deffuse: Thats amazing. Honestly, I am stunned. HOW?

If you're only $16k in the hole on a car loan, then you bought a Kia or you paid half of it off already.

Seriously, though. 10k on a car, 2k on furniture, 4k on various and sundry credit cards isn't atypical or unrealistic, and that's with zero student loans. Not for me, mind you; I don't live that way. But it's people like me with next to zero that get that average down to $16k.

MisterBill: What is amazing is the woman in the article taking on $80K in student loans without a plan for what to do after graduation.

It's not amazing. She's doing what she was told to do. She was told that a degree in X would get her A Successful Job. Nobody bothered to mention that the degree was just the teeny wedge that just might crack the door to a chance to getting A Successful Job in Field X, and why should they? In whose self-interest is it to disseminate that information? The loan originator? The college?

Does this include car loans and student loans? Because if it does, that doesn't sound unreasonable.

MisterBill: Then she was done a great disservice by her college and possibly her loan originator.

How? Her loan originator is in the business of issuing loans. Her college is in the business of selling education. Neither one has a vested interest in talking someone out of an education just because they have no f*cking clue what to do with it. Capitalism on the march.

Frankly, I'm surprised it is that low. With the massive transfer of wealth upward in the last 30 years, I would have imagined a number nearer to $50K considering the lifestyles that most Americans feel entitled to.

Damn,
I feel good with my 2500 amex balance now...

Damn Costco...

With student loans I am over twice that. Without student loans, I owe about nothing.

You could look at it as debt, as the working and middle classes consuming beyond their means.

Or you could be honest and recognize that for the last three decades the wealthy have been stealing our wages and loaning them back to us while demanding (usurious) interest.

seems low to me also.

Stop buying crap, stop going out to eat, stop spending money you don't even have, and pay off your debt. I have no further advice to give on this subject.

Barfmaker: Does this count mortgages too? Not all debt is bad.

you're one of those people that keeps telling me to take out a HELOC so I can write off the interest, when I've already paid the house off.

I have no debts outstanding except $30 on my Chase card, several grand in the bank and a credit line of $21,000 or so.

Needless I laugh like hell at these Farkers who say: "---dino, you suck donkeys, you old troglodyte! I just bought a 580,000 house at 2.9% for 30 years, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?"

Ask me what could go right, it's a shorter list.

I have no athletic or artistic talent. I am a dull conversationalist and generally socially inept. I am below average in looks. I have neither fame nor wealth. And yet, I have no debt of any sort.

/therefore, better than you

0 debt, besides my mortgage. Even then, the mortgage is less than 1 year gross income of my wife's and my combined income.

/off to the gym.

Like urger, I carry no debt. I pay cash or everything. I learned about 15 years ago that credit is a suckers game. You always lose.

Seems low to me, but I still wonder how people can stand any debt.

I owe... nothing. No debts, none. Car is paid off (hell, I didn't even get it on a loan, I knew better than to get some pricey car and have to pay for it forever), everything is paid for and I net profit every month, which goes into a house fund so when I eventually buy a home I can put down more than 50% of the worth, if not up to 75-80%.

Hell, that's just our individual share of the debt our great leaders have incurred, buying votes.

I have never understood buying stuff you don't have the money to pay for.

Excluding education and mortagages.

/ one el cheapo education
// three expensive mortagages
/// zero debt

Occam's Chainsaw: MisterBill: Then she was done a great disservice by her college and possibly her loan originator.

How? Her loan originator is in the business of issuing loans. Her college is in the business of selling education. Neither one has a vested interest in talking someone out of an education just because they have no f*cking clue what to do with it. Capitalism on the march.

A business selling loans does have an interest in her future job, as that is a very real factor in the person's ability to pay off the student loan when they graduate. People need to remember that when you default on a loan, it sucks for whoever issued the loan, too. The only person who really wins in a loan default is whoever was using the loan money, and they win either way.

Ha ha. Suck it. I have no debt...oh wait, student loans. Crap.

If I buy a $30k car brand new does that mean $30k in debt or only a few thousand worth of debt because I could sell the car for a few thousand less than I bought it.

20k in credit card debt coming out of college.

/but it allowed me to live past my means for four years and maintain a healthy little blow habit
//totally worth it

TheOnion: % credit card and % school loans would be interesting

% percent health care would be nice too. sure most people don't have much health care debt, but it is a leading cause of bankruptcy because when you get really sick it gets really expensive.

/don't get sick.
//if you do, die quickly

With student loans - 14k and change.

Without student loans - $50 on my credit card, which I can pay off at any time.

Debt sucks and I am aggressively paying it off. Should be debt free in the next year or two.

urger 2010-11-01 11:50:22 AM
I have exactly zero debt of any kind.
Suck it debtors.


Well it doesn't cost anything to live in your mother's basement.

dugitman: deffuse: Thats amazing. Honestly, I am stunned. HOW?

I'm surprised it isn't higher, actually. How much do you owe on your auto(s)?

None. Have 3. Paid outright. Bought used. It's called saving up and living within your means and practically anyone can do it, they just don't WANT to.

dugitman: deffuse: Thats amazing. Honestly, I am stunned. HOW?

I'm surprised it isn't higher, actually. How much do you owe on your auto(s)?

0.

Same with credit cards, unless I've had to use them for work and I haven't been reimbursed yet.

Now the student loans are 33K for me and 10K for the wife.

//Should have those paid off very soon.

$16k?

Pffft. I make that in a year.

Yunus: If I buy a $30k car brand new does that mean $30k in debt or only a few thousand worth of debt because I could sell the car for a few thousand less than I bought it.

yes

I have some debt, but my total net worth is nicely in the black, thanks.

I'm not sure financing an affordable new car with a warranty is that horrible of a thing to do considering that an engine rebuild is going to run 2k or more if you have to have one for a used car. Interest rates can get so low that paying 3-5% can make sense just to max out your cash flow options. I'd consider financing things I could pay off just to rack up good credit right now under the right terms.

Running up debt for luxuries and using your house for an ATM is the lifestyle I think most of us would judge.