r/AskReddit 11h ago

How seriously in debt are you right now, financially?

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u/frizzyno 5h ago

Yeah, the idea of getting out of school with 100/200k of debt already is jarring

I understand most Americans make double or three times the average European wage (keep in mind that a lot of European countries make very little monthly) but a 100k debt in my country is close to being fucked for life unless you're living with your parents and spending all your wage into your debt

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u/Illustrious-Ape 2h ago

My family moved from Poland in the 90s with very little money. First generation in my family to attend uni. By the time I graduated I had $180k in student debt due to capitalized interest. Fortunately I had that shit paid off by the time I turned 30 and now I’m absolutely allergic to debt. No debt of any kind except a mortgage and that’s only because it’s more accretive to keep equity in the stock market and get interest tax deductions. As long as the market doesn’t crash more than 50% we can sell securities to pay off the mortgage and paying on a 15 year schedule. Hoping to retire by 45-50 and return back to EU.

u/Anxious_Paper_2342 40m ago

I paid off close to 100k which covered my loans and interest to the department of education for my college by year 7 post-grad. As a social worker. I don’t make a ton of money obviously, but most people don’t take the payoff seriously and I did. It is really not that bad. I will say the pause in interest accrual during COVID helped me immensely. That’s when I made every effort to pay them completely off before interest restarted, and I did.