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Debt.
We all know it’s not that great. Most people who have a budget have somewhere in their life goals to be “debt free”. And I know some people who are making that a reality. But far too many still have debt hanging around like an ugly decoration on their wall, stinking up the entire feng shui of the place.
My question is: WHY ARE YOU STILL IN DEBT?
It’s simple. Just let me know in the comments, or on my Facebook Page, or on my Twitter Page WHY you are still in debt. What is holding you back from paying it off? And how did you get there in the first place?
I’ll be posting the responses up on this blog post for the next week. I’d really love to see how people got into debt and why it’s still around. I’ll go first.
I’m still in about $8,000 of student loans debt because I chose a large house/mortgage, and am on a very tight budget because of it. I need to make some more money 🙂
YOUR TURN!
Why YOU Are Still In Debt (Reader Responses)
TarynKay: We have debt left from my husband’s masters degree in architecture. We have not paid it all off yet because I am staying home with our son instead of working full time right now. I can’t really blame it on the mortgage because our mortgage is very small. And we drive older, paid-off cars and we don’t have cable or buy lattes or any of that stuff that people tell you to stop wasting money on. So it is really the lack of a second income.
Emily@EvolvingPF: I have $16,000 of student loan debt from undergrad (7 years out). My husband and I have the money set aside to pay it off completely, but as the loans are subsidized and deferred until I finish grad school we decided to (conservatively) invest the money instead. We’ve made thousands of dollars from this decision so we’re extremely pleased with it. Just before my loans come out of deferment a few months from now, we’ll sell the investments to pay off the balance completely without ever having paid interest on these loans. At that point, we will be debt-free, though that’s not really a goal of ours.
Autumn @ The Barefoot Budgeter: I’m still in debt because I’m hoarding cash for an upcoming layoff and a move to another state. I have about $45K in debt left (it used to be close to $100K!). There’s a plan in place, it’s just going to take a little bit of time and a whole lot of patience.
Gretchen@retiredby40blog: I made some, shall we say, questionable choices, regarding auto loan debt. My student loans are 15K, which I don’t think is terrible, and my mortgage was a really smart choice since my house just appraised at 3X what I bought it for. It’s will take us just under 3 years to get out of debt was it stands, but I”m try to speed up the process by making more money!
Brandi@BayAreaBrandi.com: I am still in debt because I had a huge mountain of debt to get out of. My husband and I made stupid choices about the cars that we drive (about 50% of our outstanding debt) and we are fighting down his grad school loans. We live in a crappy school district, so we send our son to a private school that charges the equivalent of college tuition. We also have a nanny for our 2 year old. Last, but not least, we live in a high-rent location in California. The root cause is that we made every dumb decision in the book about our money and finally wised up this year in March. Since then we have paid off $36K!
Alexis@FITnancials.com: don’t have any student loan debt yet since I have paid out of pocket while I was in community college, but once I transfer to a university this fall I know it’ll start racking up then!
Kirsten@InDebtedMom.com: I married into debt; my husband took out over $100k in student loans for a career that’s arts out at about $15-20k a year. (With. Long term potential of six figures). But even then, he was wise enough to see that coming and changed course, but his new career path really only enough to just pay the loans – not get ahead on them.
The Wallet Doctor: I’m still in debt because I had to go to the hospital for a few days due to a kidney stone. I didn’t have health insurance and BAM there goes $12,000. It added up so fast. But the situation is getting better. Slowly and with diligence!
Kayla @ Red Debted Stepchild: I’m still in about $18k of consumer and student loan debt because I fell victim to the “trap” of earning points and rewards. Now I know better that the rewards aren’t worth it if you have to pay interest on your purchases!
Kacie@sensetosave.com: We are still in debt (mortgage) because we don’t care about paying it off early. Other things (basically, everything) are taking a higher priority. We have about 13 years left on a 15 year mortgage. Balance is around $115k? Rate is under 3%. Whateverrr house, get in line.
Holly@ClubThrifty: Our only debt is mortgage debt-yay. We’re still working on paying it off, but not with quite the fervor we were because we are also focusing on retirement savings.
Brian: I have about $8K in student loans. I choose to not pay this off quickly because the interest rate is really really low and my capital is better off being invested. Should market conditions change, I will change where my capital goes.
Yay Math!
Laurie@wellkeptwallet: I’m still in debt because we started with A LOT – probably should have filed, but want to try and work this out and pay it off.
Thea@Monster Piggy Bank: It just adds up so quickly. You think you have enough money then something comes up, the important thing is I’m paying it off , who does not want to be debt free right?!?!
Nik @ Midlife Finance: I’m still in debt not because I don’t have anything to pay for it and not because I don’t want to pay it off, but because 3 months ago our home was under renovation and a bigger portion of my earnings goes with it.
Justin @ Root of Good: I’m still in debt because…
It makes sense! My almost-paid-off mortgage is at 1.99% fixed (for the 2.5 years left on it). My student loan debt is 0.75% and under the income based repayment plan, I owe very little each month (particularly since I retired at 33 and my income is rather low as a result
).
Yeah it’s still debt. Debt sucks, but it’s manageable in my case. And I have a net worth over 10x my debt load, so I’m not too concerned.
Kate @ Money Propeller: We had a personal debt and we want to pay it immediately. After we would pay all our debt, we will focus on building our emergency fund, savings and retirement.
Michelle@ShopMyCLosetProject.com: I’m still in debt due to being completely unprepared to deal with the stuff that life hands you when I was younger. Happily, I am well into my debt repayment journey and am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Have you considered downsizing to a smaller house/smaller mortgage?
We have debt left from my husband’s masters degree in architecture. We have not paid it all off yet because I am staying home with our son instead of working full time right now. I can’t really blame it on the mortgage because our mortgage is very small. And we drive older, paid-off cars and we don’t have cable or buy lattes or any of that stuff that people tell you to stop wasting money on. So it is really the lack of a second income.
I have $16,000 of student loan debt from undergrad (7 years out). My husband and I have the money set aside to pay it off completely, but as the loans are subsidized and deferred until I finish grad school we decided to (conservatively) invest the money instead. We’ve made thousands of dollars from this decision so we’re extremely pleased with it. Just before my loans come out of deferment a few months from now, we’ll sell the investments to pay off the balance completely without ever having paid interest on these loans. At that point, we will be debt-free, though that’s not really a goal of ours.
I’m still in debt because I’m hoarding cash for an upcoming layoff and a move to another state. I have about $45K in debt left (it used to be close to $100K!). There’s a plan in place, it’s just going to take a little bit of time and a whole lot of patience.
I made some, shall we say, questionable choices, regarding auto loan debt. My student loans are 15K, which I don’t think is terrible, and my mortgage was a really smart choice since my house just appraised at 3X what I bought it for. It’s will take us just under 3 years to get out of debt was it stands, but I”m try to speed up the process by making more money!
I am still in debt because I had a huge mountain of debt to get out of. My husband and I made stupid choices about the cars that we drive (about 50% of our outstanding debt) and we are fighting down his grad school loans. We live in a crappy school district, so we send our son to a private school that charges the equivalent of college tuition. We also have a nanny for our 2 year old. Last, but not least, we live in a high-rent location in California. The root cause is that we made every dumb decision in the book about our money and finally wised up this year in March. Since then we have paid off $36K!
I don’t have any student loan debt yet since I have paid out of pocket while I was in community college, but once I transfer to a university this fall I know it’ll start racking up then!
I married into debt; my husband took out over $100k in student loans for a career that’s arts out at about $15-20k a year. (With. Long term potential of six figures). But even then, he was wise enough to see that coming and changed course, but his new career path really only enough to just pay the loans – not get ahead on them.
I’m still in debt because I had to go to the hospital for a few days due to a kidney stone. I didn’t have health insurance and BAM there goes $12,000. It added up so fast. But the situation is getting better. Slowly and with diligence!
What a neat idea!
I’m still in about $18k of consumer and student loan debt because I fell victim to the “trap” of earning points and rewards. Now I know better that the rewards aren’t worth it if you have to pay interest on your purchases!
We are still in debt (mortgage) because we don’t care about paying it off early. Other things (basically, everything) are taking a higher priority. We have about 13 years left on a 15 year mortgage. Balance is around $115k? Rate is under 3%. Whateverrr house, get in line.
I should clarify. We don’t have the equivalent of our mortgage balance sitting around as cash :-). I think if we wanted to pay it off asap, it would take us a while
Our only debt is mortgage debt-yay. We’re still working on paying it off, but not with quite the fervor we were because we are also focusing on retirement savings.
I have about $8K in student loans. I choose to not pay this off quickly because the interest rate is really really low and my capital is better off being invested. Should market conditions change, I will change where my capital goes.
Yay Math!
I’m still in debt because we started with A LOT – probably should have filed, but want to try and work this out and pay it off.
It just adds up so quickly. You think you have enough money then something comes up, the important thing is I’m paying it off , who does not want to be debt free right?!?!
I’m still in debt not because I don’t have anything to pay for it and not because I don’t want to pay it off, but because 3 months ago our home was under renovation and a bigger portion of my earnings goes with it.
I’m still in debt because…
It makes sense! My almost-paid-off mortgage is at 1.99% fixed (for the 2.5 years left on it). My student loan debt is 0.75% and under the income based repayment plan, I owe very little each month (particularly since I retired at 33 and my income is rather low as a result 🙂 ).
Yeah it’s still debt. Debt sucks, but it’s manageable in my case. And I have a net worth over 10x my debt load, so I’m not too concerned.
We had a personal debt and we want to pay it immediately. After we would pay all our debt, we will focus on building our emergency fund, savings and retirement.
I’m still in debt due to being completely unprepared to deal with the stuff that life hands you when I was younger. Happily, I am well into my debt repayment journey and am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks for sharing my little bit on debt. We keep chipping away at our mortgage and since it’s a five year loan, almost all (like $1150 our of each $1250 payment) goes toward principal.
That’s a good spot to be! We’re about 25% principal as we are near the beginning of the mortgage, but excited to get to 50/50, and then closer to 100%! 🙂
Well thats an easy question, because I was a financial idiot for years and racked up tons and tons of debt. But now I’m in a much better spot. The only thing that’s left is a mortgage! Wooooohoooooo! 🙂