Grace Englehart and her husband, Joshua Clark, thought they would be living in a house by now. They are buying Englehart's childhood home in Blue Springs from her mother at well below market value. Even so, it took several months longer than expected to meet the financial requirements of their lender. And, because Grace carries a hefty student loan debt, the mortgage – and title – will be in Clark's name alone.
"My student loans are obviously much more exorbitant than his are, because he finished school a while ago, and I just finished," Englehart said. "And, even though, ironically, my credit score is better, he's had a longer, better credit history than I have."
March 2026 data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis showed that the average Missourian has over $4,000 in credit card debt. That's a decrease from 2025. At the same time, Missourians owed an average of more than $35,000 in student loans.
Englehart, 30, earned her master's degree in 2025, and now she owes more than $80,000 in student loans. On top of that, she said finding affordable homeowners insurance has been a challenge. And then gas prices went up. She has been using credit cards to fill the tank of her car. She even used credit to pay the $250 price tag of her commencement cap and gown. She has three credit cards, with a combined balance of about $10,000.
"They're all three probably closer to the limit than I've had them in a long time," Englehart said.
In April, The Midwest Newsroom distributed a questionnaire asking people in Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa about their affordability pain points. Englehart was among the dozens of Missourians who cited credit card and student loan debt among their biggest stressors.
Costly crosshairs
Hillary Albert is in the crosshairs of several economic forces that are putting U.S. consumers in economic distress.
The Kansas City resident was laid off from her job as a substitute teacher in May 2025, after federal funding cuts hit her school district. Albert, 28, now works as an administrative assistant, earning about 25% less than her previous salary. Albert said she has about $5,000 in credit card debt.
"I have been using the credit cards more at the end of the month, when I realize, 'Oh, I didn't budget correctly,'" she said.
Albert decided to leave college during a stressful time amid the COVID-19 pandemic, landing her with about $8,000 in student loan debt.
"The loans have been in forbearance since the administration changed," Albert said. "But I keep getting more and more threatening emails so I have to deal with that sometime soon. That's a big one when I'm looking at my financial future."
According to data from the Education Data Initiative, more than 830,000 Missourians carry student loan debt. About half of them – like Englehart and Albert – are under the age of 35.
What Albert is going through reflects the collision of several economic pressures.
Inflation rose from 3.8% in April to 4.2% in May, reaching its highest level since 2023.
"Many people are still feeling sticker shock for everyday items where the price is materially higher than it was just a few years ago," said Rebecca Patterson, an economist and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, in a January interview with The Midwest Newsroom. "They feel like they can't afford certain things anymore."
In a 2026 national Debt.com survey of 1000 U.S. adults, 55% said they are now using credit cards as a financial lifeline to cover basic necessities such as groceries, rent and utilities.
While inflation remains high, average earnings in the United States have stagnated in recent decades, said Catherine Harvey, an Omaha-based policy program manager for the Urban Institute.
"About half of people in American families do not have the resources to cover essential expenses to live securely in their communities," she said.
In 2026, the Urban Institute created its American Affordability Tracker, which monitors trends in housing, healthcare, childcare, energy, gas and other essential expenses, alongside earnings and indicators of financial distress.
"The disconnect between people's lived experience and their wallets and the traditional indicators of the economy, like GDP growth and stock market changes, is really stark," Harvey said. "There's lots of public opinion polling that's coming out showing affordability is much more than about making ends meet."
More delinquencies
Missouri student loan borrowers had the fastest-growing rate of late payments in the nation from 2024 to 2025, according to delinquency data from the New York Federal Reserve. It is not clear why Missourians are struggling more than other states. An analysis from the Institute for College Access and Success found confusion after COVID-19 pandemic payment pauses and widespread economic pressures are playing a role.
Meanwhile, rates of late credit card payments are high in Missouri as well.
Between the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and early 2026, the share of people at least 30 days late making payments increased from close to 7% to a bit more than 11%.
Juan Sánchez, a senior economic policy adviser for the St. Louis Fed, researches the financial vulnerability of U.S. households – also known as financial distress. In 2025, Sánchez and his colleagues examined financial distress through data about households over 30 days delinquent on paying back unsecured debt.
Looking at the March delinquency data for credit cards, Sánchez said rates of late payments may be leveling off, but: "Is the share of people struggling to make credit card payments high? I would say, yes."
Voting on the economy
A May CNN poll found that 77% of voters – including most Republicans – said that "Trump's policies have increased the cost of living in their own community." About two-thirds of Americans said that Trump's policies "have worsened economic conditions in the country." And Trump's approval rating stands at 30% on the economy, a career low, according to the poll.
Harvey of the Urban Institute is not surprised the national conversation has turned toward affordability in an election year.
"What I think is happening is that we finally have struck a nerve, and people are saying 'I feel heard, these are my struggles.'"
Grace Englehart, the Blue Springs resident, is certainly thinking about how to vote on key economic issues this year. She is particularly concerned about Missouri Amendment 5, which would allow the Legislature to expand sales tax and, ultimately, eliminate the state's income tax. The amendment, one of Gov. Mike Kehoe's priorities, will appear on the August primary election ballot.
"No one likes paying taxes, but we gotta pay something," Englehart said. "We need drones, we need highways, we need 911, those kinds of things. Taking away that income tax and just converting it all to sales tax – that's not going to fix things."
Englehart works full-time at a translation and interpretation agency, but she's looking for part-time jobs and gig work to supplement her household income. Her husband recently started a new job that pays about 20% less than his previous position.
She is not optimistic about the midterm elections making much of a difference in the lives of ordinary people, with lawmakers in Washington seemingly unable to agree on how to improve the economy.
"It's demoralizing," Englehart said. "There's no decorum. There's no working across the aisle, it's always just fighting one party the next."
Meanwhile, Hillary Albert is thinking about her next step. She's thought about returning to college, but is not sure if going into further debt will be worth it.
"I know a lot of people with degrees or even more advanced degrees – master's, doctorates, whatever – who are having kind of the same trouble that I am and they have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt."
METHODOLOGY
Holly Edgell identified the two consumers featured in this article by their answers to a questionnaire created by The Midwest Newsroom and distributed in Missouri and four other states in April 2026. She interviewed them to learn more about their economic situations. In addition, Edgell interviewed an economist from the St. Louis Federal Reserve bank who provided data about consumer debt from March 2026. She interviewed an expert from the Urban Institute to provide context about the wider economy. Senior data journalist Daniel Wheaton analyzed data from several additional sources and created the graphics in this article.
REFERENCES:
The Effects of Macroeconomic Shocks: Household Financial Distress Matters (The Review of Financial Studies | October 2024)
Stopping a Looming Student Loan Default Disaster (Institute for College Access and Success, April 2025)
States Where Student Loan Delinquency Is Increasing the Most (WalletHub.com | July 2025)
2026 Survey: As Inflation Pressures Persist, Americans Are Increasingly Relying on Credit Cards to Bridge the Gap (Debt.com, March 2026)
The American Affordability Tracker (The Urban Institute | April 2026)
Americans' anger about the economy hits Trump and Republicans' midterm prospects (CNN, May 2026)
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank credit card and delinquency data for Q3 2023 (June 2026)
TYPE OF ARTICLE
News – Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Copyright 2026 KCUR
