When I first graduated, a wise man suggested that I would have a lower stress life if I:

give my first 10% to church / charity

save my next 10%

live off the rest

I'm giving and saving more than that and my only debt is a 30 year mortgage that I'll pay off in 10 years (11.5 years total). I bought my used truck with a cashier's check and pay cc's in full every month.

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

I have about 2 years worth of payments on the tractor left. My credit card is paid down to <$100 every month. It is used for convenience only. (Love me some Amazon...)

House, car, truck and motorcycle are all paid for. Cash reserve in place for emergencies, and being aggressively built up for planned upgrades to the house as it has become painfully obvious that we are not going to be selling.

In the black and I'll never look back.

quote:

And to think my spouse left over money....

I'd say the word for her is shortsighted.

Just under 35; just have a mortgage. use CCs for points only and pay it off every month.

Thought abut upgrading the house but a $900 mortgage is just fine considering I am paying extra. Things are just things.

Wow.....57% are debt free.

The media would like us to think we are all broke and on the edge of bankruptcy. I'm impressed.

Oh, I'm debt free as well. We retired about a year after our debt did.

Life's been good to me so far. (Joe Walsh)

Own my home, no debt of any kind for at least ten years, have a decent amount of money saved.

I hope to retire in about 4 years.

Have not had a debt other than monthly credit card charges in some 25 years. Own 4 homes, 53 acre of timber, 2 cars and a pickup.

Comes from marrying a very frugal German wife.

Edited to add:

Used to have a number of guns, but lost them all in that boating accident!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Elk Hunter,

The only debt I have is my mortgage, insurance, and living expenses. Both cars are paid off and I pay off both credit cards in full each month. I can say I'm extremely proud of myself, as at one point in my life, I was WELL over $20k in CC debt...probably closer to $25k.

p.s. There was no real choice for my situation in the poll answers.

ETA:
I re-fi'd the mortgage in 2015 for 15 years. So I'll have that paid off in 2030 instead of 2038 from the original 30-year mortgage. I'm going to start adding an additional principal payment next year to have it paid off even faster.

All this was done without the aid of Dave Ramsey. I just knew I had to pay off debt to enjoy life. And I say that not to be critical.....I guess some folks just need outside guidance to push them to get out of debt.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
When I first graduated, a wise man suggested that I would have a lower stress life if I:

give my first 10% to church / charity

save my next 10%

live off the rest

I'm giving and saving more than that and my only debt is a 30 year mortgage that I'll pay off in 10 years (11.5 years total). I bought my used truck with a cashier's check and pay cc's in full every month.

Right there with you!

We owe nothing except for our CC charges this month. I could retire right now if I wanted but I still look forward to going to work on Mondays. 25 years ago we were buried in debt. That debt made our lives suck. Thank God we got smart and turned it around.

Debt free for around 12 years and retired for 6 years. I use credit cards to keep the credit rating in the excellent range but never more than a couple of hundred dollars.

We have enough cash and liquid assets to cover any major emergencies, 3 annuities, 2 IRAs and Social Security checks every month.

Life is good but money can't stop the occasional health issues.

Jim

My only debt is a mortgage and utilities and insurance. Credit card exspenses are paid off way before next billing cycle. If I don't have the cash to buy the little things that add up on the Cards I don't buy it. Only use credit card when I don't want to carry the cash that is required to purchase the item or service. Since my divorce 17 year ago I have the ability to live 2 years in comfort with whats in my checking account without dipping into savings and investments if I lost my job today. That is called living within your means. I started with $2,000.00 in my name and a paid off auto when I got divorced.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
Wow.....57% are debt free.

The media would like us to think we are all broke and on the edge of bankruptcy. I'm impressed.

Oh, I'm debt free as well. We retired about a year after our debt did.

Life's been good to me so far. (Joe Walsh)

I would not use this poll results to reflect most of America. Almost all my in laws are buried in debt and don't have a pot to piss in but some are always in line for the latest iPhone.

A lot of those responding mention they are retirement age or near retirement age. There will be far far fewer that have no debt that are under 50 or so than those above.

I doubt those who are not doing so well financially for whatever reasons are participating much at all. Again having debt is not always a bad thing especially if one has a substantial net worth for their age.

Still good to see of members here doing well.

Only one car payment. Only reason we had that is because my folks lost their car in the great flood of Harvey. So the MUCH better half got a new one (not easy in the Houston area given the number of dealer lots that flooded plus the number of people who need cars) and we gave them her car. Hers was the same year as their old one, but with all the trimmings.

Three cars paid off, two motorcycles paid off, a boat paid off, a $350K house that I owe $150K on, $400K in the 401K and retirement accounts, and $100K cash in the bank. 34 years old.

I plan to be debt free in my 50's for sure.

We plan on upgrading to a nicer house within two years and hopefully having that paid off within 10 years.

Debt free, and recently very grateful for a past life of being thrifty.

Just when things began to look better for additional savings, my wife (worked part time) became ill, and passed. Next year the job is paying 20% less than 2 years ago. Many of my younger coworkers with families will have it tough. This will change things for me, but thankfully I have practice being frugal. I'll make do.

43 here only a car loan and a mortgage. Just paid one car off last week now I will double down on the reamining one to Paula it off as soon as I can. I got laid off in the dot-com burst in 2001 and it totally blindsided me and set me back a few years. Now I'm in a good spot. Wife doesn't work becuse we don't need her too. I charge everything I can on my credit card for the points/miles but haven't paid interest to them in 10+ years. I pay a little extra on the mortgage every month, basically round up the payment to the next hundred, it should shave ~5 years off of it. After I got laid off i worked 2-3 jobs and built up the biggest cash position I could. I now have a full years of take home pay in cash at Ally earning a meager 1.2%. Its sad because I know the opportunity cost of that cash sitting there but it's my mental security blanket. That's on top of the indrawn Heloc I could tap in a serious financial crisis

I work hard for my money but I also like nice things. If I see a gun I want or a watch, I will buy it. Know what grinds my gears is the wife got a ticket in 2015 and didn't take care of it with the court properly. Paid the fine but didn't connect the traffic school to the court so insurance dings me for having that. Probly costing me an extra few hundred a year in increase premium. You had 1 job! I have finally convinced her it's ok to sell the car seats and stroller baby backpack on Next Door since our youngest is now 7 so she's been raising cash that way

I was always taught excessive debt was bad.
Other than a home or car I always believed if you can't pay for it when you buy it either don't or save for it.
Credit cards get paid in full at the end of the month.
Any time my wife and I have purchased a car we always put down large down payment of at least 20% or more.
When we purchased our home we did not buy anything extravagant. It is only 1100 sq feet and we have no children so we did not need a big house.
Our house was paid in full by the time we were in our late 30s.
We still owe on my wife's car but hopefully it will be paid off by the end of the year two years early. My car is paid in full and it was paid off three years early.
I have lived this way all my life.

55 years old.

No car payments.

Mortgage of $31,000.

One child through 5 years of college (MBA), no debt. Another who is a Junior in a 5 year program.

CC paid in full every month.

The plan is to be debt free when the youngest has graduated from college.

Then...........................White 4 door Jeep Rubicon is mine!!!!! If I can get in and out of it.

61% of SF are debt free. Love it.