On today’s show Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family, explains why debt is very complicated in the family context.

When it comes to family debt, Nora explains that the majority of Canadians carry some sort of debt; the highest debt being mortgages, followed by car loans and education. The pattern has been, and continues to be, that people incur debt when they're starting out in life; buying a house and a car, having children and going to school. However, Nora explains that, “what we are now seeing, that's relatively new in sort of historic economics in this country, is older people with debt, more people retiring with debt and more people accumulating debt while in retirement.”

We explore the implications of debt on the family, and discuss some possible strategies to deal with and eliminate debt.