Idle curiosity - How many here are debt free?

Downeaster

Downeaster

Everything in XS
Top Contributor
Messages
3,004
Reaction score
18,618
Points
513
Location
Downeast Maine
Made the last payment on the Cabota and am now totally debt free. No mortgage, no credit card debt, no car/motorcycle/truck/tractor payments. This is the second time in my life I can say that.

Should be able to stay that way for a good while. 2012 car with 36K miles. 2013 truck with 55K miles. 2015 Tractor with 450 hours. 2016 motorcycle with 16k miles.

At my age, the bike and tractor are almost certainly the last of those sort of vehicles I'll ever buy.

Car and truck are easily good for another 10 years and by then I probably won't bother to replace the truck.

Of course, the Universe is aware of this sort of thing...
 
Good for you DE - an accomplished life full of service to your country and fellow man.

I’m not debt free - but nearly there (there is nothing like a PhD when you are 32 to mess up your finances in the prime earning years). Not whining, just the facts Ma’am.

...although, as the Canadian Imperial Bank of Dad to three lovely daughters, I think I’ll be picking up a mortgage payment or 12 - thanks to the corona virus.
 
Last edited:
Are you looking for a loan?

Not wanting to sound like I'm bragging but I can not remember the last time I had a loan/debt that was not paid off by the end of the month.
Sometimes people look at me strange when in response to question about a mortgage payment I say never had one. We me and first wife did borrow $5,000 from my uncle when we were building our house but that was paid off in full with interest a year latter. I believe we did have a few car loans back in the 1970's or 80's but most of them were paid off early.

The house not finished off when we moved in just sheet rock on walls inside and plywood sheeting on out side and the floors inside. Only new plumbing pieces were how water heater, well pump and toilet. The rest were hand-me-downs from family including kitchen sink and cabinets. Made many upgrades over the years.

My last new motorcycle is a 1988 Sportster, wife did buy a Vespa new in 2013, which actually cost almost twice what I sent for that Sportster.

And all this is after going through a divorce 20 years ago and loosing a stack of 100 Savings Bonds in exchange for keeping the house and half the 10 acres of land it is on!

With the current world problems I'm glad things worked out for me up to this point, just not sure how the 401K is going to look this time next year!

Not to bad for a Community College drop out!
 
Just a mortgage here. Pretty happy about that. At 45 and kids getting close to driving& college on the horizon we are watching what we do closely. We’ve got a plan and hope to be dept free in the near future. We were going to be in less than 3 years, but then we had to up and move into a bigger property last year. It’s all good though as we made a really nice profit on the hot real estate market for all the equity we’d put into the old house. The wife is a Dave Ramsey follower. Not to the letter, but his system works and really makes sense if you follow his guide.
 
When I was a kid in a household where only the dad worked and 7 kids we didn't have a lot of money
And when I started working 40+ years ago my boss said "save some money kid the girls and the beer will always be there)
I bought my first house CFD when I was 30 and rented out rooms to friends (we were hanging around together why not)
The city only paid us once a month so ya learned how to budget real quick
Anyway I only have the usual monthly bill and of course taxes and Ins but if I can't cover a purchase right away we wait
That's why the bikes I have are old Cool and cheap and paid for
Not trying to brag I didn't want to struggle like my parents did
 
Downeaster said:
What does CFD mean?
Click to expand...
Contract for Deed
If fact it was a 3 way CFD I bought the house from a guy named Dick who was buying it from a Guy named Grover
So if Dick didn't pay Grover with out me knowing I could have lost the house
In fact I didn't know Dick was buying the house CFD
 
Have never filled in a tax form nor made a mortgage payment in my life - aways had a little woman to do that stuff while I looked after the hunting, fishing and protecting the family from barbarian incursion. Probably part of what cost me my first marriage. Christine informed me the other day that we were mortgage free and I was only mildly interested seeing as how it had never weighed heavily on my conscious. Don't get me wrong, I've done it tough - the GFC ruined both my business and my superannuation and there were a couple of times when pressure from debtors nearly forced me to declare bankruptcy but, for the last decade, we have both had good jobs, the kids have moved on, I don't spend anywhere near as much money on booze or entertainment as I did when I was young and the passing of my In-laws provided me with a little nest egg. I was hoping to pull the retirement pin in a couple of years and take the gap year I missed in '72. Corona Virus may have put paid to that. Oh well! I would have spent too much money sitting in cafes on the Cote d'Azur, - I can have a beer here by my pool.
 
Downeaster said:
So, how does that work?

Specifically, how does it differ from a traditional mortgage?
Click to expand...
You are buying directly from the seller no bank involved and the seller sets a certain agreed upon rate of interest and an amortization table is made up to figure out what the monthly payments would be with interest (just like the bank would do) I had to pay Ins and taxes my self not part of the loan
But I did have to find a bank to borrow me the money and at that time no one wanted to borrow a single male the money( I found a bank who charged me 16-18% interest)
 
Greyandridin said:
You are buying directly from the seller no bank involved and the seller sets a certain agreed upon rate of interest and an amortization table is made up to figure out what the monthly payments would be with interest (just like the bank would do) I had to pay Ins and taxes my self not part of the loan
But I did have to find a bank to borrow me the money and at that time no one wanted to borrow a single male the money( I found a bank who charged me 16-18% interest)
Click to expand...
So the seller gets his lets say 6% from me and the banks makes me pay 16% to be able to pay the seller
It wasn't the best situation but it got me a house
 
Shiiiiit $4k ish in credit card debt, consolidated, no issue there when I've got about 25k available on all cards/accounts.
Bought my house for 92k, around 70ish owed after downpayment assistance and seller credits.
Just bought my dad's 2015 silverado LT for 26k,
I gots me a lot of debt at 21, at least it's not for a college loan.

Doesn't help that I'm furloughed for about another month because of covid.
Whoops.
Not to mention, I've got $7k worth of a snapon box/tool debt sitting in the shop they kicked me out of!!!
 
Last edited:
always been debt free ,never seen the point of paying quite often double the price and some times more for things that only go down in value , about the only exception would be for a house / land but even then was lucky enough to avoid the debt cycle ...always pay cash and that way often pay less .. has always ment old cars / old bikes / old house but then i like old and working on things and besides cuts down on the impulse buying .. guess im just a tight arse when it comes to money but its ment the age pension is enough to live on (just)
 
Downeaster said:
Made the last payment on the Cabota and am now totally debt free. No mortgage, no credit card debt, no car/motorcycle/truck/tractor payments. This is the second time in my life I can say that.

Should be able to stay that way for a good while. 2012 car with 36K miles. 2013 truck with 55K miles. 2015 Tractor with 450 hours. 2016 motorcycle with 16k miles.

At my age, the bike and tractor are almost certainly the last of those sort of vehicles I'll ever buy.

Car and truck are easily good for another 10 years and by then I probably won't bother to replace the truck.

Of course, the Universe is aware of this sort of thing...
Click to expand...

Whaaaaat ??
You aren't going to buy an XS650 in your lifetime ?
Sell that 2016 bike and you could buy 5 of them.
Heck, if I was broke, I'd beg on a street corner in order to get an XS650.
 
Greyandridin said:
Contract for Deed
If fact it was a 3 way CFD I bought the house from a guy named Dick who was buying it from a Guy named Grover
So if Dick didn't pay Grover with out me knowing I could have lost the house
In fact I didn't know Dick was buying the house CFD
Click to expand...
Sounds like what we call a land contract, seller holds the title until the debt has been paid off. It can be a way around a having a down payment. In a couple of years you have enough equity to get bank financing to pay the seller the balance. Been on both sides of land contracts and they worked well for me.
I have been in debt up to my eyeballs for a long periods of time, thankfully for a variety of reasons and events that is now distant past. (knock on wood it stays that way) Nothing like the current events to disabuse one of the notion that perfect safety is attainable....
 

Similar threads

MaxPete
The Big Sue resto-mod thread
2 3 4
Replies
72
Views
2K
MaxPete
MaxPete
Back
Top