Who are you? Demographic poll

[LeRainDrop]

Wow, I'm really surprised that 75% of the respondents have either no mortgage or their mortgage is less than $100,000!  Have people not been considering their mortgage as a debt, even though it is a debt?

[FIRE_Buckeye]

Wow, I'm really surprised that 75% of the respondents have either no mortgage or their mortgage is less than $100,000!  Have people not been considering their mortgage as a debt, even though it is a debt?

Lots of people either A.) Renting, or B.) Aggressively paying down their mortgage and currently with less than $100k to go.

[Tom Bri]

Old thread but a fun one. No debt, and none since 1996 when I paid off my student loans. Spouse is the true mustachian, never ANY debt, and had a few hundred thou stashed (I have never learned the true amount of her savings, and I believe she does not know either) before we married.
Current income <$20K, but not FIRED, just graduated with a new degree (paid cash) and hope to get a big jump next year. House paid cash, clown cars paid cash.
I wonder about all the people at the low income level. Are they people like me, who are older and have substantial savings, and so don't feel the need to stress about current income? Or, how many are youngsters just starting out? Or...?

[LeRainDrop]

Wow, I'm really surprised that 75% of the respondents have either no mortgage or their mortgage is less than $100,000!  Have people not been considering their mortgage as a debt, even though it is a debt?

Lots of people either A.) Renting, or B.) Aggressively paying down their mortgage and currently with less than $100k to go.

Ah, I posted before reading up-thread.  Looks like some people are not counting the mortgage as debt, and at least one person didn't even consider his student loans to be debt.  But, yeah, I imagine people renting had a big impact on this measure.

[prefixcactus]

Nice poll, but it kind of doesn't capture the whole spectrum. In my particular example, I'm a university student and I still live with my parents so an appreciable portion of my core needs (i.e. food&dwelling) gets covered by them. So what would I list as the household income? What I earn by myself (which is lots less than what I actually consume) or what the whole family earns (which, again, does not really represent my own spending)? Or, as a university student nearing graduation, do I qualify as a "highest degree: High School" ( in which case (a) I get thrown in with people who did not go to college/university, and (b) It will become false in about a year's time), or as a  graduate (in which case it is simply false as of right now)?

[BuffaloStache]

Nice poll, but it kind of doesn't capture the whole spectrum.

Agreed- but Aloysius_Poutine stated that he meant for it to be open ended. For example, I consider my mortgage to be a "debt", since I don't think I'll consider myself completely FI until I have at least my primary residence mortgage paid off.

[katcrews]

You should include a category for "some college" since there are non-graduates like me who have a lot of student loan debt but never got the degree. If I had known moving in the middle would cause such issues I would have not moved.

[Greystache]

It would be interesting to know which respondents are already retired vs those that are still working.  Our income in retirement is pretty much whatever we want it to be. My wife and I have always lived well below our means which is why we were able to retire early. Our current income is $60K, but in our last year before we retired, our household income was a little over $200K.  Many in the MMM community have high savings rates while working and relatively low incomes when retired. Depending on what % of the respondents are retired, you might get incomes that are skewed lower.

[BTDretire]

I'm retired, for income, I put in my 4%, but I sure hope my average return is closer to 7%.

[BuffaloStache]

I'm retired, for income, I put in my 4%, but I sure hope my average return is closer to 7%.

Don't forget- you want that 7% to help protect against inflation and other things :-).

[iris lily]

A poll  that purports to identify those who wish to learn mustache-an ways and then doesn’t ask a question about their assets seems to have missed the mark.

I dont see how you can draw a conclusion from the information I gave. We are in your lowest income bracket. So what? What do you do with that information?

[marty998]

This thread is old, so old that I have moved categories since it was first made :)

[mustachepungoeshere]

This thread is old, so old that I have moved categories since it was first made :)

.. and it's the thread that's old? ;)

[rantk81]

Hah! Me too.  Many changes :)

[marty998]

This thread is old, so old that I have moved categories since it was first made :)

.. and it's the thread that's old? ;)

Hey! I'll bet you've moved a category or two in this time as well :P

[2sk22]

A poll which gets data at a point in time is not very useful. What we need is an anonymous spreadsheet in which forum members can update net worth and current income

[dcarroll]

I included house mortgage under the debt, which we could easily pay off. However, it makes a lot more sense to funnel the same funds into VTSAX (or equivalent) due to the incredibly low mortgage rate.

[OtherJen]

I also included mortgage debt. We have just over $50k left on that, and no other debt.