184 – Debt: Why is No-One Listening?

Household debt to income levels in Canada continue to rise. We now owe $1.71 for every dollar earned. But, with no shortage of experts discussing the risks of high debt and how to repay it, why is it that we continue to spend? Why do we find it so hard to say 'no'? Are we just comfortable with debt now, as a society?

To discuss these questions, I'm joined today by a panel of experts: Gail Vaz-Oxlade, Kerry K. Taylor, and Robert Brown. Using their years of experience and insight, we dig into why it seems no one is listening to debt warning signs.

First off, should we even worry about debt? Let's say I'm someone who owns a home in Toronto. It's worth a million dollars today. My mortgage on the house is $500,000 and I make $250,000 because I'm a lawyer. My personal debt ratio is 2:1. But, that's not a big deal because the debt to income ratio includes mortgage debt.

So, does it even matter if I owe so much? According to Gail Vaz-Oxlade, yes, it still does:

When you are in debt, what you have done is eliminated your options.

Gail says that in everyone's life, rain falls. So, if you have no savings, and are over-extended on your mortgage, you won't have choices to make other than to service your debt.

For Kerry Taylor, debt not only reduces your options, but it reduces your ability to stay healthy because of the added mental stress. So, yes, having debt matters.

If having debt matters, why do we keep owing so much?

Robert Brown argues the reason for high debt could be that people tend to make money decisions based on their "now situation," but don't consider what could happen in their future, like a job loss, or a rise in interest rates:

What if they tighten up mortgage regulation rules? Well they have...and all of a sudden, a situation that was barely, barely manageable not by a reasonable standard but at least somewhat manageable becomes unmanageable because they had absolutely no room to move.

What Robert is referring to is called "present bias." Kerry explains:

We look at our present self and we live in the present. We don't really have the ability to look into the future and see how those present decisions such as spending money, eating poorly, not exercising will play out in the future.

Lots more discussion on today's show.