Hear about how much debt everyone in the US has all the time, curious about some of your stories!
My bad debt is 10k left on a school loan from a for profit school that is now out of business.
Only other debt is house.
So how are you all doing with debt management?
I live in the Midwest region of the United States.
$55k in student loan debt, down from $100k eight years ago. $10k auto loan. $210k on the mortgage, which I honestly can’t believe I was ever approved for. No credit card debt.
There have been some very scary moments, but I’ve somehow managed to keep my head more-or-less above water so far.
Small promotion for !personalfinance@lemmy.ml, the community is usually quite helpful
The top post is “salary needed to buy a home” is just depressing. But great call out.
I’m almost 3k behind because my parents forced me into choosing college or the military at 18. I wasn’t remotely ready for either (was dealing with extreme gender dysphoria at the time) and I’m deeply opposed to the army but sometimes I wish I had chosen otherwise -I don’t know if I’m ever fixing this. All my cash goes to survival and everything I own is constantly breaking. Poverty is a vicious, vicious cycle…
Oh that is so hard to hear!
It’s crazy that parents are still forcing kids to go to college when it’s been documented a billion times how often people are getting no benefit but tons of debt.
Financially, none. Morally? So much.
Por que no los dos?
Seattle Washington area
10k in credit cards
110k in loans
430k mortgage
20k car loan
Credit cards are a little high but that’s just because I just took a vacation to Japan. I feel like I’m in a good place otherwise. I was lucky enough to buy my house before the pandemic when interest rates were super low and prices hadn’t yet spiked so I’m hoping to sell it in a few years when the interest comes back down. My loans are 50k I took out of my 401k as a down payment on house, 35k for a heloc to fix the house, and 20k on a personal loan.
Oh that sounds stressful. Hopefully things work out as that feels like a lot.
None.
I have made it a point to live a debt free life as much as possible. My only debt is my mortgage. I’ve had a couple of car loans in the past, but nowadays not even that. I have quite enough wheels; If I buy another vehicle it’ll be with cash. If I can’t do that, I don’t need it right now. (2 cars, 1 truck, 7 motorcycles. It’s going to be a cold day in hell before my ass is out of transportation options.)
$27K in cc debt. Disgusting. Been dialing it in the last many months and paying off $2-3K a month.
OTOH, I may have my house paid off soon, so I got that going for me.
Honestly at that point it might be worth mortgaging the home all over again just to get rid of that debt. Even at that admirable pace and taking today’s higher mortgage interest rates you’d probably end up saving $2000
A car loan for a completely unnecessary car.
Can we afford it? Yes, with reasonable budgeting, no sacrifices needed.
Will the car appreciate? Undeniably.
Do we need a toy like this? Fuck no.
Did it anyway. I’ve been poor for such a long time it’s really hard to justify any frivolous purchase at all, but we have good jobs now. I waffle between “This is stupid” and “I’ll never get to do this again, so why not now?” Literally YOLO.
The rest of debt is “good”, like the mortgage building equity, a CC to keep credit rating good (paid off monthly).
But cars don’t appreciate in value…
Good on you with everything else and I’m with you 100%, but as soon as you drove that car off the lot it’s been deprecating in value.
I have a 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible. Cars can appreciate, I assure you.
Historically speaking they don’t. I understand there are outliers for sure.
Yes they do.
You just have to pick the right car, and it’s not gonna be an off-the-shelf regular car.
If you look at all the cars that have ever existed 99/100 times that car is deprecating.
Yes, OP may have bought a classic car or something with high resale value. I was simply speaking in generalizations. The vast majority of cars depreciate in value once you drive them off the lot.
TBF you made generalizations that a) they don’t appreciate, and b) my car’s value depreciated off the lot directly to the initial statement I made that the car I purchased would appreciate.
I can assure you that these statements are incorrect in regards to my purchase. If you want to walk back your statements to not be in reference to my initial position, who were you talking to then?
You can’t leave a comment like that and not tell the car bois what you got.
You bought a literal racecar? Hell yeah dude. Live your best life.
Hah, too old for that risky stuff. Hitting a wall at a buck twenty doesn’t sound like fun. Yeah, they absolutely are race cars, but they are built to be street legal as well. That’s the direction I’m in.
That’s awesome man. Hope it brings smiles for a long time.
Thanks!
I mean if it can be paid off with fun money and doesn’t ruin retirement plans, not the end of the world if the interest rate was good!
Got a ~3% rate a couple years ago, so not bad.
ITT: few people having any clue what the difference is between good and bad debt, or that debt is basically essential to creating wealth.
I’m just enthralled at the idea of how normalized having negative money has become. Something something dystopian
I mean most people saying they don’t have any bad debt, but saying they have good debt isn’t too bad! It is interesting to know how much mortgage people are carrying.
But these days even mortgages feel bad. 400k at 7% is 28k of just interest. So houses feel way out of reach with current prices/rates.
If rates go down prices go up. So doesn’t feel like there is much winning for non home owners.
Housing prices, like everything, is determined by supply/demand. Interest rates are only part of the equation.
The main reason housing is high right now is because of the supply side, and that’s low at the moment because COVID destroyed the global labor market and the supply chain, so materials are sky-high, with fewer people to do the work of building.
Also, as the stock market tanks people move their money into safer places, like cash or property, hurting the supply side even more. This is what cashed up Boomers are doing (yep, we can keep blaming them).
Housing prices won’t come down until supply outweighs demand.
Not sure if you mean per year but mortgages are generally going to be over much longer time periods. A couple who I know are looking to buy somewhere new and are looking at getting £400k mortgage or thereabouts. With rates as they are now, and over 25 years, they’ll end up paying back £900k!
7% per year yes.
28k per year in interest on just a normal home is crazy.
With how much they push for 25+ years mortgages you’re going to pay way more than 78k for a 400k one.
Wealth is not created, it is taken.
You literally create wealth at your job.
actually, I am unstable and an incredible liability. If anything, I am a wealth-shrinking entity, like the common household Offshore Tax Shelter. Beware my economic hoodoo.
Only a mortgage.
I had student loans, but I finished paying those ~5-6 years ago.
I’m genuinely curious, what’s your opinion on broad reaching student loan forgiveness? If it happened tomorrow, would you be upset that you had payed yours off?
Not that guy, but basically the same situation. I’d be thrilled. Not having to think about those every month has been amazing. I want everyone to feel that way, even if I have to pay more in taxes to cover it.
Ditto. I’m the same as OP. Paid off student loans in 2019 and now I just have a mortgage. Let’s forgive everyone’s loans plz.
There’s no point in getting spiteful in life, be happy for other people
Bad, as a % of annual gross pay is about 25% of one year’s pay. Mostly the deficit accrued from when my ex was not working. It’s smaller than it was, but not by much. But moving in the right direction at least.
Plus mortgage on the house and a separate loan for the roof we had put on when we bought it.
Hey man as long as it’s getting smaller, it’ll be gone eventually!
Debt free, own two paid off cars old enough to be cheap but new enough that the maintenance isn’t too bad, and also they get good milage. We don’t own a truck or an SUV. We rent, cook at home 90% of the time, and we’re only just making it.
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Often times, that’s the best we can do.
All debt is bad.
Complete nonsense.
Whats an example of good debt?
Investment mortgage debt is good if it contributes to tax deductible claims. Owner-occupied debt is good if it’s managed properly. Both are good because you own an appreciating asset.
Credit card debt is good if you don’t hit payable interest, leaving your money to work for you in other ways.
Commodity debt is good if the market swings in your favour.
Business debt is good if it results in surplus revenue generated.
Education debt is good if it’s contributing to future and higher employment gains.
Basically all debt is good if it’s managed properly and results in a net gain somewhere.
So what im seeing is debt is only good in specifc circumstances, so it’s better to not have debt
…you’re claiming that because some debt is good and some debt is bad, all debt is bad? Your first statement quite literally negates your second statement.
Already being rich enough to afford
goodprofitable debt.
This can only be said sincerely from a point of complete financial illiteracy.
I had pretty substantial CC debt about a year ago. Nearing $14k. After health issues, having to move, replace many belongings, car repairs, etc. Used a 401k loan to pay off 10k of it, and since that loan was paid off (it was over $800 a month) I’ve paid the rest down under $3k, and should hopefully have it paid off by either year end or spring at the latest. Currently it’s sitting in 0% APR though, so it’s at least not eating away with interest.
Smooth moves!
Super good job on getting that under control.
Like £25k for a photography degree from 15 years ago. I moved to the US and paid bits of it back (it’s means tested so you just tell them what you earn and they base it on that). I’ve been ignoring their letters because idk, I don’t really want to pay it back? I remember the mandatory classes where we applied for ucas, so I feel like it’s on them for shoving 18 year olds through the loan system for profit.
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