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Debt.

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Abstract

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Dec 27, 2002
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We always talk about what we have, what we got for Christmas, and what we got others for Christmas.

How much (financial) debt do you have? I'm including mortgage, school related debts, bank loans, Apple loan, car payments, money you owe your parents, money you owe your friends, etc.

I'm just curious, you crazy Macheads. ;) Do you manage it well? Are you paying it back slowly or quickly? Do you have a debt and not own much, or is it because you bought "investments" like property?
 
I have $0.00 debt. I paid my house off about 2.5 years ago, by putting most of what I made toward paying off the mortage early (5 years instead of 30), which saved a massive amount on interest. So it was a fairly easy matter a few months after that to get a nice 2X2.5Ghz Power Mac. :)

--Eric
 
I'm not going to go into amounts, but my total debt including mortgage is less than three months earnings, so once past my current belt-tightening exercise, I'll be feeling pretty comfy. :)
 
At the moment none, which I'm happy about. I paid off my car earlier then I had planned in September last year thanks to a juicy tax return. I owed my aunty a couple of months board, but I paid that off the other day too.

I'm trying to save up at the moment to go overseas or something so debt = bad at this stage (even though I just got approved for a credit card - it's more for convenience than anything. I plan to pay it in full all the time) :D .
 
Ok, fair enough if people don't want to mention a specific amount. It's understandable.

I owe around $10,000 Canadian to my stepfather and mother. It's because of my car, but also because of my tuition. I have a scholarship that covers all of my $18,000 CDN/year tuition, but I borrowed the money before the start of my degree to pay my tuition, and the scholarship didn't come into affect until after I started. When I finish my degree, I should have $10,000 from the scholarship in the bank because of the timing of my scholarship, and that should go to my parents. I'm technically debt free if you think about it. It's just the timing of tuition payments that got to me.

Ok, this would be the plan in an ideal world. :p Fact is that my mum has given me quite a bit of money, and I have used what should have been my surplus at the end of my degree on things like camera gear, lenses, a new Mac (I needed it), and other things. :eek: By the end of my degree, I should have $0 in the bank and still owe my parents $10,000. :p
 
Oh actually, I forgot about my HECS (that's my uni debt for the non-aussies) debt. By the end of my degrees I'll owe the government about $30,000. The good thing about that is that it's interest free and it just gets deducted from my wages once I earn a certain wage.
 
debt

Well, I think I have a £16,000 UK Student Loan (which I've started paying off early) and a £3000 figure on a credit card (but thats interest-free till June). I have some savings (enough to cover the credit card bill at least) and am saving at a rate of £1000/month.

Need to get onto the first step of the property ladder. Housing in the UK is a F*&%£ng joke. Don't think I can do it for another 15 months at the earliest. But I'm looking for a nice 2-bed Flat in London :)

Still, while these interest rates are rising, it means I'm saving more and earning more from those accounts too! :)

F
 
I have a reasonable mortgage (not big by London standards) and a small amount on a personal loan (for a car). Total is around 2x my annual income, and that multiplier is falling all the time.

My total net (financial) worth is pleasantly positive, more than 2x my annual income, which for my age (still under 30) is probably unusual in the UK.
 
I myself am in $0.00 debt because I am only 16.

I saw some tax stuff of my parents. I think they have 160,000 left to pay off of a 900,000 house and a $110,000 to pay off of a $450,000 beach house now around 1m if not more. Real Estate Investment :).

They bought a 3-family house like 18 years ago, rented it out, decided to sell it last summer, and made no profit. The building was maintained, the neighborhood wasn't + one of the tenants never paid his rent and my parents felt bad for him.
 
I took out a £15k loan to help my mum pay off some stuff. I recently paid it off. I will never see any of it again. :(

Right now I have £10k cash ready to be put towards my new house when its built (would of been £25k :( ) Right now Im in good shape but once I move in things will change. What with the iPhone and all. :D
 
I've got car ands school debt.

I'm trying to use the car debt to my advantage. Pay it off early and have an outstanding credit rating.

I've got one more year of undergrad though, and a probable 3 more years of law school, so I'm likely to get stomped by more school loans.
 
I have virtually no debt. My mortgage has about $45,000 left on it. Just bought a new townhouse and will take my equity in my condo to buy that. Will probably take out a $100,000 mortgage on new place.

Oh yeah, I owe my girlfriend $28. She picked up my dry cleaning yesterday.
 
I have about £15k worth of debt. Two years ago I had none, having finally paid off my student loans, credit cards etc. but then I went down to part time working and took a 2 year course in sound engineering which I had to fund myself. Plus I bought a car.

When I go back to full time working in February after the course finishes, I should be able to pay all this back by the end of the year.
 
I'll have paid off my mortgage within a couple of months, so I'm rather hoping the interest rates keep on going up for now so my savings can work harder than I have to. I pay off my credit cards in full each month so, well, good for me I guess. ;)

Debt is a horrible word. It makes sense to borrow every now and then even when we have the money, especially over the last few years here when money has been cheap, but my heart goes out to those who have debt that will become unmanageable if interest rates rise much further.
 
We just have student loans right now. Happily, we recently paid off the private ones with the higher interest before the required monthly payments started. Now we just have the government loans to work on. Those will probably take a while since there's really no reason to pay them off early right now--the interest on those loans is less than the interest we get by putting our money in a savings account.

On a related note, for those of you with little or no debt, how do you do it? What was your strategy for buying the more expensive things (i.e. house, car, education, computers, etc) without getting bogged down in the debt?

As for us, we typically try to save as much as we can each month, and plan and budget for the more expensive purchases. We never put more on our credit cards than we can pay off when the bills come due. Granted, because property around here is so frackin' expensive we'll probably end up getting into considerable debt when we buy a house even though we've spent the last several years putting money in savings and low-risk investments (T-bills).
 
About $65k in student loan debt, but that will rise significantly when we buy our first house...

The $65k I never plan to pay off (at I don't plan to), since the interest rate on the loan is lower than the actual interest rate.
 
No debt, but very little actual cash in my banky poo right now.

I have a 15% scholarship at state college (I'm in state) which really helps, as well as a reasonable rent. I also do a part time job, so that keeps me in money.

I will admit that my parents are helping me out, but I'm also working part time to be less dependent.
 
So far I've made it through two years of college without student loans. Last night I was adding up all my savings and checking and realized that my tuition and board for this semester is more money than I have right now. And I won't get my paycheck until after I have to pay everything. Hopefully my parents will be able to loan me some money until then.
 
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