How much do you put on debt each month?

[guppy]

Just wondering where everyone is at with their debt payoffs. Currently I'm 36 weeks pregnant so we've been in super saver mode for the past few months, but previously I was putting 1,000 a month on debt. I said that to my husband yesterday and he almost didn't believe me. Ah, the power of the snowball! I think in the beginning we had around 200/mo leftover and to think it's become 1,000 in <2 years! How's your situation looking??

[MonkeyMama]

$0.

We pay the mortgage as scheduled. Will pay it down extra when our retirement is maxed out.

No other debts - never have been.

[littleroc02us]

Before I got married in 2006 and party during, I had 50k in debt from things such things as student loans, credit cards, etc.... I paid off around 30k in about 3 years, then we got married and paid the rest in a year and a half. It has been 2 years since we've had any debt, now we are concentrating on the mortgage and we are planning to pay off 1/3 of it in approximately 2 years.
The thing about debt, is that it pissed me off and don't want it around ever again. We pay cash for all things and stick to our budget well. Good luck with the family.

[EconoMutt]

Still struggling with debt.
$14,000 left.
I've decided to follow the DR method through the end of the year.
I'm hoping to be debt free by the end of 2011.

[rizzmo]

We currently throw $1500 per month at $75k in student loans. We could put $2,400 but then we could fund emergency fund and extra house payment.

[mrpaseo]

We put about $3000 per month towards debt... to include the mortgage... We will have the house paid off in December and any outstanding debt shortly thereafter.

[Adriansane]

Im lucky....dont have much in bills nowadays so i can actually afford to use about 650.00 to put towards paying of my debt. im about 5G under so should take me about a year or so...BONUS!!!

[littleroc02us]

If you guys are looking for help with getting out of debt and it's free, try this website "http://www.daveramsey.com/". I don't normally push websites, but I've been listening to him for years and bought his books and now I'm completely debt free, except the house and doing great.

[Sian]

currently i'm just payin the minimums b/c of some setbacks (unless i get an addt'l job) but that's only until the end of the yr.

i was puttin $307/mo altho i WAS puttin $357/mo... it was only an extra $50/mo but it was better than nuttin... so at the beginnin of the yr i should b able to put at least that much if not more. we'll c.

[EconoMutt]

Originally Posted by Hank the Bank

Wow, that's really impressive guys. What's the DR method?

DR = Dave Ramsey

I'm following his gazelle method and throwing everything I can at the debt until year's end.

[disneysteve]

Obviously, the dollar amount that people put toward debt will vary greatly based on the amount of debt and the amount of income so I'm not sure it is a meaningful question. That said, our only debt is our mortgage. Our regular scheduled payment (principal and interest) is about $700. We pay a minimum of $200/month extra toward principal but virtually every month actually send well above that. Last month, I paid an extra $1,100.

[skydivingchic]

The mortgage is my only debt and it is split 50/50 with my DBF. My half of the regular mortgage payment is ~$610 (principal and interest). Currently we put some extra toward the mortgage to the tune of ~$150 each. When I was paying off my CC several years ago I was putting ~$800-900 per month toward it, so somewhere around $1000 per month total was going toward the CC and additional mortgage. I do agree with DS that raw numbers are very dependent upon individual debt and income levels and so are somewhat irrelevant.

[cptacek]

My snowball is up to $750 a month. Got a balance transfer offer in the mail that will save me $1000 over the next three years (when all debt besides farm debt will be paid off...though technically the credit card debt IS farm debt), but the card they offered it on had expired, so I have to get a new card and then I can transfer it.

[solvemybadcredit]

I just pay my mortgage, but got rid of all my cc-s and overdraft. I have met some clients having only minimum payments of £1500! Bad enough!

[Hector]

Originally Posted by rizzmo

We currently throw $1500 per month at $75k in student loans. We could put $2,400 but then we could fund emergency fund and extra house payment.

Why would a person take mortgage when he has $75k in student loans!?

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Hector

Why would a person take mortgage when he has $75k in student loans!?

I did. Lots of people do. Dave Ramsey wouldn't approve but I think it is pretty common. I finished residency in June 1993 and we bought our house in April 1994. I had $102,000 in student loans at the time.

If you have student loans that will take you up to 25 years to repay, it isn't realistic in most cases to expect people to not buy a home until their loans are repaid. For a lot of people, that could mean never buying a home.

[Hector]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

I did. Lots of people do. Dave Ramsey wouldn't approve but I think it is pretty common. I finished residency in June 1993 and we bought our house in April 1994. I had $102,000 in student loans at the time.

If you have student loans that will take you up to 25 years to repay, it isn't realistic in most cases to expect people to not buy a home until their loans are repaid. For a lot of people, that could mean never buying a home.

I am glad that it worked out for you and you are doing good in life. But if I have student loan that will take 25 years to pay off, then why would I think about getting another debt(mortgage)? If I do, I would work my whole life (till retirement age at least) in paying debt and would keep managing debt only.

I might be on minority side, but I dont understand why majority of us think that buying a house is must? I read a lot of posts by you and I agree with you when you say a person should buy house for living and not for investment, but both of us know what majority of us are doing? I bet 'lets create equity in our own house rather than wasting money in rent' is the biggest factor motivating people in buying house(borrowing a large sum in the name of mortgage).

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Hector

I am glad that it worked out for you and you are doing good in life. But if I know I have a student loan that will take 25 years to pay off, then why would I think about getting another debt(mortgage)?

I think it really depends on the overall picture. We bought a modest house and were able to put down 20% and have a total debt to income ratio that was still within the guidelines (28% to house; 36% total). We could comfortably make our house payment and make substantial extra payments on the student loans. The loans had a 25-year repayment plan and I paid them off in 12. We lived quite frugally and focused on getting rid of debt.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

To answer th OP, the only debt we are paying on right now is mortgage, so we pay that. We just started paying it down at an accelerated rate this year.

Originally Posted by Hector

I might be on minority side, but I dont understand why majority of us think that buying a house is must? I read a lot of posts by you and I agree with you when you say a person should buy house for living and not for investment, but both of us know what majority of us are doing? I bet 'lets create equity in our own house rather than wasting money in rent' is the biggest factor motivating people in buying house(borrowing a large sum in the name of mortgage).

We decided to buy a house at a time when interest rates had declined hugely (but still double what one can get today), the city was sponsoring a further reduction in interest rate via a guarantee to the lender, and mortgage payments on a space greater than our rented apartment would cost us less than our rent. More importantly, we wanted to buy so that we could have a garden and a dog. Seriously, those are the biggest reasons we bought. There turned out to be other benefits to ownership, but garden and dog was enough.

Equity was never a motivator in the purchase. In our minds, equity would have almost no value to us until we sold the house. We bought before so many lenders started encouraging people to "cash out" on their equity. In fact, in my mind, a second mortgage and often a refinance was something done by desperate people. My understanding of equity was formed before the years of ungodly rate of increase in house prices. We did not buy a house just to have something of monetary value.

[mrsmoneysaver]

I pay a little over $500 per month to pay off our debt. We only have two more payments on the treadmill we purchased last Christmas (NO Christmas debt this year!!), so I'm looking forward to that. We should have all of our consumer debt paid off by the end of 2011.