Young people aren’t paying their car loans. We can help.
July 13, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readYoung people aren’t paying their car loans. We can help.
About one in twenty car loans made to young people is in serious delinquency right now—a rate only exceeded during the global financial crisis. Sheila Bair, former chair of the FDIC, saw the wreckage of household debt firsthand during that crisis. “There’s nothing that will make a household more miserable than debt problems,” she says. So she wrote a book aimed at young adults, How Not to Lose a Million Dollars, to help them avoid the same traps. On this episode of The Indicator, she takes calls from two young men thinking about buying their first cars, and walks through the psychology and math behind the decision.
The case for not buying a car at all
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:06) **Introduction: The Debt Problem for Young People** - Former FDIC chair Sheila Bair explains why young adults are struggling with car loans, with serious delinquency rates near crisis-era levels.
- 2 (02:48) **Caller 1: Alex, 21, Biking in Costa Mesa** - Alex is finishing college and biking everywhere, but worries he'll need a car for a full-time job.
- 3 (05:00) **Caller 2: Kevin, 23, Tax Associate in Houston** - Kevin shares a car with family and wants a new mid-size SUV for convenience, but is worried about cost and inventory.
- 4 (06:56) **The Used Car Pitch: A $738,000 Retirement Lesson** - Bair argues Kevin should buy a used car for cash, and gives him math to convince his parents.
- 5 (09:49) **Wrap-Up and Book Plug** - Bair's book is "How Not to Lose a Million Dollars," a guide for young people to avoid financial traps.
- 6 Standout Quotes
- 7 (00:24) "I've just seen so many people make mistakes, so many people like BC And there's nothing that will make a household uh more miserable than debt problems." - Sheila Bair
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Sheila Bair’s book is How Not to Lose a Million Dollars: A Young Person's Guide to Avoiding the Tricks and Traps of Our Financial System
Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.
Your Next Listen
— Why this former banking regulator is writing kids books
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