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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:37:23 AM EDT
What is the average ARFcomer's finances look like? - NOT INCLUDING MORTGAGE (but all else - car note, etc.)
I'm newly married, finishing up college, and need to know if I should just go ahead and change my number and move to Mexico or try and stick it out...  Thanks. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:38:22 AM EDT
[#1]
Uh, about... a hundred eighty, owed on a camera.
Should have it payed off by early November. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:39:12 AM EDT
[#2]
No other debt except for house mortgage.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:39:57 AM EDT
[#3]
enough to go around.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:40:40 AM EDT
[#4]
Some student loans to pay off from my undergrad days.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:40:43 AM EDT
[#5]
Oh, including car payments? Didn't realize that when I voted...oh well.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:40:56 AM EDT
[#6]
Stick it out. Everyone has college loans and whatnot. It seems to be part of being an adult - digging yourself out of the hole you got yourself into as a youth. Just make sure you get that crap paid off before you have a child. Just a little less stress.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:43:20 AM EDT
[#7]
Thanks
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:44:53 AM EDT
[#8]
Woo Hoo! I'm down to $500 on one credit card! Yeah, no car loan, just my house left!
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:46:44 AM EDT
[#9]
I've got way too much debt and only myself to blame. Let's just put it this way, if you take my credit cards, truck note, and student loans, I would have enough to completely pay off another house.
But I also keep in mind that I can't take it with me, that I'm not getting any younger, and once you have kids things change, so I'm making sure I enjoy the most out of life while I can. It's a tough balance and so far my self control when it comes to spending has been losing out. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:47:32 AM EDT
[#10]
Ha! at these interest rates, I'll be taking 20 years to pay off those student loans.....it beats paying them off earlier and borrowing other money at higher interest rates in the meantime. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:48:49 AM EDT
[#11]
All my vehicles (5 of em) are paid off, and I owe nothing except the mortgage. But my family bill is huge.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:51:02 AM EDT
[#12]
0. House, 3 cars all paid for. I have 1 credit card for buying stuff online but it has a zero balance on it. We max out our Roth Ira's and my 401k. I aint working forever.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:52:14 AM EDT
[#13]
I never had college loans so I honestly don't know much about them. Just what other people have told me. I went to night school and worked days to pay for it. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:53:06 AM EDT
[#14]
ex-wife stuck me with 15K in CC debt
also owe 15K on my 03 Grand Cheokee |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:57:03 AM EDT
[#15]
Well, from what everyone is saying, doesn't look like this is so bad:
school loans (at LOW rate): $4,500 truck: $8,500 CC: $1,400 grand total: $15,000
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:58:11 AM EDT
[#16]
After breaking my ass for 30 years, I'm free & clear baby!
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:59:17 AM EDT
[#17]
No other debt except for house mortgage.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 11:59:57 AM EDT
[#18]
Never borrow money, if the money ain't in the cookie jar you don't need it.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:04:43 PM EDT
[#19]
+1 |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:04:54 PM EDT
[#20]
No more then 5K here. Of that 2K is a student loan and the rest is for a lawyer. I'm adopting my Wife's child and it's going to cost about 3K in lawyers fees to get er done.
I've never been able to break down and buy a newer car so I always buy older cars and own them. For me, the stress that would come from owning thousands of dollars is far greater then the stress that is created by not having the expensive items that would require a loan. A mortage is enough to hold over your head, why compound it with BS you don't need? Call me old fashion, but I still believe OWNING something means you OWN it, not 300 dollars a month for 5 years OWN it. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:07:28 PM EDT
[#21]
ZERO!
 And I just graduated from college in May. (My parents were kind enough to pay 50% of my tuition, I paid the rest; they were willing to pay more but I knew it wouldnt have been right to make them pay (out of state tuition) so I got a job during summer and winter breaks that paid enough to pull it off.) Kharn |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:10:19 PM EDT
[#22]
I have 3 kids in college...Nuff said.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:10:27 PM EDT
[#23]
+1 |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:10:51 PM EDT
[#24]
+1 |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:12:07 PM EDT
[#25]
A new car is not a bad thing, generally. My paid-off cars, despite being well maintained, cost me about as much monthly as the new car I just bought, so what's the savings in the paid off cars? none.
The new car is also less likely to break down on the way to work and cost me a day of work. But your poll may be much more meaningful is viewed in terms of: 1 - percentage of take home pay - someone earning 80k can carry more debt than someone earning 25k 2 - factoring net asset value. My new car is worth a decent percentage of the loan value, and the loan is at an amazingly low interest rate, so while on its face the loan is certainly over $10k, the actual debt it represents is only about $2k, the difference between what I'd get if I sold it tonight and the balance of the loan, taking into account the costs of selling etc. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:12:13 PM EDT
[#26]
$0.00
 CHRIS |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:13:12 PM EDT
[#27]
just over 7k left on my 2001 car, and thats it!
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:13:27 PM EDT
[#28]
Shit... include the Car loans and I think I am in for about $15,000 all by itself between my wife and I's cars... You could have bumbed this out to $50,000 and you would have had people that far in debt...
I don't think I am that bad... but give me another gun ban and I might be! |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:13:47 PM EDT
[#29]
2 College loans paid off, 2 cars paid off (used), 1 house with mortgage and credit cards that get paid every month. I have no unsecured debt. I'm prepaying on the house principal and I'm under 30.
I'm not rich,but I live comfortably, well under my means. Works for me, YMMV. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:16:50 PM EDT
[#30]
15K total
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:18:06 PM EDT
[#31]
Wife and I have $0.00 debt other than our mortgage.
Just bought a new truck and paid cash. Will buy her a new SUV next year and will pay cash for that. It's easy since we have never been caught in the debt cycle. We have credit cards but pay them off each month. We don't buy anything we can't afford. We were lucky in that neither of us had school loans. I worked and paid for my college and she had a volleyball scholarship that paid everything. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:23:40 PM EDT
[#32]
I just signed my name for a new truck camper last month. Only the third major purchase of a brand new item we've made in 24yrs. Most major purchases have been used cars, trucks & campers. The loan for the new rig is a fuzz over $10k. I wanted to pay for it but my wife thinks 4% money is better than draining our slush fund.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:24:21 PM EDT
[#33]
Approximately $60,000.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:25:50 PM EDT
[#34]
Never though of that! If that is the case then I don't have any debt at all. The only thing I owe is my car and it is worth more than I own on it. My wife has about $7000.00 in credit card bills. I know that is tech. my debt also but we keep our finances seperate and they credit cards are in her name not mine plus she had them and the debt before we were married. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:26:50 PM EDT
[#35]
Our house will be paid for in less than five years 
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:32:29 PM EDT
[#36]
Our house will be paid off in less than 30 years!
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:34:36 PM EDT
[#37]
Just a mortgage and whatever I spent on the credit card this month - a thousand or so.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:34:46 PM EDT
[#38]
+1 My fiancee still has school loans - but she's paying something like $700 a month on those, and shuld have then paid off by next summer. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:39:50 PM EDT
[#39]
Just my Jeep. I've actually got enough in the bank to pay it off, but at the interest rate, there's no point in doing it. Jeep's got ~$8k left on it, but it blue books at ~$17k - so there's really no debt there, either.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:41:54 PM EDT
[#40]
$0.00 including the house
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:43:22 PM EDT
[#41]
too damn much....
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:46:56 PM EDT
[#42]
If you eliminate the car loan, we (wife and I) have less than $100 in debt.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:47:38 PM EDT
[#43]
I agree, with the exception of college. College was 30K per year (I got a decent hunk of it paid for in scholarships) - that is kind of hard to keep in a cookie jar. I still have a ways to go, but at 2%, I'm not in a hurry to pay them off. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:49:12 PM EDT
[#44]
I'm having trouble following this logic. Besides the ability to carry only liability insurance, not have to make payments, etc., your used cars cost as much per minth as new ones that erquire full coverage and payments? How can that be? The old cars are crap and break every time you drive them? |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:55:27 PM EDT
[#45]
Just the family Blazer.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 12:57:31 PM EDT
[#46]
I think it is interesting that so many respondents to this thread have so little debt.
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Posted: 8/23/2004 1:00:14 PM EDT
[#47]
Zero,zip,zilch,nada!!
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Posted: 8/23/2004 1:00:47 PM EDT
[#48]
It's all about the autos. |
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Posted: 8/23/2004 1:03:13 PM EDT
[#49]
About $10,000 because of student loans
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Posted: 8/23/2004 1:03:23 PM EDT
[#50]
House Mortagage and Car Note don't count in my book. I mean it counts... but its an every day thing you just have to do.
Overall Debt 0.00 At the end of the month everything is paid off. If I use a credit card its because I dont have enough cash on hand to buy it. If I can't afford it, I can't buy it. My belief is that your emplyers have you by the balls enough - THEY LOVE for you to be in debt. You fear losing your job and not making ends meet, so they tend to take advantage of you. (Most companies I have worked for) |
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