Many Utahns caught up in the '2-income trap'

Terry Greenman remembers the sleepless nights and endless nagging feeling from mounting credit card bills.

The former Utahn at one point racked up $78,000 on four credit cards.

But thanks to new business opportunities and the determination to rid himself of debt, today Greenman owes nothing on his credit cards.

Greenman is one of the lucky ones.

Many Utahns increasingly are on a spending binge.

Whether it's pricey new vehicles, extravagant homes or recreational toys, the good life, it appears, is only a minimum monthly payment away.

"I think we're very vulnerable," Greenman said. "Husbands and wives are holding down two jobs trying to make ends meet, and they're pushing themselves into bigger and bigger and nicer and nicer homes. They're building homes that are absolutely palatial. And they're young people. And it's all on the come. They don't have the money to do that now."

Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor, calls it the "two-income trap," where two incomes quickly become the price for a good life, leaving little room for error, such as a job loss, illness or divorce.

At least one-third of all bankruptcy filers, Warren said, owe an entire year's salary on their credit cards. And today, Warren added, children are more likely to see their parents file for bankruptcy than for a divorce.

Just last year, Utah led the nation in the number of bankruptcies, with one of every 37 households filing for bankruptcy protection. Currently, Utah has the 13th highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

"The debt load tripled in the past 10 years — do we intend to let it triple again over the next decade?" Warren writes in her book, "The Two-Income Trap." "Just a generation ago, the average family simply couldn't get into the kind of financial hole that has become so familiar today. The reason was straightforward: A middle-class family couldn't borrow very much money."

Beth McKinley of Salt Lake City was doing fine until she lost her job of seven years. That, in turn, led to a series of cascading incidents that resulted in foreclosure on her home. Last week she filed for bankruptcy.

"I couldn't keep up with anything hardly," McKinley said. "I'm just struggling. I'm living day-to-day basically. I am on the verge of being homeless. My rent is generally late, and I have late fees on top of late fees. It just keeps snowballing."

Kevin R. Anderson, standing Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee in Salt Lake City, said people are spending money faster than they make it.