I often wonder if my - Reasonable is your reasonable when we are talking numbers -

So I like to Ask these questions alot


I don't want to Know anything about income or total debt etc I am Not trying to Be Nosey -

Just want to know what do you Consider -

Minimal debt -

Heavy Debt-

Reasonable House Payment -




I consider

r minimal debt - under 5, 000

Heavy - In trouble Debt - Where I 'd start to Worry - 30,000 Or more

Reasonable house payment what I wish ours Was lol - I could Live easily with - 2000.00 or less A month



I know people who are 50,000 in debt - yet they Could care less - They Pay all their Bills and Know their Life insurance policies will Pay off their Debt some day

I also Know People - like my Sister - who Stress if they are 500.00 in debt - and Get it paid off quickly.
So Alot is Different to Everyone

BTW - Both of those Couples Make the same Amount of money Each year.

I guess I am more like your sister. I consider minimal debt to be $500. I also consider substantial debt, to where I would worry, to be $1,000.

Of course, past our mortgage (which I want to keep at 15-20% of our salary per month - right now it is a lot less than that because we bought at the right time - I would start to freak above $1200 a month with insurance/taxes included), we don't have any debt. If we don't have the money, I don't buy it. If it is a necessity, like a car repair or home repair, we have an emergency fund for that.

I am also more like your sister. I don't like any debt besides our mortgage. A high mortgage payment to me would be anything over 1500 per month.

I am alot more like you. Heck, 5,000 is nothing to be in debt. I do not know my total debt, but I start to worry if it is around 20,000.

To me our 900 a month mortgage is really pushing it, since it went up considerably when we moved. I think that is all what you are used to and depends alot on where you live.

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~Happiness is a large family~

I don't really have amounts.The only debt we have and will always have is a house payment and vehicle payment.I think if you can pay your bills,have food on the table,buy the kids and your self the things you need then you are doing good!I wish I could sock away money each week into savings but that hasn't been a possibility for us lately.

We paid off about 8,000.00 in the last two years so I think we are doing pretty good.

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Wife to Rick for 14 Years
Mom to 2 boys Dakota 13 & Ryan 9
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January Grocery Budget~$330.00

I would agree $500 or more is alot of debt. I do have more than $500 on a cc, but I do not stress about it since I am working on getting it paid off.

As far as mortgages go, anything over $600 is too high for me. I can't imagine paying $2000 a month on my house!! That's more than I bring home in a month! YIKES!

I think of debt more in percentages than in absolute amounts. When we first got married, I had $500 in credit card debt (mostly due to wedding expenses). That amount freaked me out! Now, that amount would be something we could pay off immediately. We pay our cc balances each month, so if we ever were unable to do that I'd consider it to be too much debt.

As far as mortgages go, I think it depends on the situation. Personally, I would be uneasy if our mortgage were more than 25% of our net take home pay. Most mortgage companies will lend about 1/3 of your income, but I think that amount is too much. I think the 20% range is much more comfortable for most families and less risky.

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I seen the 2,000 and went

We put down 1/3 of what we bought our house for that we had been saving so that made our payment less.We planed ahead before buying this house.We need a bigger one now but are waiting to see how the economy is first......

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Wife to Rick for 14 Years
Mom to 2 boys Dakota 13 & Ryan 9
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January Grocery Budget~$330.00

I have mixed emotions on this, for some reason. I agree with it being a percentages thing, and based on where you live really, but I've often wondered MORE about how much income people have, to be able to afford a $2000 mortgage payment or buy a house in california (ok, more than there, but that's what always jumps at me) for $400,000 for 1000 square feet! I just would really like that question answered---how much do people actually make there???
Sorry, off topic. Our mortgage payment is about 12% of our NET income per month, we really got sort of lucky on that and hit the market at just the right time, but still, 3 years later, I can't imagine buying something that would put our payments more than 20% of our net income. Lenders screw people like that, about the lending of 1/3 of gross income to people, and I could never agree to take a loan of such magnitude. As far as debt goes, I can't say I ever really "worried" about it, even when we started the year of 2007 with over $17,000 in debt. We will be completely finished paying all that off before October of this year, so I suppose it's all in how hard you work to pay something off.
Sorry for my wordiness, i get that way.

I agree that it is all dependant on your income and networth.

We have what I would consider to be a low mortgage. It is less than 1/6 of the house's total value and the mortgage will be paid off in a few years. The mortgage payment is less than 1/3 of our monthly income - very managable.

On the other hand, our debt is high. I've admitted this in the past. For me, high debt is owing the equivalent of your annual salary - or more - not counting your mortgage. Low debt would be owing less than you could pay off in one or two paychecks.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."