Looking at debt from interest paid every month

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

This is a useful way to look at getting staying out of debt. Has anyone ever figured this out? I'm doing my calculation right now. It's not as bad as I thought, on the other hand, that is money leaving my pocket, going to the bank every month. The work involved is hunting down the information to be honest.

Are you ok with your total interest payment per month?

[Jluke]

Interest amounts:
Mortgage: currently $130/month; decreases $2.50 per month (3-4 yrs left)
Car: currently $27/month; decreases $1 per month (3 yrs left)

Total interest remaining: $3500 or so.


My biggest issue with the debt above is I get very impatient and annoyed with the monthly payments. I'd rather pay a full year of payments in advance and forget about it.

[97guns]

The only interest I pay is mortgage interest on 2 rental properties, I consider it part of the expense and the tenants pay it for me + I write if off at the end of the year. All my credit cards get paid off in full monthly, paying interest is like throwing money away unless someone else us paying it like my circumstance

[phantom]

The way I track my money in GnuCash, the amount I have going to interest is pretty easy to see. For every debt payment, I split it and have a portion that goes towards interest and a portion that goes towards lowering the debt. If I look at everything in my interest category, it shows me how much money is going to interest. Since my only debt right now is my mortgage, it's pretty simple anyway. If I remember correctly, it's getting pretty close to $300/month.

At this point in my life, I care more about what servicing my debt does to my cash flow than I care about how much interest it's costing me. I'm pretty content with my interest rate, but I wish my payments were lower so that I didn't need quite so much income.

[snafu]

I dislike paying interest, likely due to the lesson dad taught standing on the front steps, burning $ 5. bills to demonstrate how fast interest 'burns up' earnings. I work hard for my money so I've used 'cost of credit' as a motivator to pay off loans as efficiently as practical. However, I agree with Dr. Disney's view that it can be more financially advantageous to contribute to an investment or to let an investment increase undisturbed than to yank sums away from a successful plan.

Most important is to know how much you are paying in interest and it's value to you. It's easy peasy to run your mortgage details chart-like, to show where the money goes to principal, interest, taxes, PMI & insurance [if applicable]. If you have a vehicle or personal loan, personal line of credit, home improvement loan etc. each can easily be printed as a chart from any on-line lender.

I'm puzzled that some people don't see it's important to get the lowest interest rate possible given their credit history. I wonder why people don't try to do a good job of managing their money.

[greenskeeper]

only debt is the mortgage, just under $600/month interest

[creditcardfree]

Except for my young single days, we have never paid interest on credit cards. Only loans for cars or our house. Currently cars are paid for and we sold our home this summer and are currently renting.

Zero interest is ALWAYS better than any interest paid on debt.

Of course, if someone wants to pay me higher interest on my savings I'll take it!!

[tripods68]

Now that I have paid all our consumer debt i.e., car (7 months ago), I can breath and sleep better at night knowing, we are not throwing any our money away debt interest.

However, we are paying roughly 600 a month on interest on our mortgage (total mortgage interest cost in 5 years $19.2K).

[disneysteve]

I never really look at the actual amount of interest paid. I focus on the interest rate. As long as our investments are earning a lot more than the loans are costing us, I know we're coming out ahead by keeping the loans.

[feh]

It's been about 12 years since we've paid any kind of interest. I can't imagine borrowing any more.

[Fishindude77]

Always tried to get a competitive rate, but I never was all that concerned about the interest either. Was always much more concerned about having a debt obligation hanging over my head and the fact that whatever I owed on didn't actually belong to me yet.

Anytime you can pay off a debt, pay it off is my view.