Worried about your debt?

Consider this: The U.S. is $23 trillion in the red.

Today, the country owes over four times more than it did in 2000, when the national debt stood at around $5 trillion. How did we get here?

"Like any budget that you have in your household, we have too little income and too many expenses," said Ted Jenkin, certified financial planner and CEO and founder of oXYGen Financial in Atlanta.

Our biggest expenses as a country include Social Security, Medicare, defense — and the interest on all that debt.

The rising debt poses risks. For example, it could leave the federal government with less spending power in a downturn.