When Will You Be Debt Free

[kymom99]

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.

Elderly friends of my parents had to move because of the high tax rate on their home. They owned the house outright but could not afford the taxes. They moved to a less desirable part of town and from a ranch to a bi-level! Their son convinced them to buy it. Not sure how that ever made sense. The woman ended up living in the basement for several weeks while her Achilles’ tendon healed because she couldn’t walk up the steps to the main part of the house. Very sad after working hard all those years they had to sell what was basically their retirement home.

 

[angierae]

Yeah, I wouldn't include property taxes as "debt". That's just how it is.

We still have 18 years left on the house but we're hoping to refinance down to a 10-15. DD is out of school and we have no student loans, so right now it's just the house and one small (sub $200) car payment. Hopefully we'll be done by the time DH is in his early 60s and I'm in my mid-50s and we can start throwing even more money into our investments (we could liquidate and pay off the house right now, but it's not the best financial choice.)

 

[mercydisney]

When I die.

LOL!! When I first read the thread that is exactly what I thought!!!!
Even though we are mortgage free putting the kid through college paying for car insurance, medical bills etc.

 

[ID_Dismom]

With the exception of our mortgage, about 18 months (need to finish off both cars). Mortgage is planned to be gone in at most 8 years, hopefully sooner. Goal is to be 100% debt free before kiddos finish high school.