It seems the plight of middle-aged Americans clinging to middle class status deteriorated rapidly in just the few days that we’ve been away, this Wall Street Journal story from Tuesday catching my eye as I quickly leafed through the accumulated newspapers upon our return, primarily as a result of the graphic below. It wasn’t hard to predict this six or eight years ago: “Many parents—no longer able to tap home equity to pay for their children’s education—are taking out new student loans to do so”.

As noted in the graphic, this is from recently published Federal Reserve Data, however, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also weighed in on the nation’s growing student loan debt this week (see this NY Times story and this CNN/Money report for details) and the news was no better there, making one wonder where this is all leading (probably not anywhere good). And, as if that all wasn’t bad enough, Americans also seem to be raiding their 401ks at a brisk pace once again as detailed in this CNN/Money report.