Purpose: Over the past a few decades, there has been an increasing body of research on debt and wellbeing. However, research on the potential effect of various debt portfolios on family financial wellbeing is limited. The purpose of this study is to fill this research gap by examining the potential effect of debt portfolios on family financial wellbeing, measured by three indicators of progressive financial burdens. These indicators include debt pressure (debt payment to income ratio > 40%), debt delinquency (60+ days late for debt payments), and insolvency (total liability > total asset). Debt portfolios include various combinations of mortgage, credit card, vehicle, education, and other loans.Design/methodology/approach: With data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances in the U.S., multivariate logistic regressions are used to identify specific debt types and consumer background factors that are significantly associated with debt burden indicators. The findings are used to create a table demonstrating warning debt portfolios that may lead to debt burdens. Findings: Holding different types of debts are associated with different financial burdens: holding three types of debts (mortgage, vehicle, and other debts) tends to increase debt pressure; holding two types of debts (education and other debts) tends to increase debt delinquency; and holding five types of debts (mortgage, credit card, vehicle, education, and other debts) tends to increase insolvency. These results are used to identify warning debt portfolios in terms of financial burden indicators. Among these debt portfolios, the top warning portfolios for debt pressure, debt delinquency, and insolvency are mortgage-vehicle-other debts, education-other debts, and mortgage-credit card-vehicle-education-other debts, respectively.Originality: This study utilizes a new concept, debt portfolios, and examines its associations with family financial burdens. Financial burdens include three indicators that are seldom used together in previous research. These indicators conceptually indicate various severity levels of debt burdens. This study also presents a conceptual discussion on the association between debt portfolios and financial burdens and provides better understanding of consumer debt behavior and its consequences. Empirical evidence of the warning debt portfolios has direct implications for banking and other financial service professionals. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited by using only cross-sectional survey data to examine associations between debt portfolios and financial burdens. To examine the causality of debt portfolios on financial burdens, appropriate panel data are necessary, which is a direction for future research. In addition, this study used data from only one developed country. In future research, data from more countries, including both developed and developing countries, should be analyzed to verify if similar relationships exist among families in other countries. Practical implications: Results of this study have implications for practitioners in banking and other financial institutions. The study presents a comprehensive list of debt portfolios in the order from high risk to low risk in terms of financial burdens. Financial professionals can use it to help their clients make informed borrowing decisions, predict their debt burdens, and offer early prevention solutions based on their clients’ debt portfolios. Marketing strategists can use the information for better segmentation and promotion purposes
