Do you have debt?

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Do you have debt?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 38 31.4%

  • No.

    Votes: 54 44.6%

  • Only my mortgage, nothing else.

    Votes: 29 24.0%
  • Total voters
    121
I was not trying to be a d!ck, I was just stating fact.

EDIT: Yes, Per-Sev that would make you debt free. Although I highly doubt a "disabled" person could not be indebted to at least 1 person. Or you are not really "disabled" and you would be indebted to the government when they found out.
 
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I saw a statistic on 'Planet Money' (NPR series) that showed the relative relationship of household wealth to debt, and how the ratio had climbed to pre-crash days of the great depression.

It was sobering to say the least, and the coincedence can't be ignored. China can't keep subsidizing our debt forever.

I have a mortgage, and a reasonable car payement (used vehicle). Paid off my credit card years ago.
 
MCFLYFYTER said:
I was not trying to be a d!ck, I was just stating fact.

EDIT: Yes, Per-Sev that would make you debt free. Although I highly doubt a "disabled" person could not be indebted to at least 1 person. Or you are not really "disabled" and you would be indebted to the government when they found out.
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Not that I owe you a explanation but I am not collecting anything from the government such as SSI or welfare I was injured in a work related accident and received a lump sum settlement and a annuity from workman's comp so I will be waiting till I am 65 to draw my SSI. I am indebted to know one I don't even have to pay taxes anymore because of my income level and the way my settlement was set up because you don't pay taxes on workman's comp but I still file every year just to show my income level and my tax guy is a CPA and help me with setting up my settlement. Anything else you want maybe a copy of my medical records or my handicap permit for parking.
 
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Only debt I have is my car note and a hospital bill from 2004.

I have a job, and both are paid every month; on time.

Car note is for my sweet '09 Mazda6 V6 sSport trim. I put down a huge down-payment. Half the cost of the car, and financed the rest. Honestly, if I wasn't into cars, I'd just buy a brand new Hyndai Elantra or KIA Spectra. (I've driven both as rental cars.) They're not too pricey to get fully loaded, and you end up with what can be described as near-luxury cars that don't look impressive on the outside. But I'm not into those fancy electronic luxuries, and I love performance; while still needing a good car that can get me home during bad weather. (One of my bosses drives a V8 Mustang. He grabs a cot at work if it snows.) The 6 has worked out well in the almost 2 years I've had her. The huge down-payment also translates to low monthly payments. Even if I lose my job, my sweet ride won't be dangling off of some repo man's hook.

In 2004, I had a severe infection. Hospital tried to screw me over on the bill. In the end, we came to an agreement that wasn't an official settlement. But my bill was greatly reduced. Took going to court, and dealing with a blatantly biased judge before common sense prevailed. (Or perhaps it was the fact that the hospital realized I had no insurance, and they wouldn't be gouging an insurance company with the over-inflated bill they initially presented me.) The hospital realized I would be paying the bill instead of an insurance company. What they came up with is a perfectly legal and complete B.S. way of getting a patient to pay a reduced hospital bill, without it officially counting as a settlement on the patient's credit rating. Fine by me!

I do my best not to have debt. That's the way it has been for most of my Life. When the hospital debt is over, I'll only have the car note. When the car is paid off in about three years, I plan on keeping it quite awhile. Making sure all the routine maintenance is taken care of. With luck, it'll be about 2019 before I look for another ride.

Debt catches up with you. A few years ago, my friends went to a local, independently-run, movie theatre. The usher who was in charge of crowd-control during the premeire was in his '80s! No one wants to be THAT guy. No one.
 
MCFLYFYTER said:
I was not trying to be a d!ck, I was just stating fact.
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That's like saying that everyone who lives in a major city is in debt because every month they have to pay rent or morgage.

Not quite the same thing as what the OP was going for when asking who has debt.
 
I'm in debt...lot's of it. But all you guys have really inspired me to get my act together and turn it around. Thanks to you and CPF.
 
$10,000...paying down at $370 per month. So 2 1/2 years or so to "0". I might be able to increase it by up to another $300 per month soon...not sure. Depends on how much I`m willing to sacrifice.
 
At the moment only loan for this house, about 111000$.

Have had two car loans, paid away about 3-4yrs/each. Have had my recent car for 6 years (driven over 140K miles myself in 15 countries), its getting a bit difficult to thinking it has to be changed at some point :(

It makes it difficult because if I´m going to get a decent car, it´s going to need a loan. A piece of junk would be another option, no loan needed but I drive daily about 80miles and I´m in bad physical shape considering pushing my car to work :ironic:
Not very interested in taking car loan anymore... If I take a loan, I have to rearrange my house loan to be paid in smaller parts = longer time. Now ~9 years to go.

I have a credit card, yes. I always pay credit debt in full next month, so it grows no interest. It is almost a must if you are going to make purchases via internet. Not using it to anything else, though :shrug:


edit: I was going for "Only my mortgage, nothing else" but since I have some shoppings made via VISA, I chose YES.
 
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No debt.
I've always thought that it's a lot better to get something small that you can pay in entirety now, than something big that'll leave you paying for ages. Especially since you have to take into account the possibility that you'll total your shiny new vehicle tomorrow, and then pay for ten years something you no longer have.
 
paid off my last cc a month ago.
have 0 balance on all my cc's....... for now
 
In college and debt free! Free ride to school and work enough hours to pay of my cards and car every month.

Ok, let me clarify - I'm financing my car, but with 0% - I have the cash sitting and collecting interest as I'm paying it off.
 
Fallingwater said:
No debt.
I've always thought that it's a lot better to get something small that you can pay in entirety now, than something big that'll leave you paying for ages. Especially since you have to take into account the possibility that you'll total your shiny new vehicle tomorrow, and then pay for ten years something you no longer have.
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That's what insurance is for. :thumbsup:
 
Badbeams3 said:
$10,000...paying down at $370 per month. So 2 1/2 years or so to "0". I might be able to increase it by up to another $300 per month soon...not sure. Depends on how much I`m willing to sacrifice.
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If I were you, I'd put that $300/month away, into a savings account or something, for when you really need it.


I'm not in debt to any company, just my parents (for schooling). They pay all the bills, and my rent is doing chores, fixing stuff, and giving my mom neck & foot massages (great practice for when I go to school for Massage Therapy). I think I'm gonna take up their offer of living @ home til I'm 25 (only as long as I'm going to school full time, or working full time), so I can avoid paying $500+/month in rent, so I can save that up for something else, like paying cash on a car, or a down payment on a house.

~Brian
 
Debt when there is interest (often hidden) attached to it is bad. I found out early that if I buy on credit, I end up paying double compared to using cash.*** So I pay cash when ever I can. I only use my credit card for mail/online purchases where I can not use cash.

The only exception is a mortgage.
If you take out a mortgage of say $250,000, by the time you pay it off you would have paid $500,000. But while you are saving up $250,000 to buy the house with cash, you have to pay rent. So rent and mortgage interest cancels each other.
That is why mortgage is a separate item in the poll.

*** When I first got a job, the R&D guys were designing circuits using the Motorola 6809 microprocessor. They all have Radio Shack Color Computers which use the same microprocessor. So I got myself one. Found out I can not see colour on a B&W TV. Went to buy a colour TV.
$300 cash or $16.99 a month for 36 months. $16.99 a month looks pretty good until I did the math - over $600. $300 for the TV & $311 interest. I put the TV on layaway and imagined the colours on my B&W TV for a couple of months.
 
I am debt free as of 2007 when I paid off my mortgage. I never liked owing money anyway. At the time I left my IT career to start my own business and wanted a clean slate. It was very difficult and I got smacked with this deep recession. I made under $10K in 2009, so I'm impoverished now. This year has been looking better so far.

Anyway, I sat down and figured my monthly expenses to see how much I need to live on:

expenditures.jpg

Other=saving, saving for emergency and entertainment.

I can do it for under $1000 per month net pay!
 
Just got my engineering degree, and am in debt. Only about $12k (CAD) though so not bad. I'm paying over $1000 onto it every month so should be gone in less than a year:party:
 
We are on the far end of the spectrum. We've both worked all our lives, and she's retired, I'm still working. The mortgage was finally paid off a little while back. Between the houses we've bought and sold, we've paid on mortgages for almost 30 years.

The only thing we owe on is a new car, and that's only because my wife is shy about pulling money from the savings. That's OK with me (at the moment) since the money might not make it back into the savings and we can afford the minor interest payment. One of these day's I'd like to retire too.


Daniel
 
alpg88 said:
wow, auto ins. 25$ a month.
damn, i pay 200$ a month for 1 car
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Part of it is that I only carry liability now. No need to carry full coverage on a 5 year old inexpensive vehicle. A high credit score and good driving record help. Believe it or not, your credit score plays a part in how much your insurance coverage will cost.
 
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