At www.debtclock.com.au a thirteen digit number ticks over 24 hours a day getting higher and higher as each minute passes. Currently as I look at it on the 11th of Dec at 9:30am 2009, it is sitting at $46,331,720,564.00. And it is moving up at a rate of $5000 per minute or $7,200,000.00 a day!
A big number in anyone’s terms. But what does it represent? It is Australia’s ballooning credit card debt. It is every dollar we owe as a nation to the credit card companies right now.
In fact with 22,073,280 people currently living in Australia that means that this number divided is $3,551.00 for every man, woman and child in the country.
However due to the fact that some people don’t have credit cards and children don’t have credit cards this is likely to be much higher for every credit card holder.
With a number as big as $46 billion, it can be hard to get your head around it. So I have put down some things you could purchase with this money.
Every single person in Australia could purchase one Big Mac meal from McDonalds every day for 302 days.
You could pay off the New South Wales and Victorian State governments’ debt completely and still have $8.1 billion in change.
You could pay out 132376 home mortgages in full if they owed $350,000 each.
You could fill up a car on empty with a 60 litre tank at $1.25 per litre 617,756,274 times.
It is enough money for everyone in Australia to have a $1.00 can of Coke for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 699 days in a row.
Now some of this $46,331,720,564.00 is not earning interest as card holders will pay it back before their interest payments kick in. However a big portion of this money is earning interest. But not just interest, but incredibly high interest above 12% pa.
Readers of my blog, are you still included in this number? Or have you rid yourself of credit cards? I know not one dollar of this amounts to any money that I owe. Try and make it so that not one dollar is next to your name.
This number bothers me. It bothers me because of the rate it keeps going up. There is no reason for it to keep going up. All people have to do is get rid of their cards; one person and one household at a time.
Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution.
Have a great christmas, and I will catch you in the new year.
Thanks Adam Goulding (Also known as Mr Home Budget)
For more information please go to www.mrhomebudget.com.au
