We have a credit card because we like to order stuff off the internet and to buy an airline ticket in case someone dies and I have to fly to FL. If we use it, it gets paid off at the end of the month.

Mrs. Mike has a credit card for her work travel.

Otherwise, everything is paid for except the house, and it would have been paid off in ten years but since I had to retire and am only getting disability the house will get paid in 18 years or so...

Wife and I only have the house as debt. Hoping to switch to a 15y soon

We are basically debt free

My house is paid for, my two cars are paid for. I pay my credit card off every month. I don't have much savings, as I lost my job a few years ago and wiped it out. Thank God my house and car was paid for or I would have been in real trouble.

Unfortunately. It looks like I'll be in some debt soon, as I am about to buy a new car. My two current cars are now a maintenance nightmare. To keep them running is almost a car payment.

After running the numbers the car I want I'll be better off buying new. I keep my cars long term so paying to get what I want don't bother me.

I'll slowly build my savings account and emergency funds up in the next few months.

The new car was planned for, but not as soon as I'm needing it. So not happy about that.

Financially I'm not in a great place, but I'm not in a terrible place. I have retirement account and I hope Social Security will be around.

I would like to start investing a little, something fairly safe.



ARman

Well only true debt I/we carry is the mortgage. Wife and I are 30, but both cars are paid off (11 year old Sentra and 8 year old Vue). Credit cards have always been paid off each month. Hell, our credit limits are less than we make in a month. I chose option 3 as I figured it was closest to our situation.

quote:

Originally posted by Deqlyn:
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.

$900? Wish that was my mortgage. Live in So Ca in a town home and total with HOA is ~$2400/mo. Once we can kick the mortgage insurance, it'll be ~$2300/mo

House and 2 cars. One car has 0%, other is paid by company. We pay extra on the house monthly and have refinanced to half the interest and 15yr.

I pay the credit card off monthly.

2 years ago I had several k in student loans and as high as 12k in cc debt. Aggressive payoffs have fixed that.

We've paid off over $50k since starting Dave Ramsey in January and calculate debt free early next summer. We took a huge pay gouge with this last transfer but we'll get it done. Ironic how now that I'm committed to not opening any credit lines that my credit score is >830. Scumbags.

We're 5.5 years into a 20 yr mortgage. I spent a little more than I wanted to when we bought it, but it was the perfect house for us. No CC debt, but we do have a small home equity loan we used to pay off wife's student loans (MBA).

Kids are in K & 1st grade. We have to pay $300 each month for full day Kindergarten. Thank goodness we are done with daycare. It was ~2k per month for a couple of years. I can't wait until next year when there's no school bill! Kids both have 529 accounts. Close to $20k (total) in those I think.

I wrecked my daily driver SUV in Nov 2015, and still have not replaced it with an equivalent. I drive a 93 Honda Accord we had as an extra car, but I work from home. I would really like to get a newer truck, but I just can't bring myself to drop that much cash on a vehicle.

Instead, I put 20% of my salary into 401k and wife puts in 18% of her salary. There are so many expensive toys I would like to have, but retiring early with a lot of money so we can live on an island for 4 - 6 months per year is taking priority. I can drive a fully loaded new truck when I retire.

Somewhere around half a million in debt. Good times!!!!

I left a 6 figure job 4 years ago to venture out on my own. My wife makes good money and has been floating us on and off for that period of time. I sometimes go months without paying myself, and some months I take home good money. We have a mortgage ($1500) and two car payments ($650 total). We do have a good bit of CC debt right now but I plan to have that paid off in the next 3-4 months. It's stressful, but I'm thinking long term (and I'm relatively young at 31)

When I was 40 I developed a goal that by the time I was 60 I would have put both of our sons through college and have our house paid off and be able to retire.

Then the great recession happened and really hit the construction industry hard. I read the book "The Millionaire Next Door" and realized it's not necessarily how much you make but how much you save that will matter in the long run.

To make a long story short we paid the house off when I was 57 and put both kids through college so they came out of it debt free (we literally had $20 left in that account!).
I'm 60 now and will work for another year or two but should be able retire then... All in all it has worked out for us and we have zero other debt.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Somewhere around half a million in debt. Good times!!!!

I am with you Stickman. Sold my soul to start my business.

1.5M in debt not counting the house. I would like to know of all the debt free people replying, Do any own their own businesses?

quote:

Originally posted by Crockett040:

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Somewhere around half a million in debt. Good times!!!!

I am with you Stickman. Sold my soul to start my business.

1.5M in debt not counting the house. I would like to know of all the debt free people replying, Do any own their own businesses?

Yes. I was just shy of 1M in debt 15 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by bcereuss:

quote:

Originally posted by Crockett040:

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Somewhere around half a million in debt. Good times!!!!

I am with you Stickman. Sold my soul to start my business.

1.5M in debt not counting the house. I would like to know of all the debt free people replying, Do any own their own businesses?

Yes. I was just shy of 1M in debt 15 years ago.

I didn't know we were Counting businesses into this. Disregard my last post.

70+ years old, retired with two pensions, social security for self and old lady...Forced by government to with draw from IRA Account.

Raised three kids they're out of the house and families of their own. Home paid for years ago, 4 vehicles paid for, no credit card debt (if we use a credit it paid off when the bill arrives). Have a savings and investments.

quote:

Sold my soul to start my business.

1.5M in debt not counting the house. I would like to know of all the debt free people replying, Do any own their own businesses?

It's hard to start a business without debt.
If you have employees, they like to be paid regularly....

I do own my own business, but it's just me. I have no employees. I have no debt.
But.... I'm thinking about buying a building and expanding, so I may have some debt. We'll see.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

Nor do I don’t own any credit cards, which I realize hurts my credit rating. If I don't have the money for something, I simply don't buy it.

I use credit cards for convenience, not to spread out the payments or because I can't afford what I'm buying. I pay them off every month before the due date and pay no interest.

This is how I use my cards. I will not spend money that I do not have.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Crockett040:I would like to know of all the debt free people replying, Do any own their own businesses?

I do, but the net value of the business is positive despite a mortgage on that building.

I, too, am amazed at the percentage of SF respondents that are debt free (58%). Include me in that group, too. I'm going to start another thread with a poll on age for the SF bunch. Maybe gun people are better money managers. In my case my wife is the money manager. I wonder if we, as a group, are older? Hell, I'm 75, ran our own businesses for 45 years, retired 10 years ago and have been debt free for 15 years. Still owe a tiny bit on a commercial property but that is because it has tax advantages.

I've really gone through an evolution on this issue over the last few years. Until about 2013, our focus was to pay off the debt we had, which was mortgage, student loans, and a small car note.

In about 2013, we shifted to focusing on saving / investing our extra funds rather than paying off fixed rate low interest loans. We generally do not carry any credit cards balances, but we do use cards for points /miles / cash back.

This shift (and good investment returns from the stock market) has made our net worth grow at a faster rate than just paying off our debts. It also gives us the potential for more long term growth from the compounding effect of our investing.

Everyone's circumstances are different, and it is not always comfortable to have money owed to others, but I believe that the highest and best use of our dollars is growing our assets rather than retiring our debts. YMMV