic or 80 diastolic. And when that happens, your blood vessels stiffen up, forcing blood pressure even higher. ... And a higher risk for heart attack and stroke.

For the longest time, most young people didn’t have to worry about this. Youth has always been a relative Teflon coating. Blood-pressure issues were strictly for older people, and the idea that this protection might be eroding is forcing doctors to examine what’s really going on. Here’s what they’re finding:

Millennials carry more than $1 trillion in debt. A large chunk of that is due to student loans—Millennials owe more than four times what Gen Xers do. Add this to other issues (such as bad eating habits and being overweight) and it makes sense that Millennials reported the highest average stress level of any generation, at 5.7 out of 10. (Gen Xers came in at 5.1, Gen Zers at 5.3, and boomers at a relatively zen 4.1.)

John de Graaf and his co-authors report in their book, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, that four million pounds of raw material, such as mined metals and oil, are necessary to provide for one average American family’s annual consumption. Americans spend more on trash bags in a year than 90 of the world’s 210 countries spend for everything.

Consumption is a major component of the gross domestic product. So, it seems undeniable that Americans, including Christians, will eventually have to learn to live with less. We will have to treat our gifts from God—whether natural resources or material well-being—with reverence rather than abandon.

Usually, at Easter, Wichita’s Pathway Church spends money on TV ads and direct mail to promote their Easter Sunday service. But in 2019 the church used that money (as well as money allocated to help families in need) to pay off medical debt of families in the state.

The church paid the debt through a non-profit called RIP Medical, which has cleared medical debts for more than 200,000 Americans in recent years. As lead pastor Todd Carter explained to his congregation, “What RIP does is that they go out there and they buy that medical debt, a penny to the dollar.”

The church ended up spending about $22,000 to clear $2.2 million in debt. Carter told the church:

I want you to imagine for a moment what those 1,600 people felt like last week when they got that letter in the mail. What was going on in those houses when they got that letter … and all of a sudden, they realize that their debt, this debt that has been hanging over their head, has been forgiven? … that’s exactly what God in the person of Jesus Christ wants you to feel each and every day – that your debt has been forgiven.

The New York Times published an article explaining large numbers like a million, billion, and trillion. The article was titled “Just how long is a trillion seconds?” In a letter to the editor, Dorothy C. Morrell from Seattle explains a trillion in terms of time.

I asked myself, why not think of it in terms of seconds? A trillion seconds would have to be years, probably many years. I made a wild guess. As it turned out, I wasn't close. I found that 1,000 seconds ago was equal to almost 17 minutes. It would take almost 12 days for a million seconds to elapse and 31.7 years for a billion seconds. Therefore, a trillion seconds would amount to no less than 31,709.8 years. A trillion seconds ago, there was no written history. The pyramids had not yet been built. It would be 10,000 years before the cave paintings in France were begun.

Was I alone in not knowing how long ago a trillion seconds was? I asked some of my neighbors what they would say if they were told they could have $1 trillion in one-dollar bills, so long as they agreed to initial each bill. Their answers were very similar. ‘No!’ they said. When I asked why, they said, almost without exception, '’Because it would take me the rest of my life!’”

Preaching Angles: 1) Forgiveness; Justification; Redemption - This illustration is good for explaining just how much we have been forgiven by Christ Jesus as in the story of the ten thousand talents (Matt. 18:21-35). 2) Debt; Finances; Money - It can also use it to explain any type of large number, like the national debt. 3) Eternity; Heaven; Time – Our short time in trials on earth will fade compared to the eternal rewards that are to come.

Headlines rocketed through social media after billionaire Robert F. Smith made an unprecedented announcement during his commencement speech in front of the Morehouse College graduating class of 2019. "My family is going to create a grant to eliminate your student loans," Smith told the senior class. "You great Morehouse men are bound only by the limits of your own conviction and creativity."

The momentous announcement generated plenty of buzz for the historically black, all male college. Plenty of jokes and memes predictably followed. (“’Are you free this time next year?’ asked the Class of 2020.”)

However, an undercurrent of resentment has been stirred up among other African Americans who saved and sacrificed in order to pay for their children’s college education. Michelle Singletary, a personal finance columnist for The Washington Post, explains:

There’s a common complaint I hear from some parents who have sacrificed and saved for their children to attend college debt-free … Was my labor in vain? Those not on the receiving end of this amazing gift might have thought to themselves, even for just a second: “What about us? What do we get for doing the right thing and saving for our kids to go to college debt-free?”

Still, Singletary has encouraging words for those who did it the hard way.

Your saving and sacrificing doesn’t make you a … loser. It makes you responsible and fortunate. There’s so much reward in living within your means, including setting a good example for your children. Whether it’s a surprise gift from a billionaire or need-based aid given to some other’s person’s child, don’t resent what others get.

Potential Preaching Angles: God’s generosity should not be confused with our human instinct for fairness or equivalence, because God’s extravagant love and grace know no bounds. We miss the mark when we devalue God’s generosity by arguing about fairness.

Utility bills can cause unwelcome surprises from time to time, but "unwelcome" might be a less sufficient description for one man than "impossible." Kieran Healy of Raleigh, North Carolina received notification of his upcoming water bill recently, which at first appeared normal with a $189.92 charge. But then he saw the additional service charge, which tacked on an additional $99,999,999 to the bill. Apparently confident that he hadn't used that much water the previous month, Healy jokingly asked his water provider on X if he could make installment payments on the balance. The company issued a hurried apology, citing an error in the software of a third party company that helps send out payment reminders.

Potential Preaching Angles: The idea of a $100,000,000 debt might be difficult to grasp for many people due to its size. Yet, compared to the debt paid by Jesus Christ on our behalf, $100,000,000 simply seems inconsequential.