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I'm in over $220,000 worth of debt right now and I am not stressed about it. It's not credit cards and it's not student loans, it's my house. About two years ago I bought my very first house, which was a three bed, two bath home for $260,000. At the start I decided to put down 15% for my down payment so I paid around $40,000 up front, which left me with a remaining balance of $220,000 on my loan. When I bought my house, the interest rates were really high and the rate that I was offered was 7.1%. I was however able to buy it down with points so my final interest rate was 6.875%. But because the interest rate has been so high over the last two years, I haven't paid much of my principal. My monthly mortgage payment is around $2,000 and in total I've only paid $4,750.11 to my principal. So my original balance of $220,000 minus the principal paid, I now have a balance of $215,684. Because the interest rate is so high, I have made additional principal payments over the last two years to get my debt down. But buying a house when you can afford it is never a bad idea because it almost always will go up in value.
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