Debt poll, what do you include in your debt figures

[BernardandMissBianca]

I was wondering what you include in your debt
just Credit cards, CC's and auto, CC, auto, and home, everything including student loans etc.

[BernardandMissBianca]

I include everything, but I'm rethinking including the house.

[AlexWyattMommy]

Everything would be included (if we had student loans that is).

[rlovew]

I consider myself to be fairly debt free as the only thing we owe on is our mortgage. If my DH wasn't going to seminary next year then we could pay off our martgage within the next 4 years. We built our house last year. If we don't have the money for something we simply don't buy it. We try to choose things that are better priced but still good quailty.

Rebecca

[BernardandMissBianca]

That is great Rebecca!

I am trying to get debt free for the kids as well as ourselves, I want the boys to have a better understanding of finances. Right now they think that if we don't have money for dinner out or a toy we can just go to the machine and get more. Money is so convenient now.

[ddavis860]

We count everything, including the mortgage...

However, mortgage will be there for the next 14 years, so it's like a background expense. But the banks and lenders look at your total debt ratio, and assets are included...luckly we have a ton of equity in the house :teeth:

[Lisa]

Looks like we all think alike.:)

No wonder we all get along here.:scared1: ;) :laughing:

[hopemax]

I would count everything, although the mortgage I would put an * by it. If I was deciding if I could "afford" something, I wouldn't really count it, it's just there.

DH and I were both lucky to make it through college without needing student loans, so the only debt we have is the $3K I mentioned on the car. Plus we have $2K on a 0% APR credit card. We could pay off everything we owe from savings, but with the no interest, and our car loan is only 4.9%, it's better for us to grow our savings. The plan is to buy a house in hopefully less than 2 years. That's why were moving to Denver in March. We had to find someplace we could afford to do it.

[New England Eeyore]

I voted for everything but I don't think of the mortgage as debt. If I did, I'd cry when I thought about how big it is! Especially where we live, no one pays cash for a house, so while technically it is a debt, it's a necessary one. Besides, with no dependents, without the interest on our mortgage I'd get absolutely murdered on taxes!

We're very lucky. No student loans, no credit card debt. We had the car loan but only because we got one of those zero interest ones so there was no reason not to. We do have a home equity line of credit that I use for big things like home repairs but then pay off fairly quickly.

[party of 3]

i would say everything too! i do debt ratios at work and we do include the mortgage. but when i think of my own ratio, i don't count the mgt because i'll have it for a long time. :sad1: so i think of just my cc and car payments. but i only have 2 cc's right now. our main one and my disney one~ that i use for big purchases that i will pay right off the next month just so i can get my disney points!!!!

[mommy2mrb]

I include everything (except we don't have a car pmt right now) I am a budget keeper, so I keep track of all our pmts, including household bills, ins, and DD dance classes for each month, I have it all laid out for the entire year so I don't have any surprises from those bills I need to pay a few times a year.

[bigbabyblues]

I voted credit cards, auto and home, but that's all the debt we have. Hopefully in about 8 months, all we have is the car and the house, but we'll celebrate that when we get there!!! Our house will be paid off in about 9 years, when I'm 40.

[SarahTel]

I used to include my mortgage, but it really got me down looking at such a huge amount of debt. Similar to what it says here (http://www.debtandyou.co.uk/kinds-of-debt.asp), I just include my unsecured debt - the stuff I am actively paying off over the next few years. I think of my mortgage as an acceptable debt - the rest is not!

[tinkryansmom]

I too think just unsecured debt - the inital mortgage I do not count but if there was a home equity loan or line of credit out I would count that.

CC
Cars ??
Student Loans if you have them
HELOC
any other loans

I guess I don't really think about the car either though. It's a payment but I don't really think of it as debt. hhmmm... interesting. We might fall into the consumer trap on that one. We leased this vehicle, our first lease ever, so we really don't even own the car, though we plan to just pay for it at the end of the lease. Guess I have to think about that....

[hopemax]

I would count everything, although the mortgage I would put an * by it. If I was deciding if I could "afford" something, I wouldn't really count it, it's just there.

DH and I were both lucky to make it through college without needing student loans, so the only debt we have is the $3K I mentioned on the car. Plus we have $2K on a 0% APR credit card. We could pay off everything we owe from savings, but with the no interest, and our car loan is only 4.9%, it's better for us to grow our savings. The plan is to buy a house in hopefully less than 2 years. That's why were moving to Denver in March. We had to find someplace we could afford to do it.

Bumping this up because today we put the check for our final car payment in the mail. And we paid off the CC since the 0% is ending in June. So we have NO DEBT!!!!

And if DH could just get this whole job thing settled, then it's full steam ahead on acquiring some debt...a house! We hope to be in our own home by the end of next year.

[BernardandMissBianca]

Awesome job Hope!!!!! I hope DH's job gets straighten out soon.

Since starting this thread we have reduced our debt buy about $20,000, that includes DH's car but not the house or HELOC.
I paid off my car shortly after this thread too. I was soo happy that day! DH wants to buy me a new car but I plan on putting 50,000 more miles on my Truck first. I'll drive it til the wheels fall off just to keep from having another car payment. I only have 15,000 left on DH's car and that should be paid off in no time.

[party of 3]

Congrats Hope!!!:banana: good for you to be debt free.
and i'm sure your dh will get his job thing settled soon.

[rlovew]

Congratulations Hope!!!! That is always exciting. I am looking at being totaly debt free as soon as we sell our house- we won't buy another one because we will be living in parsonages for the next 20-30 years. Hopefully we can put aside enough to basically buy a house cash when we finish. We do have all the cash we need to put DH through seminary though.

Rebecca

Rebecca

[aroyer]

Congrats Hope! I hope your DH finds something soon.

We have reduced our debt by about $20k this past year as well. I can't wait to get rid of more. DH's has lots of school loans- undergrad and grad.

[Talking Hands]

Debt free. Only owe current bills like phone, insurance etc that are paid when due.

[TinkerKat]

Ok gals.... but what are your groceries and GAS/Heating oil doing to your
budgets?! YIKES!:headache:

With 4 kids and the oldest in college, debt free? Nah. But not "Choking" which is always a good place to be :laughing:
The best thing I did was have my mortgage go to bi-weekly automatic payments. Shaving off the years! We'll have Mortgage paid off in 7 short years.:banana:

[Raenstoirm]

I gotta say I hate you all. ;) I am over $100,000 in debt! And that does not include the mortgage! I owe a little over $10k on my car (last payment April 30, 2010 and I am counting the days), plus a little over $85k on student loans and the rest is the pesky credit cards I had since I was in college (for books and stuff). I was a poor kid attending the most expensive university in the US (seriously look it up! :faint: ). I am not so sure the education was worth being in debt till I'm 80, but the experience was, besides that is where I met my fiancé.
So debt service, including credit cards, student loans, car payment, mortgage and HOA dues come to a little over $5000 a month. Plus my fiancé has $20k of student loans and credit card debt. So our combined debt service is around $7000 a month, before the regular bills. Yeah it sucks! :headache: So alas I hate you debt free people! :rolleyes1

[BernardandMissBianca]

Raen, I'm right up there with you so don't worry, you are not alone.

We closed on this house in the morning and DH came home to a pink slip that afternoon. His layoff was due to the aftermath of 9/11 - last hired, first fired. It was scary times, we lived off the proceeds of the big house and credit cards. He was unemployed and under - employed for 9 months.
It was a tough time but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and you will too.

They say to tackle the card with the biggest interest rate first but I have opted to go after the smallest balance first. It seems more tangible and I don't give up as easily. We have not used a CC in 4 months so I am super happy about that!

[BernardandMissBianca]

Bumping cause I paid off our last credit card today!!!! :cool1::cool1::cool1:

DH and I waited for his old company to post their quarterly earnings and they were profitable all 4 quarters so their stocks jumped. We hit our magic number and sold. I knew we would never retire off the stock but it feels soooo good to be out from under the gun! I'm saving $2400 a month in CC bills!

Now I just have DH's car but it will be paid off in about 6 months, depends on when I feel like paying it off.
And the mortgage and home equity. I think if we stay in this house we are going to do an addition and refinance.

Oh and I'm still driving my truck. Almost at 190,000 miles but she's still ticking. I figure we might buy a new car at the end of the year.

[hopemax]

Congratulations!

[JandJ]

Good for you, Buffy!

If I were to answer how much debt we have I wouldn't count the mortgage but it is the only debt we have. DH has always lived without debt (no student loans, no cc balance, no car payments) and I didn't live like that but he showed me the light! It's a totally different lifestyle for me now. We use our cc for every single purchase (seriously, I bought garlic for .70 the other day and charged it) but we don't charge more than we have in cash, pay it off in full every month, and get the bonus rewards. DH won't do car payments so we're saving for a new car. Mine has 105K miles and DH's has 130K miles, and hopefully we'll be able to get something in 2 or 3 more years.

[BernardandMissBianca]

I'm going to keep our USAir card for the miles. I figure if I can use that for gas, groceries, etc then just write it out of the checkbook, I'll never miss it. Then I can just transfer the number written out of the check book to the USAir card.
DH got an Amex through work so we are going to close our Amex accounts. I'll close all the cards except USAir and WellsFargo (had that one for 15 years) once they clear our credit report.

[rlovew]

Good for you Buffy! I use our Disney rewards Visa for everything- again I pay it off in full every month. I just love getting the points. We will be able to use them this summer to do the Dine with an Imagineer and pay for our breakfasts.

Rebecca

[ddavis860]

:thumbsup2

Way to go Buffy!

[AlexWyattMommy]

:woohoo: Buffy! That is awesome. Some folks would want to wait "just a little bit more" on the stocks. Good for you for sticking to your pre-plan. :thumbsup2

[party of 3]

Way to go Buffy!!!!! lots of people would love to be where you are!
it must be such a good feeling.
:goodvibes

[bigbabyblues]

That's awesome Buffy!!!

We, too, paid off our last credit card last month, and it rocks!!!! We're keeping the last one, but NOTHING gets charged anymore that can't be paid off when the bill comes.

We still have 8 more years on our house (I will pay it off on my 40th birthday!!) and my van. DH will be needing another car in the next year or so, but he doesn't get vehicles that require a payment......right now, he's driving a 13-year old Neon with about 120,000 miles and peeling paint. It's ugly, but it's in good shape for what it is.