[Mika]

Around 40 k€ at the moment. This is because I bought a house. No problems with the repayments, though.

[MP-Ryan]

Oh, how I WISH my mortgage was a mere $90,000.  Hell, I'd settle for even a mere triple that.

If you don't include the mortgage or a 0% financed car that I could/would pay off tomorrow if the dealer hadn't allowed me to pay off the balance over five years with no interest instead (Even with savings interest rates at less than 2%, it's still worth it to NOT pay it off any faster), the wife and I owe a whopping.... $0.  (But I still stuck myself in the $5000+ category).

We worked hard to pay off our near combined $45,000 in student loans and haven't borrowed money for anything other than our home.... and as single-detached homes here run from $300,000 (for a < 1000 square foot shack built in the 1950s and unrenovated) to an average around $400,000 for a < 2000 square foot newish home on a decent-sized lot, I don't feel too bad about that

You Americans can be grateful for the fact that fully-financed post-secondary exists there - I had top grades and still paid for the majority of my education with a combination of student loans and summer jobs.

[Mars]

You can get a house in Denver for around $100,000 if you're willing to go crappy enough.

Personally I'd rather get an apartment unless I decide to have more than 2 kids

[Scotty]

$0.  Possibly subject to change at the start of next semester.  Still, two semesters on no loans at all is pretty good, considering I started with > $2000 a year ago.

[BlueFlames]

Owed about $2,000 to my parents for the car I bought from them in 2009.  Then, in 2010, I owed about $2,000 to Ford for the Focus I bought from them to replace the one a Charger totalled.  (The rest of that car's price was covered by the insurance check.  Full coverage, FTW.)  Now, I'm debt-free, and intend not to owe money to anyone again.

Right now, I make $1,300 per month, after taxes, and spend about $800 - $900.  If I find myself making $13,000 per month, I'll probably still endeavor to live on about $800 - $900 each month, so that I don't need to worry about a mortage or car loan in the future.  Save, save, save.  Good things come to those who wait (and save).  Save early; save continuously.  Et cetera.

[Nuclear1]

Let's see....car...credit cards...Air Force...

Yep, right around $16,000.  Unemployed. FML.

[Solatar]

As an interesting aside to your curiosity concerning American debt: how exactly is debt viewed in other countries? (I'm from the US).  Where I'm from, personal finances are hardly ever discussed.  If they are between friends, etc. hard numbers NEVER come into play.  It's considered incredibly rude (nearly taboo) to ask anybody about their personal finances out of the blue.

Please please please don't think I'm trying to shut up your topic by being all "this is rude where I'm from! wut!".  That's not my intention at all.  You were curious about American debt, and I'm actually curious about how "taboo" financial discussions are in other countries.  It might be an interesting correlation to find out that Americans are highly in debt AND don't like to talk about it (if this turns out to be the case).

[S-99]

And/or a bunch who is jobless and flat broke, so we don't have the means to go into debt in the first place, like myself.

You'd be surprised at poor people's sense of self entitlement. With this i mean dumb poor people. A lot of people also don't know how to save up money so they can afford what they want.

And/or a bunch who is jobless and flat broke, so we don't have the means to go into debt in the first place, like myself.

It's not too hard to be broke and go into debt. One such easy way is to injure yourself and simply have one ambulance ride if you are uninsured. Another is signing up for credit cards.

The median consumer debt in the United States is $30,000.

Looks like this forum has a pretty financially responsible bunch.

Yeeesh, that's high for american consumer debt. I share your same thoughts about this forum community being a financially responsible bunch. This forum can pride itself with not being haven to dummies (we are all a very smart bunch). I was never in debt aside from 9 years ago needing to pay for 2 video games i rented and lost. If i couldn't afford something, i'd see if i could find it for free, save up, or consider how much i really want/need what was to be purchased.

As an interesting aside to your curiosity concerning American debt: how exactly is debt viewed in other countries? (I'm from the US).  Where I'm from, personal finances are hardly ever discussed.  If they are between friends, etc. hard numbers NEVER come into play.  It's considered incredibly rude (nearly taboo) to ask anybody about their personal finances out of the blue.

I'd like to know about how things are handled in other countries as well. Personal finances where i live are discussed all the time. We interior alaskans usually do it as a form of small talk because staying alive in winter is expensive and all of us up here tend to familiarize with one another. Personal finances as far as what is usually discussed is what people buy, how much that thing they bought was, and possibly how much that person makes in a month. How much money someone actually does have is however taboo. This is of course for america. So i didn't really answer too much except how americans discuss finances in a desert winter climate.

Please please please don't think I'm trying to shut up your topic by being all "this is rude where I'm from! wut!".  That's not my intention at all.  You were curious about American debt, and I'm actually curious about how "taboo" financial discussions are in other countries.  It might be an interesting correlation to find out that Americans are highly in debt AND don't like to talk about it (if this turns out to be the case).

I don't think you're being rude. It fits here. I guess we wait until somebody from another country chimes in on this.

[MP-Ryan]

I guess we wait until somebody from another country chimes in on this.

It's not something that's discussed outside of close friends or colleagues, and numbers rarely enter the conversation.

[Mustang19]

Looks like I was a little off.

http://blogs.forbes.com/moneybuilder/2010/06/24/one-big-difference-between-chinese-and-american-households-debt/

The average annual household income in China, converted to dollars, was $10,220, compared with $84,300 in the United States (the median US income is $47,300.)

...

The average US household debt is 136% of household income, compared to 17% for the Chinese. 

1.36 * 84300 = $114648 average US household debt.


On top of that is $8000 on average of credit card debt alone.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/savinganddebt/p70581.asp

So yeah, no wonder why consumer demand is so low and unemployment is so high. The US economy is ****ed. Blame the government, not the people who gave credit cards to morons.

[iamzack]

oh wait, i checked the wrong box

i owe lura $10

[Klaustrophobia]

throwing around dollars and statistics like that is pretty meaningless without knowing exactly where they come from.  like i said before, if things like home loans are counted, the numbers mean something WAY different.

[Mustang19]

If you want to sift through statistics, here are the US government numbers; it took me about five seconds to Google them. If you want a more solid source than that I can't help.

Point is, consumer debt alone is significant in the US. Consumer debt is relatively high interest debt that includes credit card debt, payday loans and so on and is generally not used to finance homes. US private debt is holding back growth.

But I don't mean to derail the thread. Just getting economics out of my system.

[Bob-san]

Student loans. Enough said. >$5000. <$50,000. I'll be paying off my loans for years. Impossible to repay in 12 months but maybe I can manage in 36 months. Of course, that could bite me in the ass long-term if, in 5 years, we have massive inflation. In that case, I'd be better off waiting to repay so that inflation makes my substantial loans look like peanuts. Regardless, I'll repay ASAP and then settle down in post-grad life. I'll probably live paycheck to paycheck, but will avoid credit cards and selling equity.

[Davros]

£40

[S-99]

I guess we wait until somebody from another country chimes in on this.

It's not something that's discussed outside of close friends or colleagues, and numbers rarely enter the conversation.

Thank you for regurgitation of solatar. MP-ryan there in times to help you know what you already know. It's not like solatar is curious too, and what else to do than hope someone non american chimes in on the situation for some kind of info.

[perihelion]

Erm... MP-Ryan is from Canada, not the US.  Most Canadians I've known do not think this is splitting hairs.

On topic:  In the US, it is virtually impossible to buy a home without taking out a massive loan.  I live in one of lowest cost-of-living parts of the country, am relatively affluent, and still had to take out >$125,000 in debt to buy a house that is way too small for my family a mere 4 years later.  I don't know how you guys in more expensive parts of the country / world can afford to ever stop renting.  The prospect of being in hock to a bunch of bank scheisters to the tune of $200,000 (let alone $300,000 or $400,000) gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies.

[NGTM-1R]

Getting ridiculously lucky on a foreclosure auction helped.

[Stealth]

Thankfully i've lived my life so far paying for everything cash - which means saving up in many cases.  This has saved me, I am sure, from a world of hurt.

[S-99]

Yeah, idk why mp-ryan needed to be short with me. It just ended up him being a captain obvious (don't know where what i wrote earlier could not be understood) and i wasn't offensive. If someone from another country didn't want answer solatar's question, they just don't have too (and i don't need to get scolded in the process for being curious).

The best thing i could find to do, is buy a cheap plot of land and build you're own structure on it. I could get 1.5 acres at $7000 for something undeveloped. I don't do that because i have an awesome living situation, and am content with letting my rent money help my landlord buy this property we're on that came with a free house. Alaska has lots of this going around, other places do also but to different extents. Where most people live, stuff like that costs a pretty penny (i guess cheap prices on land are dependent on whether you feel like developing it or not).

Renting just sucks. I did live in a 4 bedroom apartment with a married couple and another person. All paying $400 a piece to fulfill the $1200 monthly rent. Prior to me moving in, the married couple lived there for 3 years. They did pump out $48000 total in 3 years of living there by themselves and the few times they had a room mate or two. They could have definitely done something else better if the money they have coming in is that steady.