How much debt does your household carry, not including mortgage?

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How much debt does your household carry, including car loans, student loans, credit cards after your monthly payment, etc.?
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i wish the other poll hadn’t gotten so far off topic and locked. can we try this again???

here was my answer
i consider debt not only an evil but something that keeps you from being able to go where God calls. i grew up in family full of debt and was determined to never have it rule my life.

i waited to buy a car with payments until i was 5 years out of college and could pay it off in 2 years.

i payed for 80% of my college (private Catholic) tuition for 3 years (the last 3 semesters i was on 90% scholarship) by working 2 jobs

i don’t carry a balance on credit cards but we do use them to put all our expenses on and pay it off at the end of the month. we’ve earned 4 plane tickets and 5 hotel nights on cards. makes for very cheap vacations:)

i could never afford to own a home when i was single (catholic school teacher) so when i got married and saw that DH’s mortgage payment went like this:
$690 interest
and $95 went to principle
I freaked out. I had no idea that was how a mortgage worked. so we lived off my salary (1/2 of his) until i beame a SAHM and put all his into paying down the mortgage. it now goes like this:
$130 interest
$650 principle and of course we still pay we extra on the principle and will be without a mortgage in time to start paying for Catholic school

i don’t know any other engineers wives that do the things i do to save money, use cloth diapers, make my own baby food, not get a minivan, walk to the grocery store when the weather is nice, live without a dryer for a year, keep the thermostat on 80 degrees (in FL mind you). most people i know are in debt and don’t do these things. it boggles my mind. i like how dr. phil says that money doesn’t solve money problems. if a person doesn’t know how to handle money, giving them money will not help. they have to learn how to handle money

another intersting things: in my business ethics class in college the priest that taught it pointed out that it used to be considered wrong to charge intereste because you were puting a price on time and time belongs to God alone. i thought that was interesting
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Once again no debt…cars paid off…house paid off…money in the brokerage account and no credit cards…WHEW
 
Are you sure you want to tempt fate?:confused:

As for me, just some credit card debt which I pay off each month.

PF
 
Do not rest until you have paid off all your debts.
Proverbs 6:1-11:
My son, if you have become surety to your neighbor, given your hand in pledge to another,

You have been snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth;

So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s power: Go, hurry, stir up your neighbor!

Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;
Free yourself as a gazelle from the snare, or as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom;
For though she has no chief, no commander or ruler,

She procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest.

How long, O sluggard, will you rest? when will you rise from your sleep?

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest–

Then will poverty come upon you like a highway man, and want like an armed man
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OK…don’t ask me how I am managing this but I only owe 9500 left on house. All cars are owned. We have a cable bill, gas bill, phone bill, electric bill, child support(hubby’s first child) 1 kid in college, 1 kid in public HS 1 kid in Catholic grade school…and All I really owe is the grade school tuition…pretty good for being a single mom for the last 8 years and just getting married. My student loans are paid, hubbys student loans come out of his check…will be done with that in April. sigh…almost there!!!
 
We have no credit cards whatsoever, we use our visa bank card only. We have a Car loan (paid off next year) Not buying new one, Medical bills not covered by insurance, plus all the regular monthly bills gas, electric, phone(includes internet service-verizon DSL) Satelite (we get the minimum+dish latino only-for hubby) sewers and of course property taxes:bigyikes: Car insurance(will go down next year when car paid off:thumbsup: ) I probably forgot something…always do, but don’t worry those lovely bill collectors are more then happy to remind me:rolleyes:
 
Why not include the mortgage? It seems to definitely be a debt as well. Also, does the poll include balances paid in full each month on the credit card? To me, any credit card is debt, to some extent. The credit card company pays the grocer, so the grocer is paid, yet you don’t cough up the money for a month. That seems to be debt for a month, but just for a month. After all, if you died, the estate would have to pay it.

Also, there is always the annoying medical bill. You receive the service, but they don’t collect any money. Rather they bill the insurance company, and dickering ensues. It can be three months before you yourself pay whatever they decide is your portion of the bill.:hmmm:Wouldn’t it be nice if it were even possible to know what a medical service will cost you before you receive it! Grrr.
 
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Pug:
Why not include the mortgage? It seems to definitely be a debt as well. Also, does the poll include balances paid in full each month on the credit card? To me, any credit card is debt, to some extent. The credit card company pays the grocer, so the grocer is paid, yet you don’t cough up the money for a month. That seems to be debt for a month, but just for a month. After all, if you died, the estate would have to pay it.

Also, there is always the annoying medical bill. You receive the service, but they don’t collect any money. Rather they bill the insurance company, and dickering ensues. It can be three months before you yourself pay whatever they decide is your portion of the bill.:hmmm:Wouldn’t it be nice if it were even possible to know what a medical service will cost you before you receive it! Grrr.
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I think mortgage isn’t included because very few people just starting out can afford to “buy a house” without getting a mortgage. So that’s sort of a given - you’re either going to pay rent or pay a mortgage.

I didn’t count credit card bills because we pay them at the end of the month. It’s just easier to write one check & they provide an intemized breakdown of expenses at the end of the year so it’s easy to budget for the following year.

And yes… it would be nice to know what a medical service costs before you recieve it. Although normally if you’re requiring a medical service, it means you are sick & maybe knowing in advance would make you feel worse?? :bigyikes:
 
balance on our vehicle

**balance on student loan I was dumb enough to get in my younger days:o **

That’s it if we’re not counting mortgage. No other bills besides water/trash, electric, gas, phone - all paid up every month. No cable. dial up is $10 a month. no cells. no nothing else.

Most of our money goes to health, food/misc./gasoline, edcuation materials, and house maintence - in that order.
 
carol marie:
And yes… it would be nice to know what a medical service costs before you recieve it. Although normally if you’re requiring a medical service, it means you are sick & maybe knowing in advance would make you feel worse?? :bigyikes:
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Oh, to be Canadian! We have a wonderful medical system, universally supplied to all Canadians. We do pay a small fee however. We pay an annual stipend which entitles us to “free” medical procedures. Procedures like having a baby is free in Canada, once you have paid the annual stipend. For our family of 5, it is $800 a year, based on our household income.

A tactic we have used with our kids is to buy them new vehicles at zero percent financing. No point paying it outright when you can leave the money in the bank and get interest on the sum, when you are getting the vehicle for 0% interest. They are able to have new vehicles this way, much safer and more reliable than an old clunker.
 
Ok, I’m part of that 16% that has over $50,000 in debt. Break it down:
@ $59,000 in car loans alone (we have two of them)
@ $22,000 in student loans (we consolidated and DH went to an expensive private school)
@ $60,000 in credit card debt

We live pay check to paycheck because our priority is to get out from under the credit card debt. I’m sure it’s not THAT bad now but I haven’t done a breakdown in three months. I believe I have three credit cards about to be paid off (ok, so they are only about $400 balances, but hey, they’re about to be paid off!)

Yes, we made some mistakes and I had a bad habit of comfort shopping for a year when I became a SAHM. I had a hard time transitioning and thought shopping would help me out. My hubby also made a bad mistake with a car purchase and we bit $12,000 which I ran up on three credit cards and we’re still paying (ya know, that intrest can kill you).

We were 99% extended on credit cards at the beginning of the year this year, and I got it down to 78% extended but then we had to do a move from GA to CA (thanks to the military) and we live in a very high cost area (cost of living here in CA is HIIIIIGGGGHHHH and we don’t get compensated for it) and we went through $12,500. The good part is we put $549 on a credit card out of that $12,500 (we paid the rest from our checking account). But because we live so far from post (not our choice), we have to put gas on a credit card in order to get Dh to work each day. I walk where ever I can, I haven’t been grocery shopping in over a month, switched my baby to cloth diapers four months ago (she’s only 5 months old), I can’t use my dryer because it’s an electric dryer and the house we rent is hooked up for a gas dryer. I use coupons whenever I can afford to grocery shop.

So, I applaud all ya’ll that are out of debt and I look forward to being able to breath that sigh of relief like you do. I know there is a light at the end of this tunnel and it’s not a train. I just ask that ya’ll keep us in your prayers!

Thanks!
T
 
We have:

1.) credit card bills that we were dumb enough to overuse when we were dating and early on in marriage…canceled them all, consolidated and now pay one lump sum once a month.
2.) car payment…we’ll be looking at that for the next, oh, 5 years prolly
3.) and all the rest of the bills…rent, electric, groceries, gas, random expenses, etc., the normal bills.

It doesn’t sound like much but the bills are quite high. We’ve cut down a lot though, the only unecessary things we really have are the internet and cable, which is all on one bill and not that bad anyway.

But we still owe a lot. I can’t wait to get rid of it…who knows how long it will be.
 
As for personal - I only owe my morgage and one car (25000.00) however, we own our own business and that’s where our debt is…but only in property and vehicles there.
 
I’m paying off grad school so I’m in the 5001 section. That is the only debt we have 👍
 
Just a little on my credit card (not every month) and I pay that off each month. I paid cash for my last car, but may get a loan if I buy a new car next spring (I am waiting for the Auto-Show here to look).

PF
 
in the 15-20K between the car and the one credit card; but we love the car and would buy it again if need be, so it’s alright with me. My credit score was just shy of 800 so I’m not too worried…😃
 
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Pug:
Why not include the mortgage? It seems to definitely be a debt as well. Also, does the poll include balances paid in full each month on the credit card? To me, any credit card is debt, to some extent. The credit card company pays the grocer, so the grocer is paid, yet you don’t cough up the money for a month. That seems to be debt for a month, but just for a month. After all, if you died, the estate would have to pay it.
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i see your logic with the mortgage. we are trying to become mortgage free in the very near future and we are a young family. with the credit card paid in full each month i don’t though. no one is making money off of me when i pay off my balance each month. we only have cards that have no annual fee and we reap the benefits of the cards: like i said before we’ve earned many plane tickets and hotel stays. we always have enough to pay it every month so to me that isn’t debt
 
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Pug:
Why not include the mortgage?
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I would put mortgage debt in a different class of debt because the underlying asset is expected to increase in value over time. The debt is also tax deductible making it affordable and perhaps fiscally sound depending on your finances. Also, you have to live somewhere.

The worst type of debt is the debt taken out to spend it on items that loose value.
 
We have between 15,000 including our car loans, but if you count our studen loans, sadly combined we have almost $30,000 in student loans from the Uniersity of Dayton. :crying: Being too poor to go to school is no fun, and being too rich to qualify for grants is also a pain. Lower Middle class white kids without a perfect highschool GPA (mine was 94.3, his was 97something) get the stick!

We have credit cards, but NEVER use them, or at least we haven’t used them in well over 6 years. I don’t like credit card debt. We use our debit card and checks for everything.
 
DH and I both can’t stand to owe people money. While he was in med school, we lived off my salary (22,000-25,000) and borrowed only for his tuition. Luckily both of us and scholarships and family help for our undergrads. When he started residency, he earned about 35,000. This was alot for us after living on a shoestring. I continued working for 1.5 years before our first child. We used my income plus any extra of his to pay off all his student loans. He did moonlighting in the ER to earn money for a mortgage downpayment. Since finishing residency, (4 yrs ago) we have paid off the mortgage and bought 2 new vehicles outright. We pay all credit cards in full each month.

We know tons of other doctors who went into great debt with student loans, buying HUGE homes, fancy cars, boats, etc. that owe so much money still. We are both thankful that we thin the same way about money and debt.

My only issue is now that he makes alot of money, I’m trying to get him to contribute more to charity. I give what I can, but several times he’s asked me to stop or outright told me he does not want to contribute to something. He would not let me contribute to the Dec. 24 tsunami and only let me give $100 to Catholic Charities storm relief for Katrina. I want to give more, but he won’t let me 😦
 
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