Lower debt levels mean greater investment opportunities

In the past few years, Americans have done a pretty good job of whittling down their debt load. If you’re in this group, you may now have a chance to use your lower level of indebtedness to your advantage – by investing for the future.

Consider the numbers: In 2007, just before the financial crisis, the country’s household debt service ratio was about 14 percent. (The debt service ratio is the ratio of debt payments, including mortgages and consumer debt, to disposable personal income.) But by 2012, this figure had dipped below 11 percent, the lowest level since 1994.

These figures are nationa...