I had the privilege of attending a luncheon sponsored by Fiduciary Trust Company last week where Miami lawyer David W. Bianchi spoke about the book he wrote for his subteen son, Josh, on "money, investing, and the stock market." The book, Blue Chip Kids, is now a best seller, and David a celebrated author, all of which is really great stuff.
But what I want to note in this post especially is a web-site he cited, USDebtClock.Org. This a fascinating and very disturbing website that presents a very large number of statistics in an accessible format. (It will never happen, but I would like to see a debate among the Presidential candidates where the website is featured and the participants asked to comment.)
David had other things to say during his talk about national and, in particular, individual debt in the US.
As I left the luncheon, my thoughts were in the following order;
1. Carol and I can do with one car. I'll sell mine and ride to work on MetroRail. I'll take the cash and invest it.
2. Then we will throw away our credit cards and go back to the envelope system that worked so well with our kids when they were growing up.
3. And I will never retire. I will drop dead at my desk.
And we are in a position, apparently very rare in the US, where we have no debt.