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Wall Street Journal
11-04-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Your Clutter Is Costing More Than You Think - Your Money Briefing
In 2024, Americans bought 5.7 times as much flatware and dishes and 3.5 times the furniture compared with 1994, according to Commerce Department data. They also purchased 2.5 times the clothing and footwear. Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown joins host Ariana Aspuru to discuss why cheap goods are actually costing us and how Trump's tariffs threaten to curb trade from one of the biggest exporters of low-cost goods. Full Transcript This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. Ariana Aspuru: Hey, Your Money Briefing listeners. This is Ariana Aspuru. Here at YMB, we're all about bringing you important personal finance and career news. We're working on making some changes to our personal finance content and we want to hear from you. Our question today is, what personal finance topics do you want to hear more about? Stocks, bonds and markets, housing and mortgages, taxes, financial goals, or something else? If you're listening on Spotify, look for our poll under the episode description, or you can send us an email to ymb@ That's ymb@ Now, onto the show. Here's Your Money Briefing for Friday, April 11th. I'm Ariana Aspuru for The Wall Street Journal. If you're in spring cleaning mode, you might be wondering, "How in the world did I get all this stuff?" WSJ reporter Dalvin Brown found that it's not just you; Americans are drowning in their own stuff. Dalvin Brown: I tend to buy things because I forgot I bought it already. But we're not just accumulating. That's what's really interesting to me. We're duplicating. We're buying more of what we already have. Ariana Aspuru: We'll hear more from Dalvin about why it's costing you more than you think. Stick around after the break. Americans buy a crazy amount of cheap stuff, but it's costing us. Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown joins me. Dalvin, let's start off. How big of an issue is our clutter problem? Dalvin Brown: It has reached crisis proportions, and I mean that. I found that it's not just about a cluttered closet anymore or a cluttered drawer. It's about entire rooms being dedicated to storage. About 21% of people use over 500 square feet for storage, which is the size of a two car garage. And as one professional organizer told me, we're battling a tsunami of stuff and the stuff is winning. Ariana Aspuru: From your story, which listeners can find in our show notes, I gather that people are buying more, moving more, and losing more of their own stuff. Walk me through how that's all happening. Dalvin Brown: Yeah. So it is a perfect storm created by ease of acquisition. So how easy it is to buy things, and then the difficulty of disposal. Online shopping and social media have made buying things really frictionless. So a few taps on your phone, something arrives at your door. A lot of people don't even remember what they ordered and then it just shows up at their door. But getting rid of those things requires physical and emotional labor, and that's really taxing. So what's fascinating is how this cycle sort of feeds itself. People buy things, then they run out of space, so then they buy more organizational things to manage the things. And as one of my sources told me, "I am buying things just to manage my things." U-Haul even had to increase the size of its largest trucks by 60% over the past 10 years. I was shocked when the company told me that. And it's basically to accommodate Americans' growing volume of possessions. Ariana Aspuru: And one of the things you mentioned in your story, that honestly made me laugh a little bit, is how many people buy more things because they just forget that they already have this one thing and they can't find it. Dalvin Brown: Yes. Yes, exactly. So 71% of Americans in a recent survey, that's the bulk of us, buy things that we already own because we can't find the other thing because we've hidden it somewhere in our homes from ourselves. I, like you, Richard, I tend to buy things because I forgot I bought it already. But we're not just accumulating. That's what's really interesting to me. We're duplicating. We're buying more of what we already have. Ariana Aspuru: There's so much interesting data that you bring up in your story. What was the most striking number about Americans habits that you found? Dalvin Brown: In 2024, Americans bought 5.7 times more flatware and dishes compared to 1994. So three decades ago, people had a lot less stuff just in their kitchen. And that's not a small increase. That's nearly six times what previous generations purchased. We're also buying 3.5 times more furniture, 2.5 times more clothing and footwear compared to 30 years ago. Ariana Aspuru: And it's not like I'm having 5.7 times more people over my house that I need all these dishes for or all this furniture for. Dalvin Brown: Exactly. And we don't have five or six times more space in our homes to put things. So we're fitting multiple more possessions into roughly the same square footage. And it's no wonder that another number that came up for me was that downsizing a home now takes about 40 hours, which is double what it took a decade ago. Ariana Aspuru: And this all makes so much sense. But Dalvin, we now have constant access to low-cost products from places like Temu and SHEIN. Is it just that we can't help ourselves when we see something that's just that cheap? Dalvin Brown: I also spoke to some psychologists who did say that when prices fall below a certain threshold, it impacts our decision-making processes fundamentally. One source in my story said, "You see something cool and it costs $6, then you think, why not?" The mental calculation shifts from, "Do I need this?" to, "why wouldn't I get this?" And then you end up with more stuff in your home than you probably need. Ariana Aspuru: Looking ahead and looking at the news, we're talking a lot about tariffs now. How might these heavy import taxes on foreign goods by the Trump administration impact this clutter we're talking about in our own lives? Dalvin Brown: While the clutter issue has been a thing for years now, one of the things that pushes this conversation forward is the fact that the Treasury Secretary recently stated that access to low-cost goods is not the essence of the American dream. And that signals a policy shift away from prioritizing cheap imports. If tariffs significantly increase prices, they might also slow the influx of inexpensive goods. So if tariffs make the things more expensive, then people might not buy as much. However, tariffs do not address the mountains of stuff that we already have. So that legacy will remain. We'll be dealing with the consequences of that for years. Things may become more expensive to get, but some of the economists I talked to said that people just may change the way that they do consume or where they're getting their goods from. Ariana Aspuru: Let's say someone wants to declutter; they're listening and taking this as their sign. What are some cost-effective ways of getting rid of some items you might not need? Dalvin Brown: In my story I start with estate sales, because in some way that is the best way to get rid of a lot of stuff in one fell swoop. And you'd hire someone, they take 35 to 50% of the proceeds, and they let strangers just come in and buy your stuff within a couple of days, or they list it online. The Facebook Marketplace and OfferUps of the world let you directly handle it and sell it to other people. The most important advice from professionals is to try to prevent the accumulation in the first place. Ariana Aspuru: Yeah, trying to turn off the tap rather than buckets of scooping water out. Dalvin Brown: Yeah. I mean, I have this rule that whatever comes in my house, I forget it sometimes, but I'm like, "Oh, one item in, one item out." I should probably do one item in, two items out. But I think that mechanism works for me. Ariana Aspuru: That's WSJ reporter Dalvin Brown. And that's it for Your Money Briefing. Tomorrow we'll have our weekly markets wrap up, What's News in Markets. And then on Sunday, catch the last episode of our three-part series, Buying a Home in 2025: Navigating the Crunch. This episode was produced by me. I'm your host, Ariana Aspuru. Jessica Fenton and Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Our supervising producer is Melony Roy. Aisha Al-Muslim is our development producer. Scott Saloway and Chris Zinsli are our deputy editors. And Philana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's Head of News Audio. Thanks for listening.
Wall Street Journal
02-04-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Why Millions of Student Borrowers Could See a Big Drop in Their Credit Scores - Your Money Briefing
More than 9 million student-loan borrowers could see a decline in their credit scores in the first half of the year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Wall Street Journal reporter Oyin Adedoyin joins host Ariana Aspuru to discuss what you should do if you are at risk. Full Transcript This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. Ariana Aspuru: Hey, Your Money Briefing listeners, this is Ariana Aspuru. Here at YMB, we're all about bringing you important personal finance and career news. We're working on making some changes to the show and we want to hear from you. Our question today is, what kinds of life issues, related to money, do you want to hear more about? If you're listening on Spotify, look for our poll under the episode description, or you can send us an email to ymb@ that's Y-M-B at W-S-J dot com. Now onto the show. Here's Your Money Briefing for Wednesday, April 2nd. I'm Ariana Aspuru for the Wall Street Journal. Now that pandemic-era protections are over, more than 9 million student loan borrowers could see their credit scores tank. Oyin Adedoyin: We reported that about 43% of borrowers, who owe payments on federal student loans, hadn't resumed making them. And that was according to an analysis of government data by VantageScore, a credit score provider. So that's millions of people who are either seeing that their credit scores are dropping pretty dramatically, or on track to see those drops in the coming months. Ariana Aspuru: We'll talk with Wall Street Journal reporter, Oyin Adedoyin, about what borrowers need to know if they're at risk. That's after the break. The pause on student loan payments helped borrowers' credit scores for years, but that's over and they're now in jeopardy. Wall Street Journal reporter, Oyin Adedoyin, joins me to talk about it. Oyin, you reported that student loan delinquency rates have hit a new high. What exactly is driving this surge? Oyin Adedoyin: It's a host of things. So for student loan borrowers, many of them haven't had to pay for their student loans in years. First, the pandemic hit, which caused there to be a pause on student loan repayments, then the Biden administration released a host of policies aimed at making student loans more affordable, lowering monthly payments for borrowers, and for some borrowers, pausing those payments altogether. So earlier this year, the education department had to start reporting delinquent student loans to credit bureaus, and that is what is causing this drop in credit scores for borrowers. Ariana Aspuru: So how long has it been since loan payments have resumed? How long has it taken for that to hit people's credit scores? Oyin Adedoyin: The pandemic-era of relief on student loans was extended in 2022. And then in 2023, borrowers were placed in a 12-month on-ramp period. So that meant that they could start paying their student loans, but if for some reason they missed a payment or they didn't have the money that month, it wouldn't negatively affect their credit score. Now, in the fall of last year, that is when the 90-day clock started, before the education department had to start reporting those delinquent loans to the credit bureaus. And student loans are really interesting because they don't get reported when they're 30 days late or 60 days late, they only get reported when they're 90 days late. So by then you would've missed at least three payments. Ariana Aspuru: Let's talk about the numbers. I want to know what kind of credit score drops are we seeing? Oyin Adedoyin: So the interesting thing about this is that people with higher credit scores get hit the worst when they have a delinquency for their student loans. For example, those with a credit score of 760 or above, were expected to see an average credit score decline of 171 points after student loan delinquency. By comparison, those with credit scores of less than 620, were only expected to see an average drop of 87 points. And those are estimates from the New York Fed. Ariana Aspuru: How many borrowers are being affected by this? Oyin Adedoyin: More than 9 million student loan borrowers are set to see their credit scores drop in the first half of this year, and that's according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. We reported that about 43% of borrowers, who owe payments on federal student loans, hadn't resumed making them. And that was according to an analysis of government data by VantageScore, a credit score provider. So that's millions of people who are either seeing that their credit scores were dropping pretty dramatically, or on track to see those drops in the coming months. Ariana Aspuru: And you mentioned in your story that past-due balances are now higher than they were before the pandemic. Why is that? Oyin Adedoyin: Before the pandemic, the share of past-due balances had hovered near 14% throughout 2019, and that's because the pause on payments also led to a pause on delinquency reports. So a lot of people saw a boost in credit scores. A lot of people during the pandemic also benefited from stimulus payments, and so people were actually able to maybe pay down debt that they owed. And so overall credit health looked a lot better in the pandemic. And after payments resumed, the volume of past-due loans quickly returned back to pre-pandemic levels. And today it's reached a new high of 15.6%. So that means more than 250 billion in delinquent debt held by 9.7 million borrowers. And the people who I spoke to said this was a time for reprioritizing for them. They knew that their student loan payments weren't going to be counted, and so they said, "Let me pay down this mortgage debt, or save up for a car, or pay down my credit card debt." So they were basically shifting their priorities and putting student loans on the back. Ariana Aspuru: What's the easiest way for someone who has student loans and wants to make sure that their credit doesn't get hit by accidentally missing them? Oyin Adedoyin: Interestingly enough, a lot of borrowers found out this was happening because they had apps like Credit Karma or CreditWise already on their phones. So people today actually have easier access to information like their credit score. Most people's banks have free credit checking services, so you can see every time you check your banking app, what your credit score is. And a lot of people have those notifications already set, and that's something that financial advisors do recommend you keep your notifications on for your credit score so that you know when there's a change. And then you can see in your credit report why that change is happening. Ariana Aspuru: If this has hit your credit score, what can you do? Can you dispute it? Oyin Adedoyin: Credit experts say that if you are experiencing this, the first thing you should do is pay that overdue balance. If there is an error in the credit report, like it's not accurate, you did make that payment and you have the paperwork to back it up, then you should definitely dispute it. But if it is accurate, a dispute may not always work. Credit experts say that you should contact your student loan servicer and try to get placed in a forbearance or a deferment on your loan. So that means that you're not going to be charged that monthly fee, especially if you don't have the income to support it. Student loans are really unique because you can't get rid of them with bankruptcy, they're pretty sticky in that way. And a delinquency for student loans in your credit report could last for up to seven years. So credit experts are really encouraging borrowers not to ignore it and wait for it to go away. Ariana Aspuru: Is this something that we've ever seen in the past, when it comes to student loan payments? Oyin Adedoyin: Well, the volume of past-due loans have returned to and exceeded pre-pandemic levels. So this is something of a record high when it comes to past-due student loan balances, and we're still waiting to see what long-term effects this may have. But this does stand to have pretty significant economic impacts. It could lead to a chilling effect on spending, or big ticket purchases for young people in their 20s and 30s. Ariana Aspuru: That's WSJ reporter, Oyin Adedoyin. And that's it for Your Money Briefing. This episode was produced by me, with supervising producer, Melony Roy. Additional help from Dalvin Brown. I'm Ariana Aspuru for the Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening.
