The Reaches of Debt

Credit card debt isn’t good for you… In more ways than one. Obviously, having lots of debt can cripple you financially, but a new study found that it can also negatively impact your physical health.

The report used data gathered from more than 7,000 adults to analyze the physical effects of credit card debt. The study’s authors looked at the respondents’ financial health from 28 to 40, and then their physical health at 50. The data showed that those who carried high credit card debt were 76 percent more likely to have pain that impacted their lives than those without debt. Not only that, the report found credit card debt that had been paid off still impacted people negatively. The data showed that people who had paid down their debt were still 50 percent more likely to have life-impacting pain than those who had no debt.

The report’s authors told The New York Times that debt can be a vicious cycle. People with credit card debt can have poor health and high stress, and those factors can limit their ability to work, and thus have money to pay down the debt.

The credit card debt cycle can be a tough loop to break, but one method of breaking the cycle is using the avalanche method. This is the strategy of paying the minimum amount on all your cards, but put the most money possible toward the card with the highest interest rate. Once you pay down that card, you shift the most money toward the card with the next highest rate, and so on. You can also try the snowball method, which is paying off the card with the lowest balance first so you can get motivated by quick results. No matter what you do, formulate a plan and start paying off your debt now. Your body will thank you later.

-Chris O’Shea for SavvyMoney