Burdened by Debt: The Best and Worst States at Managing Debt

by Ariha Setalvad, Credible.com, January, 2018 (excerpt)

How does your state rank in terms of debt management? A new study by Credible exposes where people are best (and worst) at managing their credit card bills, student loan debt, and housing costs.

Read on to see how your financial profile compares to the average person in your state—and across state borders.

Key highlights

• Hawaii, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Montana came in towards the bottom of the list with the highest average debt-to-income ratios: Residents of Hawaii spend, on average, 36.2% of their monthly paychecks on credit card, student loan, and housing payments—the highest percentage in the nation, and over 43% more than residents of Michigan
• Monthly credit card payments were highest in Minnesota ($241/month), Hawaii ($238), Nevada ($234), New Jersey ($231), and Connecticut ($231)

Financial health is relative

On average, Americans included in this dataset paid $207 on their credit card debt, $370 on their student loans, and $906 on their housing each month, while taking home an average salary of $60,671….

Residents of Hawaii, for example, pay the second highest amount on monthly credit card bills and fourth highest amount on housing costs and their average income isn’t high enough to offset those costs….

read … Credible.com

Hawaii
$238 -- AVERAGE MONTHLY CREDIT CARD PAYMENT
$385 -- AVERAGE MONTHLY STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT
$1,091 -- AVERAGE MONTHLY HOUSING PAYMENT
$56,889 -- AVERAGE ANNUAL INCOME
36.15% -- MONTHLY DEBT-TO-INCOME RATIO
0 -- OVERALL SCORE