More and more Average Americans are finding it necessary to sacrifice long term financial planning for immediate survival. 

For each of us as individuals and family units there is a tradeoff: day-to-day vs. “the golden years”.  

For most wage earners, the day-to-day, or cash flow category is the most urgent.  We have to put gas in the tank, food on the table, pay the utilities, put clothes on our back, perhaps take in a movie or eat out on occasion, and so on.  

If there is something left over from the paycheck, perhaps we can put it toward “the Golden Years”.  Savings, IRA/401K retirement plans, property investment, stocks and bonds, things of that nature are our “financial mass” that will hopefully support us when we no longer receive a paycheck.

The point here is that if you are able to build a financial mass for your future, it is much preferable that it not be raided to make up for cash flow deficiencies during the earning years.

It seems that there is a detectable trend toward letting the mortgage payment slide while keeping up with credit card payments when it comes to a showdown between long term financial goals and putting food on the table.  

“Seven years in the credit-counseling business didn't prepare Ann Estes for the alarming trend she began noticing last fall: As her clients' mortgage bills became unaffordable, a growing number of them began paying their credit card bills before — and sometimes instead of — their mortgages.

"‘We've never seen anything like this’ says Estes, who counsels clients by phone from her office in Richmond, Va. ‘Their homes are at risk, and they know it. But people say, “I don't want to let my credit cards go because that's my cash flow.”

“Across the nation, credit counselors are reporting the same trend. Credit bureau analyses of consumer payment data show that financially squeezed borrowers have begun paying their credit card and car bills before their mortgages. That's a striking reversal from the norm, one that reflects rising desperation. It suggests that some people essentially have given up trying to stay current with their mortgages and instead are focused on using credit cards to squeak by.”

“During the past year, credit card debt has ballooned most rapidly in parts of the nation where the economy is particularly weak, including California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com.”


 “The growing reliance on plastic may explain why revolving debt — most of which is on credit cards — rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.8%, to a record $943.5 billion, in 2007 compared with a 6.1% adjusted rate the year before, according to the Federal Reserve.”

"’A lot of people are exhibiting a kind of fatalistic behavior to their mortgages,’ says Douglas Hammond, outreach programs director at Alliance Credit Counseling. ‘They can't make their mortgage payment, so why (try to) make it at all? “Let's keep my car, make my payment on my credit card, so I have some way of feeding my family.” ‘ "   ( More Americans using credit cards to stay afloat,  By Kathy Chu, USA TODAY)