Mortgage: My girlfriend and I moved to Alaska two years ago for an "adventure," got shockingly well-paying jobs, and decided that buying a house made more sense than paying the $1900/month rent we were currently paying. FAST FORWARD TWO YEARS -- we hate Alaska and the bears and the isolation and the rain and scrape together enough money to move down to Portland, OR in May. We're using the house as a rental property until we can afford to make some upgrades to the kitchen and sell it. Student loans- I haven't even finished my undergraduate degree yet. This is what happens when you live and travel with student loan money, take classes unrelated to your major because they sound interesting, and transfer to three different schools. I've been working on this fucking degree since 2006. I still have another year and graduate school. Personal loan- My "personal banker" convinced me to get this sucker to consolidate credit cards. It worked, but then I maxed out a credit card. Again. Credit card- See "Personal Loan". This is basically the result of living in Alaska. We had to travel to sunnier climates regularly to avoid becoming depressed hermits, which happened anyway.

I consider myself pretty lucky. My parents were able to pay for a private college so have no student loans. I also learned some hard lessons about money management early after getting too many student credit cards while in school. I have a home which is the majority of my debt which I share with the hubs and after that my biggest debt was the new décolleté I purchased which just made me happy. I'm fortunate with a pretty solid income and this year after realizing that I've paid for my boobs 1.5 times now I decided to forgo the yearly Europe vacation and pay off the boobs with my bonus. The Bazaar and Sephora still beckon though but I have been trying to be more prudent with those cards. I haven't become disciplined enough to only use them "for legitimate emergencies" not my made up ones!

What this photo doesn't say is how many of my student loans are well above the 10% interest mark and that I only make about $25,000 a year. It also doesn't say that I funded my education all on my own, no cosigners, no help - and I still obtained a degree, the first in my family. And for that, I am proud.

The bulk of my debt is in my mortgage. My husband and I bought a condo last November and were able to get financing thanks to having almost no debt beforehand and good credit (mine was 759, his 765). The student loan is for my BA degree, which I received in 2008. It's relatively low since I transferred in from a community college and received multiple scholarships and grants. The credit card debt only recently ballooned since I don't work much over the summer (I am an educator), so I don't get regular paychecks year round. Only reason I went a little overboard is because I still have 0% APR until November. I bought shoes (4 pairs this summer) and a dress but that's rare, since I'm usually a lazy shopper. $500 of that is for professional development/accommodations/travel so I can acquire skills which will hopefully enhance my resume when I start looking for teaching gigs next year (more $$$!!!)

By the time I graduate I'll owe around £20,000 on student loans but it doesn't really bother me, it was always inevitable and hopefully it'll be worth it. The credit cards are a different story. I was lured in to taking out THREE at 18/19, and haven't made the minimum payments on them for months now. I live (very small) paycheck to paycheck and recently had to pawn a very sentimental piece of jewellery because I was so broke. The ironic thing is that I'll be buying it back AND making payments on my credit cards with my next student loan payment.

3 years of grad school for my physician assistant master's degree & a small car loan. Pretty sure I win most student debt competitions! The funny thing is student debt is called "good debt", even though the interest ranges from 6.5-7.9%, while my car loan interest rate is 0.2%.

With a number like this, is it any wonder I don't want to show my face? Ultimately I'm working this one chunk at a time. The credit card is my biggest concern, given that it is the only "bad" debt of the bunch (I'm down from a high of something like $24k, and have a plan to pay it off within 2 years). I'm refinancing my mortgage, and will be attacking the student loan as soon as the credit card is paid off. (Much as I hate that number, I would not have the job I do now without it...we have that truce, for now...)

My school loan and car loans are obvious but the credit card debt I must admit is mostly shopping, vacations, and going out drinking. I have set a new goal to cut up my cards and start paying them off!!

An english degree & half a culinary degree have built up a sizeable amount while this year's divorce, car problems, dental issues & booze have contributed to the cc debt. OH WELL. Just money, amirite?

I just wanted to say that this story was so timely. I literally had my spreadsheet open (I'm a geek) and was figuring out all of my debts when this popped up on my RSS feed. I have to say, it was really cathartic to write all of the debt down, especially with the visuals. Oprah may have vision boards, but now I have a debt board. And I realized that not all of that debt was bad. Yes, I may have racked up my credit card, but I got a lot of cool experiences (and some clothes that I don't wear any more).

I have an office desk (at a cool non profit arts organization in Brooklyn) to show for my school debt. Great place to be, but nearly all of my meager earnings go toward paying my various loans off.

Being responsible with money has always been my forte!

I actually started shaking when I wrote out the total.

Can't stop going to festivals (blame FOMO) and can't stop buying new things to wear at them. PS: thanks for a fantastic and all too relevant article. You girls just get it.

Student loan debt. Down from $28k at graduation just one year ago. I plan to be FREE by July 2013. - sasha f. Huntsville, AL.

Here is my debt total attached as a lovely jpeg. Nothing really to show for it. I think my student loan debt is manageable, especially considering I have a bachelor's and 2 master's. Not sure when my credit card debt went from manageable to HOLY SHIT, but I thought I would come out of school with a full-time job paying more than minimum wage (only been out a little over a year though). Boy was I wrong!