Is anyone completely debt free?

[lillyb]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

Have a student loan and mortgage to tackle, but will be completely debt-free in 4 years. Can't wait.

[tgavin71]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

We are completely debt free. Our house is paid off, our cars are paid off, never carried cc debt, use the cc a lot, but always pay them in full. I'm 38 and my husband is 46 and we have a 3 yr old. Have been married 5 yrs. We've always been frugal, tried to save as much as we can, even before we got married. We found out exactly how much each was worth on our 2nd date, which turned out to be like an interview of our lives that lasted 5 hrs. We married 10 months later, paid for our own wedding and paid off the house 2 yrs later.

Well done. Sounds like you have found your "financial" soul mate. I am 35 hubby is 38. It will be a few years before we pay the mortgage off. We have a 30 year loan which we took out in August 2006 and all going to plan we will have it paid off in 10 years. Longer if interest rates increase but definately no where near 30 years.

[creditcardfree]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

It does not make sense to keep a mortgage just to take the deduction. Why pay $1,000 interest to deduct $250 on your taxes? That deduction isn't saving you anything. It is COSTING you $750.

The reason I keep my mortgage is because my interest is 5.875% and several of my mutual fund accounts are earning 15-25% annual returns. It would be senseless to pull money out of those accounts to prepay the mortgage.

I agree with you disneysteve. Don't take out a mortgage because of the tax deduction. Yes, it is a benefit if one needs to, but not a good reason to keep that kind of debt. Not wise to send the bank more money just to avoid paying the government what would be a smaller amount.

One could always donate money to a charitable organization and still get the tax deduction. The donated money would do more good in the world that it would in the pockets of a bank.

Which fund are you in that is getting 25% annually? That's pretty good.

Oh, and to answer the thread topic. NO! We owe money on a car and our house. Selling one house, moving to new state and taking on a bigger mortgage. I like the house though and of course, I'm the type to pay that debt down fast. I just feel like I'm back tracking. I guess I just need to see those new larger paychecks!!

[smooper]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

Just have the mortgage left, 29K. Everything else- paid off! 31 more months!

[disneysteve]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

Which fund are you in that is getting 25% annually? That's pretty good.

HRTVX has a 1 year return of 23.43% as of 6/30 and a YTD return of 14.24%.

CSRSX has a 1 year return of 27.01% as of 8/31 and a YTD return of 22.44%.

Disclaimer: I am not recommending anyone to invest in these funds. Just answering the question.

[lilmidge]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

Yes, we are. We are both 40 and have a teenager. We paid off the house last year, own cars free and clear, have no student loans or credit card debt. We also have a significant amount saved and invested. We've always lived below our means and will continue to do so. Being debt free truly is a blessing!

[TBH]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

Mortgage only, and I'm not in a hurry to pay it off because we have such a hard time with other priorities like maintaining an E-fund, retirement savings, and college savings.

The balance on the mortgage will dip below $50,000 this month! Woohoo!

[thekid]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

I owe about 5K$ on my car (interest on the loan is a little over 2%, so I hold from fully reimbursing it).

We don't own a house yet and are looking to purchase one in the near future (within the next year). My girlfriend and I are looking to collectively (50/50) put in a downpayment around 120K$ to 130K$.....purchase price should be around the 250K$ to 300K$. I know it's a house and the downpayment covers over 40%, but it makes me dizzy to think of taking on such debt. Makes me really feel uncomfortable.

[wai98007]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

Just a student loan with 0% interest (lucky for us) for our debt at the moment. Our cars are paid off. Our next big savings project is working on a down payment + for a home. We use cc a bunch but pay them off each month. We use them as if they were debit cards so we only spend $ we have.

[PRICEPLUS]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

Not yet! I hope to be debt free by February 2007 though!

[Ima saver]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

That is not that far away, priceplus!

[lgslgs]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

We're debt free except for mortgage. We could pay it off now if we wanted to, but we have a really good fixed mortgage interest rate and even in bad years our mix of mutual funds has earned a lot more than what we pay out in interest.

We retired young and have no intention of ever moving and selling this place - so rushing to tie up money in home equity would be a crazy thing for us to do. We'd be pulling money out of better investments and putting it somewhere where we couldn't get at it if we wanted to. That's approach wouldn't buy me any of that 'peace of mind" some folks get from paying off mortgages early!

Lynda

[CRFSaver]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

I am currently debt free but that wont last long. I am looking at buying a house in the next year and thats going to cost me 400K so that will make up for 4 years of debt free...

[jmjj215]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

We're debt free, but plan on buying a house in the next two years and will take on some debt with that.

[Ima saver]

Re: Is anyone completely debt free?

When I sell this spec house, I am going to pay off the land that I have a mortgage on. Then I will have one debt, my car. (too bad dh is already talking about a new corvette)