12 Over 11 percent of student debt is more than 90 days delinquent or in default—and researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimate that this figure may understate the problem by as much as half.13 Today, consumers navigate numerous weighty financial responsibilities for themselves and their dependents.14 It seems fair to assume they could use some help managing this complexity.
In the Federal Reserve Board’s annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), more than half of respondents reported that their spending exceeded their income in the prior year.