Do you have any debt?

[CosmosMpower]

I guess I'm doing alright compared to the average American. Pay off CC balance each month, no student loans, 1 small car loan, other car is paid off. The next major debt I will incur is a house payment, although I'm still on the fence on taking that step.

[ChiChiIsMe]

You go get 'em. Most people aren't willing to go through the pain of a 15 year even though it saves tens (if not hundreds) of thousands.

Yea, I just wish I had understood the whole debt game 20 years ago. I think if they're going to have credit card applications @ freshman university orientation, finance 101 should be mandatory. We've been debt free from credit cards and car-loans for 5 years now and it's amazing how much $$ you roll up when you're putting the $2000.00/mo in the savings instead of paying off 2 car loans and credit cards.

[Jeepthrills]

I have said for years that one of the biggest problems facing my generation (I'm 37) and those in their 20's now is that they companies made credit too easy to get and entice you to use it early and often with zero intrest specials. Unfortunately when my wife and I got married, I was just finishing an internship and working part time. My wife had a full time job but it didn't pay much and after insurance and taxes things were very tight. I started grad school 4 months after our wedding. My son was born right before our 1st aniversary. Many of our friends did not go to college and had jobs that paid well more than what we made at the time. We made the mistake of trying to keep up with the Jones' and put a lot of stuff on our credit cards. When we sold our first house we were able to pay off a lot of the debt but still ran up some cards again. The mortage companies made it easy to eliminate credit card debt with low intrest equity loans. For a while we would look at big purchases based on how much we were expecting to get on our tax return. This was great for a while. We got our appliances, computers, home theater, snow blower and some other stuff this way. We planned to do the same thing when we built our shed. I bought everything from Lowes and Home Depot for zero intrest. The total was over $2000. That combined with the new dishwasher and a few other smaller items would have been most of our tax return. Unfortunately right after we filed it, my wife's company went under. She was lucky and found a job quickly, but we still went a couple weeks without her check and had to pay for insurance for 90 days. That ate up most of what was put aside. Combine that with my pay dropping every year since 2004 due to the ecconomy and that a good portion of my income is commisions. The big problem then comes when the over $3000 at zero intrest comes due. They go back to the day of the purchase and start compounding. We watched our ballances jump by about 25%. Until that day we had never paid a penny of intrest on any of our store cards.

We are finally starting to get our heads above water again, but it can still be tough to avoid that zero intrest special at Golfsmith, Best Buy or Home Depot.

[Big Padrigo]

just read the first post after I polled, so did include my car in that. Excluding my car I am just about to pay off the final installment on my student loans, will be done next month. Has taken 6 years to get to this stage. Next target is my car, hoping I'll be close to getting that paid off by the end of the year then start saving properly.

[Lemay427]

I guess I'm doing alright compared to the average American. Pay off CC balance each month, no student loans, 1 small car loan, other car is paid off. The next major debt I will incur is a house payment, although I'm still on the fence on taking that step.

Having debt in a house NORMALLY is not a bad thing because you are purchasing an asset that will HOPEFULLY gain in value. This market is a good time to buy if you have the cash. There are tons of foreclosures and new home developments that are selling the new homes at cost or even below because they are losing money everyday.

[Divot]

Well..I excluded the car and our mortage as well. So we have zero-credit-card debt.

In fact, we get paid to use our credit, about $600 a year.

Basically, we researched various credit cards and we were able to find one that had great incentives to places we liek to shop. We put everything on our credit cards and barely use checks or ATM's. This tends to reduce bank fees.

We pay off our card at the end of every month and carry and yearly average balance of $0.

The great thing is that when our points get to a good level, we go shopping and it is fun because it rewards our spending habits. We have been able to buy some pricey items too.

We have a small mortage (<150k) on a home in California and only have one car loan in which we are NOT upside down on.

Oh yea, my wife is a genius. :)

[iacas]

We pay off our card at the end of every month and carry and yearly average balance of $0.

We do the same thing. Every December, we get about $500 or $600 "free money." We still get 4% back at the gas pump, so with rising prices, we may hit $700 this year.

Credit cards can be a very, very good thing if used properly. Banks tend to dislike guys like you and me, Divot, but I don't dislike them.

[Lemay427]

I charge my utility bills, insurance, cell phone and home phone/internet all to my AMEX. Plus getting 5% back on my gas is nice. I put everything I can on to a credit card and write one check a month. I am trying to go completely paperless and will almost be there.

[Smallville]

I voted more than $25,000. But there is a reason. First, we have no car payments. Second, we have no house (mortgage) payments. We pay our credit cards off every month (so we pay NO interest on them!).

Our debt is because we remodeled our paid off house and got a home equity line of credit. Our equity in the house still FAR exceeds the debt of the loan. I think the poll is skewed because I saw alot of people say, "other than the mortgage," or "other than the car payment;" debt is debt, doesn't matter what (although, credit card debt is worse than a mortgage debt) but that's not what the poll asked.

[mikelz]

I voted more than $25,000. But there is a reason. First, we have no car payments. Second, we have no house (mortgage) payments. We pay our credit cards off every month (so we pay NO interest on them!).

Good take. It doesn't matter if it's something you need or something you splurge on. If you owe on it, you are in debt.

[Fraser]

I owe one airline frequent flyer miles! ...but that'll be 'paid off' soon

Other than that I'm completely debt free which is thankful really as some of my friends are crippled by short term debt. I invested my student loans and made money off them whilst at Uni and my philosophy (with the exception of a house, and perhaps a car) is that if I can't afford to pay for it right away I won't get it. I never hold a balance on a credit or chargecard, ever!

My wife and I did buy a nice TV a few years ago and were going to pay for it there and then in full but found you could get it at 0% interest for 2yrs.

[wachesawgolfer]

Well, I have a house mortgage and two car payments. No credit cards, pay off each month, plus two kids in college, now thats alot of debt. Luckily, its all
small relative to my assets. Sometimes it makes sense to use the other guy's money if you do it sensibly and at a good rate.

[Fraser]

Credit cards can be a very, very good thing if used properly.

I agree completely, they are great!

My wife and I travel regularly and so have credit cards that earn hotel points that we then transfer into frequent flyer miles at much better rates than the airlines' own affinity cards. We put everything possible on credit cards so we don't have to carry change with us and it makes paying for things much quicker. Plus for big ticket items you can time it right so you don't pay them for almost two months with no interest, whilst that money earns interest in our brokerage account. We made a few hundred dollars interest on one item alone doing that, plus got the frequent flyer miles from the transaction. Also due to loyalty to particular cards (American Express) we got chargecards that give great benefits as cardholders too. People who say credit cards are the spawn of the devil have no restraint, little understanding of the system or a bit of both. Then again if it weren't for them the credit card companies wouldn't have the resources to offer 'responsible' people incentives, rewards and bonuses

[Surefire]

The same thing can be said about a mortgage.

Thats not strictly true. It depends on house the house price changes relative to the mortgages equivalent APR.

A 6.5% mortgage will cost roughly double the loan amount in 25 years. In this country historically in this time period houses values increase 15-25 times, depending on location. Thats a huge asset increase. I'm guessing the US is different?

[baal]

I never go near any idea of debt. I don't buy things I don't need (except when I have a surplus and something is not that expensive), and especially with the money I don't have.

But I draw a big difference between putting yourself in debt to buy a new TV plasma screen set, and putting yourself in debt to afford healthcare or food. The latter is really sad, and should not be allowed to happen.

[DDBowdoin]

I graduated from college in May of 2007 and officially hate my life! I had an alright job, don't really enjoy it and the money isn't all that great but glad I have a job considering the market today.

I owe roughly 90K from school

[VicP71]

Own the car, no college loans, pay off the credit card every month, debt free thankfully!

[LooseLefty]

About $44K consisting of student loans and car.