When Will You Be Debt Free

[Marionnette]

1984

 

[dosekies]

Honestly, no idea. I'll be 26 next month and am planning to have 1 of 2 student loans paid off by the end of the year. Hoping the second will only take another 2-3 years. Those are the only debts I currently have, but my fiancé also has his car and motorcycle payments. Once most of these are paid off, I'm sure we will be looking into buying a house and having kids.

 

[cvjw]

Paid off our house in 2002. Haven’t had a loan since then - for anything.

 

[AlohaNow]

Eh, I consider us debt free already because our net worth is greater than our debts.

I am of the mind that a little debt is ok along the way. What matters most is increasing net worth over your lifetime! Occasionally items will need to be financed. As long as you are doing so at smart interest rates, you are good. I really and truly only care about the literal ‘bottom line’ in my Quicken program!

 

[bcwife76]

My dh and I paid off our mortgage in 2016 when we were 40. Our only debt is a car loan; mine will be paid off in 14 months (it's at zero percent interest so I didn't see the point in paying it off in full, eventhough there would be no penalties). DH is buying a car in a few weeks (his current car we bought brand new in 2003), we will put 50% down and finance for 4 years at 2%. Again, there will be no penalty for paying it off early so we probably will.

 

[crisi]

Anytime I want to be. I have a mortgage, but because I make more money in the stock market than I pay in interest. There is revolving credit card debt, but I pay that off every month. And there are college tuition payments, but I make those out of adequately funded 529s.

 

[antmaril]

I have been retired for 11 years. My leased car is my only debt and has been my only debt since my mortgage was paid off about 15 years ago.

 

[tasha99]

House and my student loan will be paid off in about 10 years. Then we can think about retiring.

 

[mom2rose&john]

Ideally in 2027. Our house will be paid off barring any major maintenance costs. Our Solar panels will have reached the recoup. costs. Our kids will have completed College. But, you never know what life will hand you. I do know that our current expenses are not exceeding our net income and that is great.

 

[jenrose66]

I just turned 38 last week. We were on a 5year plan with DH working OT and having everything paid off. (When our youngest will graduate). We decided to accelerate that by downsizing to a smaller/cheaper house and then I also wound up getting a new job last month.

We do need to do a bit of renovation and sell our current house in the next few months, but I think 2 years is probably doable for having the new house paid off.

Most people we know think we are insane because our house is “so nice”. We live in an area where people move every 3 years or so because you have to keep moving up to bigger/nicer/newer. We just don’t think this house is necessary and I know we will be just as happy in the new place (likely more so because we will have extra money to travel, help the kids with cars, etc)

I can relate with the smaller house. We moved about 2 years ago into a 2500 square foot house. We had been living in a 1000 square foot house. We are a family of 5 plus two dogs. It’s a much nicer neighborhood and better schools but lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed. I underestimated the amount of work it takes to keep up a house of this size. I feel like all I do is work my regular job and then do chores.

I guess it’s easy to fall into the grass is greener trap. I never thought I’d say this but I miss my old house and way of life. I’m now dreaming of the day we could downsize.

Plus we bought a house that needed lots of repairs. Like real types of repairs...hvac and plumbing/electric. That’s how we got into a neighborhood that we wouldn’t have afforded otherwise.

Looking at the debt we went in over these last two years it’s looking like it will take a good 5 years to clean up the mess.

 

[kymom99]

I can relate with the smaller house. We moved about 2 years ago into a 2500 square foot house. We had been living in a 1000 square foot house. We are a family of 5 plus two dogs. It’s a much nicer neighborhood and better schools but lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed. I underestimated the amount of work it takes to keep up a house of this size. I feel like all I do is work my regular job and then do chores.

I guess it’s easy to fall into the grass is greener trap. I never thought I’d say this but I miss my old house and way of life. I’m now dreaming of the day we could downsize.

Plus we bought a house that needed lots of repairs. Like real types of repairs...hvac and plumbing/electric. That’s how we got into a neighborhood that we wouldn’t have afforded otherwise.

Looking at the debt we went in over these last two years it’s looking like it will take a good 5 years to clean up the mess.

My house isn’t as big as yours but I do find myself wishing I had a house the size of the old one,but in the current location. Also our house needs lots of repairs too. I told my husband I need a new house with 2 masters and my own bathroom. We have one bathroom. Sharing with my 19 year old son is just gross. And my husband snores so bad some nights I end up on the couch.

 

[TwoMisfits]

We have realtors calling us (literally) every day to sell our town home (which we've had 11 years)...and I told them I'm planning on being here for decades. Last year, we decided we are going to replace/upgrade one major item per year (as money is available) and make the home we want in a footprint we don't have to over-maintain or over-improve, since we enjoy having few outdoor chore requirements, and something that's perfectly sized for us (my only worry to long term usage is the steps in my house, which I will probably do something about a few decades from now to make them easier...

I know this isn't the "best plan" for sales later...but I don't plan to sell until I literally can't live here b/c we love everything about where we are (quiet cul-de-sac in safe area with culture and shopping almost in walking distance and near major public transport for spouse's job and with low taxes and insurance and no major weather issues year round)...

 

[imbatman]

According to the snowball, July 2021, including the mortgage, before we are both 50. We should've been there sooner, but dug ourselves into debt holes. We use that as a lesson to the kids, and with that, comes the lesson to them that they need to keep their grades up for scholarships, as we will be able to help with living expenses, but not go into debt for tuition. I have four friends carrying tuition loans on their kids who, long story short, didn't care, didn't study, and didn't get the degrees to match their careers. We're trying to make our kids more proactive to avoid that. I know (especially from these boards) that I don't hold a popular opinion in the tuition realm, but as we approach retirement, we can't take on more debt.

 

[agamble]

We are already debt free except our mortgage. Last year when I turned 35 my DH planned for us to pay the house off before I turned 40. Then crazy me decided to go back to work teaching. So now we're thinking the house will be paid for in the next 2 years. Of course I'm planning a WDW trip next summer...

 

[bettymae1121]

Debt free other than the mortgage since 2016 (CC debt free since 2012). We'll be mortgage free when we buy our retirement home in ~20 years (we'll sell our current home which will have 10 years left on the loan and use the equity to pay cash for a less expensive/smaller home more suited to our needs at that point). We may or may not finance gently used cars as needed going forward, just depending on our exact financial picture at the time of purchase. We'd have the cash on hand to buy new-to-us cars outright but depending on interest rates it might be a better deal to keep the money parked where it is and make the payments. We're almost 47 and 43.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

I was just looking at our spreadsheet and I think we can have the mortgage paid off by 2025!!! That is just before DD goes to college, but we will have college covered. WOW, it is so excited to dream of that!!

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Only had a mortgage for the past 6 years. Hopefully that is paid off in about 5 years (we’ll be mid 40’s then).

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Probably never, esp with the way to works in South Carolina. With property taxes, you never fully outright own anything 100%, there is a property tax on nearly everything, home, car, boat, autos, RVs, trailer, jet ski, mobile home, etc. With the out of control growth rate my county has, 80% of our homeowner's tax goes to the school district millage, who just voted on another 365 millon tax bond for the school district.
Our local lake stretches over 60 miles, with lots of little 2 bedroom 1960's era cottage lake houses, that cost maybe 35-40K originally, are being lost to senior citizens on fixed incomes who can't afford the yearly tax hikes, and your non-primary residence is taxed higher than your primary home.

Even if you don't have a car note or mortgage you still never 100% fully own it

 

[LilyWDW]

When I die.

Pretty much.

The only debt I currently have is student loans, but those will take a bit since I did undergrad AND grad school. I am looking into purchasing a condo or house in 2-3 years as well. It will be my first time owning a home.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

Probably never, esp with the way to works in South Carolina. With property taxes, you never fully outright own anything 100%, there is a property tax on nearly everything, home, car, boat, autos, RVs, trailer, jet ski, mobile home, etc. With the out of control growth rate my county has, 80% of our homeowner's tax goes to the school district millage, who just voted on another 365 millon tax bond for the school district.
Our local lake stretches over 60 miles, with lots of little 2 bedroom 1960's era cottage lake houses, that cost maybe 35-40K originally, are being lost to senior citizens on fixed incomes who can't afford the yearly tax hikes, and your non-primary residence is taxed higher than your primary home.

Even if you don't have a car note or mortgage you still never 100% fully own it

Property taxes is different than owning something. When you have no mortgage on your, you still owe taxes on the property, but that is not debt, that's just life! I wouldn't consider that as debt.

There are definitely areas around us where the taxes on a house can really impact someone's ability to stay in the home or even buy the home. When we moved, we bought a house 3X the price of the one we sold and our taxes went down by 1/3! It is a shame when someone can't stay in their home because of taxes.