Shaky Economy

[.22-10-45]

Anyone foregoing buying firearms/reloading equipment & components to become 100% debt free this year?

[williamwaco]

Nope.

Bought one on the credit card just last week.

Get'em while you can.

[WILCO]

Get'em while you can.

Wise words indeed!

[starmac]

I don't know about debt free, but I have never thought about financing any firearm or ammo, at all. I won't even finance a pickup, much less a gun. lol

[MUSTANG]

Back in the late 1990's, the wife and I achieved "Debt Free", after years of effort. Sure has made it easier to finance those Ammo, Reloading, Gun purchases since.

[btroj]

I have a mortgage so debt free I'm not.

I don't go I to debt to buy anything firearm related.

[MaryB]

$800 in credit card debt, mostly for silver/lead/primers/powder

[TXGunNut]

My investments, including firearms, earn more than I pay in interest. Only fly in that ointment is that tho some of my firearms appreciate I never sell the collector/collectibles. I'm working slowly towards being debt-free but I'll just have more money to blow on toys and hunting trips.

[felix]

General rule I tell those just getting married, leaving school, or just going out on their own: Get the job before any debt, living in apartments, using a cheap used car. Buying a house when kids arrive: purchase price max at 3X annual salary, and pay 20 percent down. When buying a new car, or one barely used: purchase price at 1/3 annual salary, and pay zero down. Should be enough salary left over during the year for living expenses. This formula has worked exceedingly well for all that used it. ... felix

[btroj]

Sound advice Felix. I would add that you can't save too much, too early.

You can have it now or later, pretty hard to have it both.

[leeggen]

Great advice Felix, wish more people would use that formula.
CD

[Lefthandshooter]

Been credit card debt free for 14 years. House/car payment but no credit card dept. They get paid off every month.

[smokesahoy]

Paying down house rapidly. Couple years left. That's it. Dept free is a good place to be

[blademasterii]

I have been selling off toys and guns I don't use to pay off bills. I promised my wife we would replace her car once the cc was payed off. At nearly 300k miles its coming up on needing a lot more replaced than not. I am also selling stuff to start my own business in an industry that is growing in leaps and bounds. I don't want to do manual labor the rest of my life. So in talking to the wife I let her know that If I can get it running like I hope to the house is getting paid off first. I will work my day job and work the business until I can no longer do both. By that time I should be making plenty to stay home and pay off bills.

[762 shooter]

Debt free except mortgage, taxes, and insurance.:violin::violin:

762

[Adk Mike]

Working on the debt free thing. Helping kids thru collage knocked me off balance. They're out and I' m getting back on track. It would be a great place to be.

[pdawg_shooter]

I became debt free in 91 and have stayed that way ever since. Made myself a rule back then, If you cant afford to pay for it upfront, you do not need it. It has allowed me to retire at 62 with a bit more income than I made working.

[mtnman31]

Pay off my credit cards monthly and have never carried a balance. In my life, the only debt I ever had was my home loans... until I got married and took on my wife's student loan debt and her home loan. Paid off her home loan and we are working to finish off the school debt.

[Finster101]

"My investments, including firearms, earn more than I pay in interest. Only fly in that ointment is that tho some of my firearms appreciate I never sell the collector/collectibles."


You sound like me. I'm not good at buying and selling. I'm darn good at buying, it's that selling part I have to work on!

[southpaw]

My debt is a lot less than most. We built our house so that cuts it way down. The only other thing is the wifes car payment. Nothing gets put on the credit card that isn't going to be paid off in full. To answer your question, no. But I will be debt free by the end of next year. That should give me plenty of time to save for college books for the kids. They don't know it yet but they are my retirement plan.

Jerry Jr.

[HarryT]

I have heard of people who have been debt free all their life. The US government pays all their expenses if they vote Democrat.

[Houndog]

Just to add a little to what Felix said, If you payoff a revolving credit card you just gained AT LEAST 18% of what you owed in buying power (what you were paying in interest) If you buy a good used car and pay cash you gain the total you would pay in intrest PLUS the at least 20% in immediate depreciation that new vehicle looses within the FIRST year of ownership! If you buy a smaller house instead of one of the McMansions that seem to poliferate the market these days you save not only the difference in the interest payments, you also pay lower tax, insurance, heating and repair costs! (smaller houses require less material at reroofing, ETC AND less labor to do the repair) If you buy an older fixer upper house in a good neighborhood and can do the work yourself, you can make money on your investment from the increased value, and usually it's taxable value will be less. It's NOT about how much money you make, it's about how much money you figure out how to keep!

[Hickok]

When the Klintons were in das Kapital city years ago, there was a major shortage of primers. I learned then to keep a stock of "essential" firearms and components. Sometimes I even think about all the wheelweights that are on cars in a parking lot should the "need" ever arise![smilie=1:

[375supermag]

Hi...

I don't like debt, but some things are difficult to achieve otherwise.
Only money I owe is my mortgage and a small used car loan. I usually pay my car loans off in about 1/2 the term and then save the payment as a down payment toward the next one.

Never buy anything firearm related on credit...always pay cash for powder, primers, cases and bullets. I do on occasion buy a gun on layaway, but I don't even use my debit card for that, cash only.

I generally only use my debit card for on-line purchases like books for me and gifts for my wife.

[Love Life]

I use a credit card non-stop to buy just about everything I buy. Points add up quick.

What is sweeter is buying something on credit that you can sell for more than you paid. Boom!! You get the item, you get the CC points, you make profit, and your credit score is happy when the card is paid in full!.

Success. There is no real reason to fear credit cards. You have to fear the person paying the card...

Buy what you want as long as your bankroll can support it.

[10x]

I have been debt free a number of times in my life. The first twenty years I was debt free because I had no money and no way to borrow money. Right now I use credit as a lever, for me right now it is cheaper to pay interest than to liquidate assets.

[264 Win Mag]

I use a credit card non-stop to buy just about everything I buy. Points add up quick.

What is sweeter is buying something on credit that you can sell for more than you paid. Boom!! You get the item, you get the CC points, you make profit, and your credit score is happy when the card is paid in full!.

Success. There is no real reason to fear credit cards. You have to fear the person paying the card...

Buy what you want as long as your bankroll can support it.

+1 Discover Cashback Bonus baby! I make almost all of my purchases on the card including school tuition and utility trailers. BUT the balance is paid in full every month! No reason to fear the card as Love Life says. Just remember there are two parts to every transaction, purchasing and paying. Its when you don't pay that the card gets you into trouble.

Thomas

[blackthorn]

W hen I married the first time we went into debt to get furniture and such. Due to making several bad decisions wound up way too far in debt. Took me 7 years to get that debt paid off (1966)! Haven't bought anything on credit cards that I can't pay off at the end of the month since! I run a pretty good line of credit using the house as back-up that we get at 1/2% over prime (right now 3.5% I think). Credit cards are a sucker game! I remember once getting a couple of hot dogs and drinks for my kids at the lunch bar in Sears and the gal asked if that would be cash or charge? I recall being shocked that anyone would charge that kind of stuff on a card. When we retired in 2004, we retired debit free and it is going to stay that way!

[southpaw]

Hi...

Never buy anything firearm related on credit...always pay cash for powder, primers, cases and bullets.

I sort of agree. I pay cash at my local enabler, mainly because I know he has to pay a fee and he already has pretty good prices. But the online guys don't take cash. Right now it is pretty hard to find powder but the online dealers tend to have 8#'s off and on. If I have the money and they have atleast 2 of the powders I am looking for or one of my buddies are looking for thats what I get. Takes the sting out of the hazmat and shipping. Plus like Love Life said I get points and they add up quickly.

Jerry Jr.

[Garyshome]

had some medical stuff back in 07 never got it paid off yet. The economy dumped my work slowed down. I'll pay it as soon as I can. Yes I have to right now mostly powder/primers...and such

[montana_charlie]

We use our credit card for every retail purchase we make, but pay in full at the end of each month.
In forty-odd years of marriage we have never paid a cent of interest on a credit card.
As for the other things, we became debt-free a year before we retired.

CM

[merlin101]

Debt free here! If I don't have the cash for it then I save if I miss a good deal then oh well.
It's amazeing how fast the bank account will grow when you don't have mortgage and credit cards and car loans! But with my luck obummer will seize my IRA and 401K :( good thing we go SSI !

[Lunger]

no matter what bills I owe on I'll be paying for the countries mistakes the rest of my life. Good ole' Obummer and his destructive effects on this wonderful country. That's why you don't treat the help as equal. They just create trouble for the rest.

[Springfield]

I don't know about where you live, but allowing only 3X our salary for a house is pretty much unattainable in this part of California. We would have to make 250,000/year to just buy an 1800 SF house in a halfway decent neighborhood. Good thing we rent from my BIL or we couldn't live here at all. There is no such thing as a 150,000 house in any part of suburban California. We are working hard to pay off all our debts before the kids hit college in 10 years, down to just 2 small credit cards and the truck payment. The other 2 older cars and my motorcycle are paid off. I do have to pay my son's orthodondist 89.00 a month, didn't have the 3,000.00 in hand to pay it, but they don't charge interest so it didn't matter.

[sparky45]

I don't know about debt free, but I have never thought about financing any firearm or ammo, at all. I won't even finance a pickup, much less a gun. lol
What's the problem; everyone else is using other people's money, why not you?:-D
What with interest rates on loans at historical lows now and interest paid on savings is even lower, it's like you're making money!8-)

[starmac]

What's the problem; everyone else is using other people's money, why not you?:-D
What with interest rates on loans at historical lows now and interest paid on savings is even lower, it's like you're making money!8-)

Well in that case, I should start financing the food I eat. lol

[bear67]

I have owed over a million in short term money lots of times, farming and in business, but for the last 15 years it has been debt free and it feels good. Paid my income taxes today and can not itemize deductions as I don't have enough. I paid more than I wanted this year to Uncle Sam as dividends were good on our portfolio and we pay even though they are re-invested. Just have to have a little "mad cash" for my big boy toys and travel.

Interesting story about debt. Couple years ago, I served as contractor and built my son a new house on land we owned costing $225k approximately and tax valued at $350. They used our local bank for interim money and when they went to close the bank wanted to loan 100% of the balance for a long term note at a good rate. Son and DIL had saved house money for 15 years and had $175 k saved for this. They won out, but had to argue with bank to pay off most of the note on the new house. They are paying it off in 9 years and look how nice that will be then. Lending institutions want you paying notes for the rest of your life.

[km101]

Don't know that I will ever be "debt free" again as I am getting to the age that major medical expenses are starting to mount.
But I don't finance guns, ammo, primers, powder, bullets, etc. These are not necessities (as defined by my accountant, not me) so they have to come out of what little disposable income I have.

Now if a mint 6" Python, or a mint 4" Diamondback (or one of a dozen other examples) suddenly appeared, I might be tempted. But so far I have held the line.

[dragon813gt]

I'm not debt free but all the debt is secured. In four years I will have no debt besides the mortgage and a vehicle purchase if one is needed. W/ a baby due the end of May money will be tight for awhile.

[stephenj]

i have never had any debt . nor have i ever had a credit card
i lived in a cheap apartment saving my money up until i was 26 , bought a chunk of dirt and lived in a camper for 3 years while i built my small house .

i have lived under the if i dont have the cash i dont need it philosophy my entire life .

unfortunatly i was wrong .... now because i have never had any credit .. i can not get it if i need it .

credit used wisely can be a good thing

[SciFiJim]

I have been selling off toys and guns I don't use to pay off bills. I promised my wife we would replace her car once the cc was payed off. At nearly 300k miles its coming up on needing a lot more replaced than not. I am also selling stuff to start my own business in an industry that is growing in leaps and bounds. I don't want to do manual labor the rest of my life. So in talking to the wife I let her know that If I can get it running like I hope to the house is getting paid off first. I will work my day job and work the business until I can no longer do both. By that time I should be making plenty to stay home and pay off bills.

Your plan sounds like a good one. What kind of business are you starting?

[otter5555]

been totally debt free for decades. no credit cards. no nothing. pay taxes, insurance and a few staples.

[fatelk]

credit used wisely can be a good thing
This is true. My folks have always been in the "debt is bad" camp: "The borrower is the servant of the lender". I was surprised a few years back when my dad started borrowing and borrowing, leveraging every last drop of equity he could to borrow every cent he could to buy more farmland. I thought he had gone nuts, way over his head in debt.

I have to give credit where credit is due. He definitely saw something I did not. The value of midwestern farmland has doubled, tripled, and then some since then. They are doing very, very well now.


I don't know about where you live, but allowing only 3X our salary for a house is pretty much unattainable in this part of California.

True, for us too. It must be regional to some degree. Our first house was about 3x, but four kids later it was way too small. We had to move for work and the house we just bought here is closer to 4x, but it sure is nice to have some room again. The 20% down part would not have been possible for us either. That's an awful lot of money here. Having gone through several years of un- and under-employment before getting back to a good solid job, we were doing really good to come up with 10%.

Felix, I really don't mean to denigrate your advice at all. Our circumstances were different, but it actually is great advice and a darn good formula for staying ahead financially. It's sad to see so many people, young people especially, who can't seem to figure out how to get ahead with a little discipline and self-control.

Other than mortgage, we have been living debt free for years. It really is a great feeling. My wife didn't know what it was like to not have a car payment. The last new (used) car we saved up and payed cash. It was nice.


I would add that you can't save too much, too early.
Man, that is so true. Someone once told me that it's not how much you make so much as how much you save, and that most people are just broke at different levels.

I wish I had started saving more, earlier.

[Blammer]

debt free here except for leveraging debt to better my financial position, see fatelk's comment. :)

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've been Debtfree/morgagefree for 12 years.
Bought a used Gun (S&W mod 10) yesterday...also found some primers for $32 per 1k, bought a sleeve of 5K, also found some bulk 22LR (winchester 222), limited to one qty:222 pak for $14). All paid with credit card for the 1% cash back at cabela's and will be paid off at teh end of the month, like every month ever...I've used CC for decades and NEVER have paid them a penny in interest.

[OeldeWolf]

I am not debt free, have the mortgage, the card is down to 500, hope it is paid off in a few months. The medical bills are about $3k, though. But now that I have medi-cal, I will start paying them down as soon as the card is paid off. With kalifornistan now registering long arms, even for those of us with an FFL-03, am not buying much in the way of firearms, instead working on those I already have.

They are doing a minor modification on my home loan, going to save about $70 there/mo, which will mostly go to paying off the card and medical bills. But the local enabler (I like that term), just got in a nearly new Lyman Great Plains flinter in .50, which is sorely tempting me, from sustainability standpoints... And I am definitely short on pistols. :(

This summer I need to repaint the house, and work on the front yard. Try and bring its value up to what I owe on it. thinking ahead towards leaving the state, for somewhere more firearms friendly.

[TXGunNut]

I don't make much but thanks to keeping housing, transportation and interest costs down I get to have toys many folks "can't" afford. I'm working hard on retirement investments so that I can retire when I want to, not work til I can't. That's what it's all about, right?

[Moondawg]

Putting a new Ruger Mark III Hunter on the credit card this week. Who knows how long we will be able to buy guns, and a decent popular 22 pistol is like money in the bank.

[searcher4851]

Not me.

[MT Gianni]

Shaky Economy? My 401K earned over 20% last year. I may buy another 5K of primers but don't plan on going nuts about it.

[blademasterii]

Your plan sounds like a good one. What kind of business are you starting?
I am opening up an online ecig store. I will carry only good quality hardware and liquid, not that knock off gas station junk. It is a growing industry and I have the help of someone already in the business giving me his sources and contacts. It is an on the books legitimately licensed business.

[Harter66]

Well ,I'm not a selfish pig ,but.......

I owe about $600 to medical ,1200 in property taxes, I do owe $83k on the house but the contract is actually making payments on my folks loan on 25ac in Ar on 34k.

My GF owes 6k on a truck .

We have 3 cards w/about 2k available but w/ zero balances.

I lived the first 20yr of adulthood on cash, no cards and only a checking account to pay bills out of town, used $500 beaters drive them 2-3 yr or till the 1st major failure and trade them off for the next 1. I ran the last 3 over 100k and traded 1 of those off still running. Its hard to live 100% debt free and keep it 100% that way.I have 2 of my 3 drivers right now w/$100 problems and can't fix either 1 until the parts show up for both. I'm layed off again , I worked 22 weeks last yr. The 3 401k's just showed me earnings for the last 10 yr of -60%, so that's just 39k pissed away.

If I don't find some LRP pretty soon though I'll be down to LPM primers for rifles and some SRP for the 222..........oh well that's why I bought the extra Unique 6 yr ago......

[nvbirdman]

My last debt was my home loan, and I paid that off ten years ago.

[dtknowles]

i have never had any debt . nor have i ever had a credit card
i lived in a cheap apartment saving my money up until i was 26 , bought a chunk of dirt and lived in a camper for 3 years while i built my small house .

i have lived under the if i dont have the cash i dont need it philosophy my entire life .

unfortunatly i was wrong .... now because i have never had any credit .. i can not get it if i need it .

credit used wisely can be a good thing

I graduated from collage with $1500 of debt, lived with a coworker until I could save the deposit on an apartment of my own. Borrowed money at an appliance store to buy a TV. Paid both those debts before I bought a used car with $5000 of debt. Paid that off before I bought my first house sold that house to buy the one I am in now. Paid this house off a few years ago. I have paid credit card interest maybe two months out of 30 years. Have earned more is cash back than I paid in credit card interest many times over. Biggest decision that made things a lot easier was not buying too much house. Banks would have lent me three times what I borrowed and the real estate agent was sad we would only look at such and such houses.

Tim

[osteodoc08]

Mortgage, car loans, ex wife.....nope. I dont think I'll be debt free for at least 15 years.

I WONT finance guns, ammo, etc. Now that I can use my debit card online, I dont use a CC at all.