# How bad an idea is this? (Debt-related.)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-an-idea-is-this-debt-related/364302>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 13, 2006, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-an-idea-is-this-debt-related/364302 "2006-07-13T05:43:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-an-idea-is-this-debt-related/364302/21 "2006-07-14T04:49:34Z")

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Our mortgage payments are so low that we couldn’t rent a decent two-bedroom apartment for what we’re paying now. The reason our five-year plan got de-railed was due to the real estate boom here - we can sell for really large bucks, but we can’t afford to buy anything else. Well, that’s what it’s looking like - we’ll know for sure in 2.5 years when we are actually ready to sell and see what’s available then.

Thanks for the info, **walrus**. No, not too simplistic at all. 😉

Oh, by the way, we’re not paying a lot into RRSP’s - my husband’s company contributes to both of ours. Our primary focus is debt-consolidation and reduction at this point.

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-an-idea-is-this-debt-related/364302/22 "2006-07-14T15:37:53Z")

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> [@Metacom](#):
>
> Sell your place, if you can, pay off your debts, invest the surplus conservatively, and rent.
> 
> That’s what I’d do. But then I think there’s a great big housing bubble in the US that may drag the entire world economy down with it. Others disagree.

This is essentially what I’ve done, except that I never owned a house.

When I first saw this thread, I was going to say that increasing house debt was a bad idea. But then I saw that you live in Calgary, one of the few places where I suspect house values are good to increase for the next few years (or as long as the oil boom lasts, anyways).

So I think that increasing your lower-interest house debt is probably a tolerable gamble… in your case. Eliminating your high-interest debt is always a good idea, of course, but in other circumstances than Calgary I’d recommend that you pay it off as fast as you can without increasing the debt in your house.

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