We as a society find out day after day that American people live well beyond their financial means and it shows by the cars that we drive and the clothes that we wear. It is a statistical fact that 44% of the American population has encountered some type of bump in the road and the lingering shadow of debt has slowly trickled into a bad credit situation and a good example of this can be found right in your wallet, that's right that credit card debt stares you right in your face everyday. Now not all debt is completely bad, there is good debt such as a student loan payments or mortgage payments and these give you many advantages such as an education or equity in your home but most in that 44% have bad debt and which has no real upside financially because of the high interest rates and hidden charges.

More and more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, not saving for retirement or a rainy day, and living far beyond their means. But it might surprise you to know that the American economy itself really encourages this type of behavior. Why is this so?

American looks at several factors that determine economic growth in order to feel the economy as a whole is healthy. I am sure you are asking what is economic growth? Look right in your neighborhood, look in you city sure it is all around you. This could mean better jobs, people in general are working more so in short they are creating more money flow and in turn more purchases are being made. Many factors play into a healthy community but the most important factor is the amount of money being spent. To determine right away if the money spent is debt or earned look immediately at how this impacts you and your budget. In the overall scheme of things your money spent looks like growth but in your case it was actually debt. So it is very obvious that it is perceived as growth as a whole but your personal economy is not nearly as healthy as it was prior to that purchase and it has put a serious debt.

Developing a picture in regard to how financially healthy or sick the American economy is can be highly regarded as a selfless mirror in regard to the way the economy spends money and manages a budget and with that our budget shows overall.

Now, that's a little facetious to ask, because of course Americans can learn how to manage their own budgets even without the government providing a good role model. But it does beg the question that the government, too, needs to go on a budget "diet". In fact, our own national debt is in excess of $12 trillion.

If you need to know how you can completely cut back on your spending; it isn't that hard but can be interesting in the ways that can be cut back? Do you think you can do it properly without having any questionable spending habits. One way that can definitely help is to stop the spending is to drop the Seattles Best for some good old fashioned home brewed coffee, putting a stop to the buying of new clothes until you actually wear those items that have the tags on them and quite possibly the most under utilized thoughts of actually driving that car you just had to have and drive it a few more years instead of swapping it out for a new set of wheels because you don't have to worry about it. If you are living well and don't need to worry about these types of things then disregard the previous statements but unfortunately most Americans do have to worry about having to cut back on the spending habits. You should figure out what your basic needs are that get you by financially from month to month and cut them back until you have the real debts paid off such as credit card debts and all the other frivolous debts paid off.

Who knows? We just might provide a good example for the government if we all do our part as American citizens to be good role models.