Hubby & I got into a discussion about financial debt.
This country is really going to the dogs (No offence to all dog owners. Its just a figure of speech)
Real estate is plummeting.
It is a buyers market. Cause of massive forecloses as people are losing their jobs left and right and all hell is breaking loose with this economy.
Are we better off then we were 4 yr's ago.
For hubby and I even though we manage to pay our bills we are way deep in financial debt.
Well Over 135K which includes the house. I can't imagine what my life will be like if Gawd forbid anything bad happened to my husband.
And I see families ripped apart every day in the news with one tragedy after another and it all boils down to people being able to support themselves and try to stay out of debt. But how can we do that when the job market pays squat!
So with that in mind, we also have endless commercials on the boob tube from
Cash & Go or Check into Cash and people fall for this crap.
Which is nothing more then legalized Bookies. I feel so sorry for people who get rooked into this crap.
Does anyone bother to read the fine print in those ads?
On a simple loan of $2,600 They want 214.60 a month payments for 42 months. Plus a $75 Fee up front. That is too fucked up for words.
And we wonder why this country is so screwed up.
We let companies like that stay in business and pray on the weak and feeble minded people who have no credit due to a bad set of circumstances. Or have no other way shape or form to get money due to illness or loss of job. And it is sad to say but there must be thousands of people like that right now. Or why else do these business STAY in business! Even cashing a simple check they take a high % off the top! So they are making their profit too.
And this is just one of many many reasons why we as a country are in so much debt. Oh I can go on with all the political ramifications of why this country is so deep in debt. But I will pass on that hot topic.
AND just simply state my questions to you, which are,
1.How much debt are you in?
2.Do you see yourselves getting out of debt anytime soon?
Or in the near future?
I know for us we will be in debt till the day we die. Bob never worries about it. He always tells me just to live every day for now. He never looks into the future.
I am hoping one day it will all hit him and maybe he will take action and start saving some $ for a rainy day.
And of course living CF there is no one to take on our bills after we die.
So we better pray we die together.
Cause I alone cannot pay our Mortgage and bills.
This is an issue that scares the crap out of me at times.
And I was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way?
All comments are welcomed as always.
& Have a Great Day
I consider myself lucky in a sense that I got myself into debt while I am still young. Yes it sucks right now trying to pay it all off, but I have learned how awful and limiting being in debt truly is. I am hoping that this is the last time I will seriously be in debt with the exception of what I consider "useful" debt such as money for school.
Zero.
Not an option in your poll.
No credit card debt.
No student loan.
No mortgage debt.
No vehicle payment debt.
No personal loans.
No store credit payments.
Zero. I don't own a house, so no mortgage. I've never had a loan of any sort. I was lucky with college - my parents helped, I had scholarships and aid and I worked. Grad school was paid for - I had an assistantship. I didn't get a car until I was 30 and had saved up for it. I don't buy anything I can't pay for so no credit card debt. I want to retire in 16 years. Outside of a mortgage, there's no way I could be in debt and dream of that day.
DH and I both have school loans, we have one car loan, and a bunch of credit card debt. All told, we're probably around $60k. We're not worrying about the school loans right now. We're making the minimum payments because it's low interest, and like bellis_coldwine said, it's kind of "good" debt. (At least in the eyes of credit bureaus and such.) The car we're not worried about either. We've got a decent interest rate on it, and plan to keep it well after it's paid off, so we're chipping away at it. We've still got about 4 more years of payments though.
The credit card debt is the worst though. It accounts for almost half of our debt. It accrued due to a number of reasons. Some of it I brought with me into the relationship, but most of it came from our move last year. We relocated to be closer to family, but were unemployed for a couple of months and also needed to furnish our apartment, etc. We went through the savings really quickly, and admittedly, didn't do the best job of living frugally at the time. We've since gotten our spending under control and have an aggressive plan to pay off the credit cards. It'll still probably take us at least 2 years to do it, but I'm happy with our plan. It still allows us to have some kind of life, while still paying almost $1000 extra each month on the credit cards (on top of the minimum payments). We're still renting, and have no plans to buy a house any time soon. It would be nice, sure, but there's no way we want to buy a house on top of the debt we already have. That would just be idiotic on our part.
As for what would happen if something happened to me or hubby...we've both got life insurance through our jobs that would at least cover paying off the debt, so I don't worry about that. I'm lucky in that my job has great benefits that are pretty inexpensive, including covering him too.
As a nation we are definitely in financial trouble. It saddens me to see so many people going through hard times. That being said, I know that there are also plenty of people who brought it on themselves by living well beyond their means. Buying more house than they could afford, having to have the fanciest car, not reading the fine print on adjustable rate mortgages, etc. I have a hard time having sympathy in that sort of situation.
vanessa
Other than a house loan (8 years to go), a car loan (2 years to go), and a student loan ($11k left), we have very little debt. I have nearly paid off some furniture we bought on a zero percent loan, and I have a little bit on credit cards because of a strained summer (I get paid, finally, the end of this month, and that will pay off the credit cards). I consider our debt largely "good debt", so I'm okay with it. It is very comfortably within our ability to pay and still enjoy life.
I, too, agree that people have brought the current financial crisis on themselves, mainly because they aren't using their heads, and they are listening to self-serving "experts". When I was a kid, what we constantly heard was that housing (either a house payment, or rent) should not cost more than 25% of your income. I have lived by that mantra, and that has always left me money for a car, or for credit card payments, or for savings, etc. But the "new experts" say you should spent up to 40% of your income on housing. What a crock! If nearly half your money goes to housing, how are you affording food, or transportation, or savings? But people fall for the "expert" advice, and get much more house than they can truly afford.
And then once they have a house, they just "have" to have the things that go with a house, like new furniture, a commensurate car, a lawn tractor, landscaping, etc etc. For many, that is all purchased on credit.
Well, I've always been good with money, I don't know how we got into so much debt. I went into my marriage with very little, but hubby is the spender and he accounts for a good portion of it. That and the interest rates, me going to school, etc.
Then we moved to the UK and had to put 7K into flying our dogs over. The tickets, quarantine, shots and paperwork, airline-approved crates, etc. Then our cars have nickled and dimed us quite a bit, as well as my dogs here and there with some health issues. Despite all our traveling, that was always money saved in advance.
We have about 10K, but no mortgage, no student loans or car loans. However I think I'd prefer those! I'm getting a handle on it but unfortunately we have all these emergencies and bad things happen recently on top of me not being able to get a job.
We both have life insurance, so we're fine there. We don't have to worry about medical or really having a roof over our head or food, at least for the next couple years.
I do worry about debt, I think it's bad, he thinks it's part of life. I hate it, I budget and struggle and we do alright, have some money for other things and we pay well over the minimum on the cards, but it can be like a dark cloud over my head.
My debt is primarily my first graduate school student loan, that I am paying off successfully. DBF is almost done paying his student loans, and he has no credit card debt either. Our apt is paid off as of last year. So the only debt amounts to my student loan, which we are not really worried about as the interest rate is around 5% on that. We do have a substantial amount in savings, and we also have 401ks and have a pension plan in additition. We both have very good life insurance plans as well. Overall, we are doing well, but one is never too secure.
Our house alone is more than the largest amount on your poll, but that's a function of living in the DC area, I think. I don't know what our debt to income ratio is, and especially don't know in reference to our house alone, and I'm not sure I want to know. All in all, I don't think we've been unwise about our spending, we are actively saving, and we're overpaying on every single debt we do have. Fact is, we're not really struggling, and it's a great feeling. We have similar saving and spending habits, so I think that really helps us keep things in check and on the path to lower (abd eventually no) debt.
Our current situation is a crock really. While putting in the 5yrs here we originally planned for DH to get through his apprenticeship and get established, he took a pay cut and went through a series of lay-offs. I stayed at my job even though I didn't like it, because of the money. I sacrificed so he could eventually support us with no problem and we could then move and I could work toward my goal.
Well that of course didn't happen. I lost my job, we couldn't sell our house and now I'm working for 40% less than I was back in Dec.
We are carrying far more debt now than I ever planned on again. Mostly due to his lay-offs, preparing the house for sale and my lay-off this year (during which time he was laid off 80% of the time as well).
We now spend over 800$/mo in just gas so that is a whole other joke on the pile. I have now taken on student loans as well which I feel is the other joke in the situation. You don't make enough money, so you must go into more debt, in order to make more money.
No, debt really never ends.
I should have pulled my head out of my ass years ago and realized that my dreams were nothing more than fantasies akin to Cinderella stories. Had I done that, I would have gone back to school far sooner and I wouldn't be making shit wages at the age I am. So I guess I did bring this on myself in the end, but it was not for lack of something I truly believed in at the time (stupidly).
We are fortunate to have more money in the bank than we owe in credit cards. I refuse to use that money for that at this point since I have gone back to work and we are obviously working on the debt. We only have 1 car payment (used) and our spending is drastically reduced since we got used to it after I was laid off and DH went through so many lay-offs. On the flip-side though, life is just freaking expensive and I hate to have to justify that. If you gas your car up, it will cost you. If you eat healthy, it will cost you. If you have pets, it will cost you. We don't wear designer clothes, we don't drive new cars, we live in a shoebox and it STILL is costly. It is what it is.
cassia Wrote:Zero.
Not an option in your poll.
No credit card debt.
No student loan.
No mortgage debt.
No vehicle payment debt.
No personal loans.
No store credit payments.
Just FYI Zero is a NUMBER
UNDER 25K LOL
You are a very Lucky Lady to have zero debt.. So is Cats. and anyone else who is lucky to be debt free.
Yikes! I answered "under $25K" before I realized that you wanted us to include the mortgage. Oops! It's the only debt we have. We almost always pay our credit cards off each month.
I am not especially lucky.
I live within my income.
My disability income for my 10 disabilities is under $11,000/year.
Most of that goes to shelter costs and food.
I need to spend a lot of attention to budget and bargains to be able to get extras above food and shelter.
Truckerswife Wrote:cassia Wrote:Zero.
Not an option in your poll.
Just FYI Zero is a NUMBER UNDER 25K LOL
I have to concur with T.W. here. 0 is indeed less than 25,000.
Credit cards are under $2000.00 (it's only that high due to my wonderful root canal. blech) and we only owe about $10,000.00 on our truck. The house is paid for. I paid extra every month & then we refinanced to get a lower rate/payment. Paid of a 30 year mortgage in 13 years. Of course, we don't live in an older, small house that didn't cause a gazillion dollars, so it wasn't that hard. However, I do have to keep DH in check - he could spend a ton on tools. I have to make him promise to wait until the visa is paid down to almost nothing before making any huge purchases. Excessive debt scares me - I've seen what it has done to my inlaws & I don't want that to happen to us.
I finally paid off my credit card, car is paid off, I got the medical bills paid off, all that's left is $4,200 on the house.
unfortunately i have a lot of debt due to the divorce. prior to the divorce, all i had was the mortgage, and a few other things(home improvement loan, etc) that totaled about 450k. after the divorce i tried to keep the house going, and over a year and a half have racked up a LOT more debt. BUT good news is on the horizon. The loan is in my ex's name, so i informed her i am done with the house and that she needs to get rid of it. So we are talking to a real estate agent who is going to help us do a short sale on it. It will not affect my credit score so that makes me very happy. After the house is gone(2700 dollar a month mortgage payment) i will be able to knock out all my other debt in record time!!!
Mortgage is 115k
Car loans (2) 20k
Credit Card Debt 4k
I'm all for no debt, but it's not realistic for us. We'd spend more for a rent payment than our mortgage, so even though there are additional house expenses like taxes, repairs, insurance etc. it's worth it. Cars were a matter of shitty timing and us not wanting to buy unreliable rust buckets that leave us stranded since I drive 40 miles a day and he drives 60-100 miles a day. We could have gotten something cheaper, but not much with a warranty so we're sucking it up and making 2 car payments.
Credit card debt is some unexpected expenses incurred while I wasn't working (car accident and medical bills mainly) and is half what it was last year.
Debt ends if you want it too. We could easily sell our cars, pay off the credit card and just have a mortgage, but there's not a point right now. I've noticed that like most things debt and money troubles come in cycles. Some times are leaner than others regardless of the incomes.
We do have a specific plan to pay off our debts, including knocking off about 30k of the mortgage, in the next 5 years.
I might have to take a school loan next year too, but by the time that happens the cars and CC debt will be history.
I am close to your top category, but not quite. A year ago definitely, but not now. It's all relative... I have a good job and no other debt. Plus, I have no vehicle. My choice was to get a home that I didn't really want in a location in the suburbs, or to spend more on my 'perfect' place right next to work. Since I save hundreds of dollars every month not driving (transportation costs are $50 reliably each month - my bus pass) I decided to take that money and add it to my mortgage payment.
I would guess that I pay close to 50% of my take-home in housing costs (so all bills, fees, payments) and I think that it is probably about 35-40% of my income. But you know what? I have enough left over to have fun and even pay extra on my mortgage each month. I plan on having the mortgage paid off in 15 years, and this could probably be even less but I want to redo some of the flooring and get a deeper bathtub and maybe redo the kitchen at some point...
As Kirby says... it's all a matter of priorities. Plus my home is downtown in a place that won't have serious drops in housing costs (I'd be shocked if the prices even went down, as my place is probably worth $50k more than I paid for it a couple years ago). I will admit that I stretched myself financially at the start to buy my home, but it was knowing that I didn't have conventional needs for my money (student loan, car loan, etc).
As to what happens if I die... my cat will be eating very well and that's about all that matters from the financial point of view. Friends and family will miss me, but my cat is my only dependent and work has good disability and life-insurance.
LOL! I answered "Over 200k" and then realized no one was including their homes! LOL!
My only debt is my mortgages. 1 regular and a 2nd, very tiny one.
Aside from the house, I have NO debt.
Jen M.