What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of Debt?
 

I am going to make a private poll with ranges to be chosen. I am wanting to make this poll so that it is least likely to make anyone feel like they are giving away any personal information.

I was going to first make it to be "What amount would it take to turn your life around?"

For me.. about $25,000 would get my family completely out of debt.

About twice that much would pay off all debts and allow us to begin doing things to further accomplish goals (Getting off the grid... increasing our farm, animals etc.)

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

Less than $20,000. That includes house, car and other bills. We're working hard at making that happen.

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I owe a little on a couple of gas cards...I think.

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Wow. That amount would pay off just one of our 6 student loans, and of course that doesn't touch the cars or house. LOL

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Indeed. Mine includes all those things as well.

Hooray for you. That is great news.

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Total?

If so...

W
O
W

How great that is.

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It's called age.

I'd much rather be 20 and be in hock up to my eyeballs.

Be glad to trade.

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

Or even better...

Be 20 and know what you know now. We could sure make a better 2nd run at it couldn't we? :)

I consistently preach to my kids... debt... is... slavery. That's it in a nutshell... cut and dried... in my opinion of course.

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We have no debt other than our mortgage.

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You are right about that, young'un.

btw, you are still a young'un compared to ME... :grumpy

When the wife and I got married, Mr. Macho decided he was going to handle all the bills.

Bad idea!

A big night out for us two love birds was to go to the drive in on a Saturday night, order two hamburgers and share a milk shake. That came to $3.00 total. We didn't know we were poor because we were too much in love. Our rent was $50.00 a month which included gas and water.

So, even though our budget was tight, we had just enough money left over for our big night out each week. So, Mr. Hero managing the money let a check bounce one week. That cost us $2.50 as I recall as an overdraft fee. We had to forfeit our big night out.

I would deposit my check in the bank and the write checks on it without keeping good records. When a check bounced, I became furious with the inept bank and went to see them to correct them. I left embarrassed having been properly corrected myself.

After this happened three or four times and having forfeiting our big night out, the wife finally suggested that I turn the check book over to her.

That turned out to be the smartest thing that I ever did. If THAT girl writes a check, Ft. Knox would go broke before it bounced. I married a good woman and a good money manager too...both are the same woman. :D

Well, at least I take credit for having enough sense to do the right thing, finally.

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

Same for me.


My parents and grandparents taught me very well. I never felt they were preaching at me, though they might have felt they were. Though I still learned some things the hard way, I've been very thankful for all they taught me about finances, and have tried to pass some of those lessons on.

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

Pro 22:7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Anyone in debt has two masters.

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

0-20k is a misleading choice. If I chose it, having no debt, it can be concluded that voter owes up to 20k

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The only debt we have is a few hundred dollars of medical bills that insurance doesn't cover. That varies from year to year.

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No debt except for the house!!
I couldn't say this three years ago!!
Thank God for a friend who is a CPA!!

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

The question includes mortgage and all other debt.

But... that is good that there is no debt outside the mortgage.

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Very true. Sorry about that.

I realized after making the poll that I forced myself into the second bracket by about 5 grand too. LOL...\

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Indeed.

I am working hard on getting rid of one of them and I am working hard on getting closer to the other one. :)

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Indeed. I talk to my kids often about debt. I hope they will learn from my words but, in doing so, I am hoping they won't be like me. LOL... With all the good teaching I had to learn much the hard way. And they may too.

I'm just going to do all I can to facilitate a wise road. The rest is up to them. I know I had enough info to do better than I did. We are just bound and determined to learn it on our own sometimes. :)

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3 or 4 times?

Wow... you learn fast compared to some of us guys. :)

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Words of wisdom

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Our rent was $25 a month I made about $50 aweek.I won't use the word "lucky",but good for you on choice for your wife .I don't know how many Target stores my wife built!

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I don't care for the question.

Maybe it should be worded "How much bad debt do you have?"

Good debt is debt that makes you get cash flow. For example, if you owned a million dollar apartment complex, you might owe $800,000 on it but have a great income from it.

On the flipside, if you have $60,000 in credit card debt spent on worthless junk, you have bad debt.

Are student loans good or bad debt? Is your mortgage a good or bad debt?

Generally, anything that increases cash flow is good debt.

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

I have no desire to disagree with you.

But in my world (which affects me and my family alone) there is no good debt. And if the dollar crashes, which I firmly believe it will, even "good debt" will go bad.

Let me add this. The only "good debt" I would see is the purchase of a home but even in that people most often put themselves in more debt than was necessary. But, then again, this is strictly speaking of my world. Not anyone elses.

But my house is mortgage free so I don't have to sweat that now.

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I hope to get more into debt soon with something that produces cash flow. The reason for this is not only is cash flow good, but interest rates are set to rise and the days of cheap borrowing are soon to be over. Although I think paying off debt is a good goal, I think getting into good debt is better yet.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...irhaydari.aspx

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

If a man desires to be debt free and his wife shares the same vision this man will die trying to finish count his blessings.

The two greatest enemies of fiscal responsibility are husbands and wives and it seems every marriage has a few. :)

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I believe the dollar will crash too. Who knows when. But we may have some huge inflation first. Say you buy a house in this depressed market for $75,000. You have payments of $575.00 a month, say, and you get $700.00 a month. This gives you a cash flow of $125.00 per month. Then, we get inflation. Everything goes up including interest rates. You got this place at 5.5% interest. Interest rates on housing jumps to 12%. Housing goes up. The government places housing controls on and says you can't rent for anymore than $800.00 per month. You can afford it. Nobody else can.

Instead of paying down debt, you buy silver at $30.00 an ounce. It goes to $50.00. You have $20.00 more an ounce than when you started.

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Your plan seems to have a running assumption that you will always be able to make the payments and that you will have renters. Also... and this is just me sharing how I see it from my side... $75,000 worth of debt over $125 per month? And that is before taxes... upkeep... insurance... tax on the income etc and then one month without a renter eats up about 5 months of income.

I just can't see debt as a money maker although it is the American way.


Side note... I started buying silver when it was $7 per ounce. I wish I would have bought more. :)

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Hmmm... I need to pay more attention to the silver market.

I hope the interest rates do go up. But there is little way to know what the market is going to do-other than falter-with government involvement. I only know that savings interest can't go much lower. Rentals don't work for many people. Renters can be very destructive, and unless a person can find extraordinary renters or can make all major repairs themselves, rentals don't seem to make much money. On the other hand, my mortgage payment was $500/mo including taxes and insurance. I could rent my house now for $700-900/mo... a $200-400 profit every month even if I still owed. $2400/year isn't much once I consider repairs. $4800 is worth thinking about. At that rate it would only take 10-15 years to recoup every dime I now have invested in the property, if it were continuously rented and there were minimal repairs needed. :hmmm :nah

As far as the question being misleading... I would have liked to answer over $100,000 to the question. My life doesn't need to be "turned around" by decreasing my debt. However, it would improve dramatically if I was given around $300,000-not to decrease my debt but to increase my savings. Then I could semi-retire.

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I don't like this poll! I have worked very hard to live a debt free lifestyle, but I had to choose the $100,000 plus!

I owe $111,000 on my house. This wasn't so bad a few years ago, when I had a good bit of equity in it. Now It would cost me money to sell it!

I have no car loans, and no credit card debt.

I did however get $3200 in Medical Bill Debt as a package deal when I got married. :D

Re: What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of De
 

Michlow, $111,000 isn't bad on a house, and your payments probably are reasonable considering rental prices. I think you should be congratulated!

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Well, that was just some numbers I threw out there. It can't be forgotten that you are gaining equity, as long as you got a good deal to start with. I included taxes and insurance in the likely payment. Obviously, any deal made would have to have good cash FLOW, that is the whole point, or you are going backwards.

People have to live in houses. Risks have to be taken. There are no guarantees anywhere. I would rather have money in property than in a 401K or a savings account, probably.

Yeah, silver just keeps going up.

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In my opinion silver is a better investment than gold and not just because it is easier to be able to afford the investment.

Right now Gold is setting all time highs in value while silver is a little over half of it's all time high. Silver is still undervalued compared to gold.

Also... being one who believes the dollar will collapse... If I have a million dollars in the bank and the dollar collapses then I have little to nothing. Investment in precious metals... actually metals of any kind... even long storage food commodities... is trading a volatile commodity with a possible short life left for something that will hold it's value against a falling dollar.

When the value of the dollar goes down then the prices of items goes up.

If the dollar goes down... aluminum goes up... copper goes up... silver goes up... gold goes up... rice goes up... beans go up...

I'm getting out of the dollar in a number of ways because of the future I feel rests ahead for it.

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I think getting out of the dollar is a good idea. I also agree silver is the way to go. Gold is good but silver is better IMO.

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Me too. Even if I could afford to buy gold I would still rather put my dollars into silver. I have a fair amount of copper here too that we found in the woods on the property we own and I fixing to start buying food grade bucket lids for rice and beans. LOL...

Yeah... I'm a nut. But I love it and thankfully my wife does too. So... just let us be nuts. :)

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Pre 1982 pennies are worth twice as much or more as face value.

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Well that's a handy bit of information. I'll keep a watch out.

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I remember discussions in the 80s that investments should be divided four ways:
Gold
Land
Cash
Stocks

Land is still an excellent investment. Those who bought gold prior to it's sudden upswing could more than make back the money on their investment, but the original concept was that gold could always be traded for goods if the dollar failed-however, if the dollar fails, crop land will be more useful than gold. Who will trade goods for gold if they are starving? Food is much more barterable in a failed economy. Stocks and cash both have obvious uses, but are both very questionable in today's economy as well. However, if the markets could turn around, it would be good to have some investments in all four areas.

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:lol

My wifeeee not only built Target but K-Mart with those Blue light specials.

In those days, my sweetie would save her few dollars for when a network of friends would call and say "git over to K-Mart right now for their Blue Light special going on."

You didn't want to be in her way. She drove a 1960 Chrysler. It was heavy as a Sherman Tank.

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My view of the upcoming scenario is not one of apocalypse. It is one of intense squeezing. I don't think people are going to be starving, but I think they will be eating differently. I don't think people will be homeless, I think they will be living with grandparents, parents, siblings and children. People still have to live, it is how well they will live that will change IMO.