Why Do Households Borrow (or Save)?

While few people’s earnings paths move in straight lines, many people follow the basic pattern of increasing earnings over their lifetimes. This affects whether people are borrowers or savers. Don Schlagenhauf, chief economist at the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability, examines a typical person’s progression from borrower to saver and, finally, to negative saver during the Dialogue with the Fed session, “Household Debt in America: A Look across Generations over Time.”

Additional Resources

• Dialogue with the Fed: Household Debt in America: A Look across Generations over Time
• On the Economy: Five Simple Questions That Reveal Your Financial Health
• On the Economy: How Have Households Deleveraged Since the Great Recession?