You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's Mary Elle Sagarra.

Today we are talking about debt,

because this is a weird and painful time in our economy.

Our personal finances as a nation have just done an incredible flip in a very short time.

That's Stacey Vanick Smith, a global economics correspondent for NPR.

She's been taking a deep look at debt in America.

A couple of years ago when a lot of this government stimulus was coming out,

there were enhanced unemployment benefits.

Our country was in kind of better personal financial shape than ever before.

Like debt was at one of its lowest levels of all time, credit card debt.

Also personal savings rate was near and all time high.

That is completely reversed.

Prices have been rising, government stimulus isn't really happening anymore.

And now credit card debt is rising at one of the fastest rates ever.

And there's this misconception that if you have a giant pile of debt,

that's because you lack self-discipline.

People associate being in debt with being irresponsible,

or being careless, like, well you should just, you know, just spend less.

You should just learn to budget.

And I've talked to a lot of people who are struggling with debt right now.

And almost every case, there was just a big life event that happened

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