How are you spending your money? Time after time I sit down with families who are working diligently not only to secure their finances for the future and protect their assets for their kids, but families who are working towards financial freedom today. According to the Huffington Post, however, consumers would like to spend less, but they are falling further into credit card debt.

While this economic crisis has changed the way the middle-class thinks of money and future finances, causing them to turn to living trusts to secure their future assets, it has also taken a hard toll in working families. According to a recent report from Absolute Strategy Research, two-thirds of Americans now say they are less likely to borrow or spend money. A third of Americans surveyed said “they plan to pay down their debt in the coming year, and another third said they plan not to take on any new debt.”

However, with all of that said, and all of the changes that our economy has meant for hard working families, credit card debt has risen “two-thirds compared to the same period last year, and it has increase 368 percent since two years ago.”

Americans are learning to be more responsible with their finances, as proof by the increase in living trusts, and are now earning more than they spend. According to the survey completed in 2009, 28 percent of Americans said that their income did not cover their spending. Today, only 13 percent said that their income did not cover their spending.

Are we learning to live in a more frugal manner, needing less to get by? Or are we making more money and so are able to cover costs? In reality, many Americans are making exactly the same amount that they were making back in 2009. According to CNNMoney.com, incomes for 90 percent of Americans have been stuck in neutral, and have been stagnant for at least a generation.

With that said, the encouraging news is that so many Americans are taking their finances more seriously, spending less and saving more, and preparing for their future and the future of their children by protecting their assets with living trusts.

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