Like £25k for a photography degree from 15 years ago. I moved to the US and paid bits of it back (it’s means tested so you just tell them what you earn and they base it on that). I’ve been ignoring their letters because idk, I don’t really want to pay it back? I remember the mandatory classes where we applied for ucas, so I feel like it’s on them for shoving 18 year olds through the loan system for profit.
If someone offered you a loan right now at 1% interest, you could take it, put it in a savings account, and get 4% interest. For a net gain of 3% on whatever the loan amount is. That’s the most basic example of good debt.
Investment mortgage debt is good if it contributes to tax deductible claims. Owner-occupied debt is good if it’s managed properly. Both are good because you own an appreciating asset.
Credit card debt is good if you don’t hit payable interest, leaving your money to work for you in other ways.
Commodity debt is good if the market swings in your favour.
Business debt is good if it results in surplus revenue generated.
Education debt is good if it’s contributing to future and higher employment gains.
Basically all debt is good if it’s managed properly and results in a net gain somewhere.
…you’re claiming that because some debt is good and some debt is bad, all debt is bad? Your first statement quite literally negates your second statement.
No debt since we’re only now looking for houses (yes yes, great timing, I know…) and I frankly wouldn’t know what else I would need to spend so much money on that I would have to go into debt.
None that I would call bad. Less than 10k school loans, about 3K on a new car I a bought a few years back, and 110K on my mortgage. It’s all under 3% fixed rate and well within my budget though, so I’m not too worried.
That said I won’t be taking out any new loans or refinancing for quite some time thanks to current interest rates.
I have around 5k€ left to pay for my car, for the rest I just spend what I know I can. I have a credit card but I just keep it there for emergencies or to pay in installments when the seller doesn’t allow it, everything else goes to the debit card.
Edit: for context since I just read “in the US”, I’m italian. My school was 150€/year so I saved myself the school debt thing.
Went into 30k debt thanks to school and being injured and getting 1/3 of what I use to make. Had to use CC and other means which in itself was digging a bigger hole. I am 3k away from being done with fuckin debt. No house since this all happen during 08-10 fall out. 13 years. FML
I have $150k in mortgage debt on a house worth about twice that. Plus a couple more years car debt.
What really gets me is my health insurer severed relations with the county in May and I got hospitalized two weeks ago. So now I will owe the $8,000 out of network deductible. That pisses me off.
TLDR: Low interest debt that provides long term financial gain is good. Mortgage for primary residence is almost always considered good. Loans to invest into your home that increase its value and make it more reliable/long standing is good. Low interest debt to buy assets for your business is good. Reasonable loans for college is considered good.
Car loans are a bit harder because they lose value as time goes on. But a small loan with good interest is usually considered fine for a car. Buying a brand new car with a loan will almost always be bad, since you’re paying interest to use a depreciating asset. But basically a car loan is always bad if it ever goes upside down, meaning you owe more on the loan than the car is worth. New cars that happens almost instantly.
This is essentially the same as me. I owe around £40k on a mortgage and my wife has student debt that she’ll never have to repay. Other than that zero debt. I don’t do debt and I like that I’m, more or less, debt free (mortgage doesn’t really count imho.)
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