Quote from HolyGrail:
Hey Reav, I pay 2300 per month in child support alone, so I can very easily see how someone can have high monthly expenses.
HG-
Ahh, I forgot about that side of the equation....
Sorry I should have clarified. I am only referring to things such as vehicle payments, credit cards, mortgages, etc.
Also, I know it is subjective, but say that the worst happened and you lost all your income, etc- would you be able to go to court and get the child support obligation lowered? I have no faith in the judicial system, but is that a possibility?
$6-7k a month is still a lot of debt most likely, aside from anything special like alimony, separate maintenance, child support, etc of course.
Just an example:
If you have a $50,000 car at a 60 month amortization at 5.5% (which is very reasonable for a car), then your monthly payment on the loan is $477. Multiply that by 2 and round up and you have $1k a month in car loans. Insurance would probably be about $300/mo on the high end.
A $500,000 mortgage at 5.5% (again, a reasonable rate) would be $2838. Add $800 a month for taxes and insurance (depending on your area). That's $3600.
So now you're at $4900 with two $50k cars and a $500k house.
At a 2% monthly minmum payment, having an additional $50k in credit card debt would make for a $1k a month payment.
Now you're right at $6k, if you round up.
That's a lot of debt. Cell phones, utilities, etc add up, but they are the generally the same for most people and they are generally billed based on usage.