Approximately 9500 total.

45000 in student loans

100,000 mortgage on a 350,000 home
15,000 remaining on my wife 2008 EXL Honda
I have no credit cards......... bank credit/debit card only ... if I don't have in the account we don't buy it.

Now my two business is different .....we have a line of credit that we use and repay monthly... but the assess of the businesses can cover the line of credit

Never have been. Military paid for my college and I saved a ton of money and invested into real estate. Own most of my properties free and clear.

35k of student loans and 12k on a car payment. I made my first ever car and student loan payment earlier last week. Graduating sucks.

About 6K total with 95% of that being student loans, the other 5% is credit card debt.

just a car loan, student loan and a home equity loan. no credit cards and house was originally paid off in 5 years

A relatively moderate mortgage balance due to two unfortunate fires, but compared to many others, we really don't have much. No credit cards, no car payments, just the mortgage.

I have a car payment for the next six month.
I have one credit card with a small amount on it.

Paid cash for the land we built our house on and took a 15 year mortgage on the house. That note is now paid off.

I have had one car loan in my life. After I paid it off I kept the vehicle for another 5 years and continued to save the old car loan amount for the next car. When I had enough to buy the new one I wanted I was able to pay cash for it. I have continued this cycle and don't have any car loans. My wife and I stagger the ages of our vehicles so that we buy a new car every five years and keep them ten. They are paid for in cash by continuing to put money away every month for a new vehicle.

No credit card debt. Everything I can goes on our American Express card and paid off monthly. Where it's not accepted we have one Mastercard we use ...rarely.

Some horrible number I don't want to think about in student loans, but that's it.

I have had one car loan in my life. After I paid it off I kept the vehicle for another 5 years and continued to save the old car loan amount for the next car. When I had enough to buy the new one I wanted I was able to pay cash for it. I have continued this cycle and don't have any car loans. My wife and I stagger the ages of our vehicles so that we buy a new car every five years and keep them ten. They are paid for in cash by continuing to put money away every month for a new vehicle.

I really don't understand the point of this, though I guess it's just a fundamental difference in thinking. If you're putting that money away for a car anyway, why not just use it to pay a loan monthly.

999999999999999999999999999 dollars

BIG TIME!

House
Leasing two cars
Wife's college
My college and grad school
My wife is pregnant
One credit card (minimal)

YIKES!

se-alum wrote:

I have had one car loan in my life. After I paid it off I kept the vehicle for another 5 years and continued to save the old car loan amount for the next car. When I had enough to buy the new one I wanted I was able to pay cash for it. I have continued this cycle and don't have any car loans. My wife and I stagger the ages of our vehicles so that we buy a new car every five years and keep them ten. They are paid for in cash by continuing to put money away every month for a new vehicle.

I really don't understand the point of this, though I guess it's just a fundamental difference in thinking. If you're putting that money away for a car anyway, why not just use it to pay a loan monthly.

Because he gets to collect interest from the bank while he's putting that money away, instead of paying interest to them while he's paying off the car.

FatHobbit wrote:

se-alum wrote:

I have had one car loan in my life. After I paid it off I kept the vehicle for another 5 years and continued to save the old car loan amount for the next car. When I had enough to buy the new one I wanted I was able to pay cash for it. I have continued this cycle and don't have any car loans. My wife and I stagger the ages of our vehicles so that we buy a new car every five years and keep them ten. They are paid for in cash by continuing to put money away every month for a new vehicle.

I really don't understand the point of this, though I guess it's just a fundamental difference in thinking. If you're putting that money away for a car anyway, why not just use it to pay a loan monthly.

Because he gets to collect interest from the bank while he's putting that money away, instead of paying interest to them while he's paying off the car.

Precisely. Unless he gets one of those zero percent loan's, A $20,000 car loan over 5 years of payments at 5.9% interest really means you're paying $25,900 for that car. So he saves $5,900 dollars over a five year period of time that he can use for anything and everything.

Also, he may need that money for an emergency. A savings account is quite more liquid than a depreciating car.

House 1: 190,000
House 2: 35,000 (a rental that my parents manage for me)
Car 1: 0 just paid it off
Car 2: 0
Credit Card: 0
Student Loans: 30,000


I have enough money in the bank/stock market to pay off everything except House 1 (and I could pay it down to like 60,000 if absolutely necessary).

se alum..."I really don't understand the point of this, though I guess it's just a fundamental difference in thinking. If you're putting that money away for a car anyway, why not just use it to pay a loan monthly."

I earn interest on the assets being saved for the next car as opposed to potentially paying interest on paying interest on the debt. 0% interest loans are not always available and I still have the option of acting on one at the time of purchase if I choose. I simply never have.

Autos are not assets, They are expenses to me. I tend to not finance things that are depreciating.

ernest...good point.

We choose to designate these funds for a car savings account. We know we will need another car eventually and there will be an expense associated with it. We are simply preparing for it.

We keep plenty of liquid funds elsewhere for unexpected expenses.

Mortgage and a couple grand left on my student loan.

We are about $60k in the red currently, but we anticipate that we'll be in the black by the end of 2010.

We don't have any debt outside of mortgage and student loans. We owed a little more than $150k for student loans when I started working in Sept. 2008. At this point, we've gotten that debt down under $100k. For us, it's a combination of (1) building up an emergency fund, (2) preparing to buy a second car within the next few months, (3) paying down student loan debt, and (4) investing for retirement.

Per our current budgeting, all our student loans will be paid off within 4 years. That will be a day to celebrate.

Five years ago or so I would say over 50,000. Today I only owe about 1600 on my 04 Bonneville, my 89 Dodge Ram is mine and my 94 Mustang GT is mine. I worked hard and stayed with the parents to pay off all my debt mostly hospital bills then. So total debt now only about 3,000 or so, next year I will be buying a house though and debt will go back up. I have a plan to put a lot down on it and hopefully grab up one these repos or sheriff sales. Depending on my new full time job I might go to school for business or something so I can run the whole company some day.

Precisely. Unless he gets one of those zero percent loan's, A $20,000 car loan over 5 years of payments at 5.9% interest really means you're paying $25,900 for that car. So he saves $5,900 dollars over a five year period of time that he can use for anything and everything.

5.9% on $20,000 doesn't equal $25,900, at least not where I bank, probably closer to $23+. I see the point though, there is some small money savings in paying cash. Like I said, it's just a difference in preference. I like to buy what I want, when I want it. I just don't have the patience to save that much money for something I want. I'll take the $50/month hit on the interest to have what I want. I'm not saying paying cash is wrong or stupid in any way, just not the way I prefer to do things.

se-alum wrote:

Precisely. Unless he gets one of those zero percent loan's, A $20,000 car loan over 5 years of payments at 5.9% interest really means you're paying $25,900 for that car. So he saves $5,900 dollars over a five year period of time that he can use for anything and everything.

5.9% on $20,000 doesn't equal $25,900, at least not where I bank, probably closer to $23+. I see the point though, there is some small money savings in paying cash. Like I said, it's just a difference in preference. I like to buy what I want, when I want it. I just don't have the patience to save that much money for something I want. I'll take the $50/month hit on the interest to have what I want. I'm not saying paying cash is wrong or stupid in any way, just not the way I prefer to do things.

While there's nothing wrong with that (it's your money after all), the problem with it is that it leads to living hand to mouth at age 50 and beyond. It's remarkable how little one actually has to sacrifice when they're young to ensure comfort if not actual wealth in their middle years and beyond.