Friday, August 7, 2009

Title: Debt income ratio determines how healthy you are financially

Debt-to income ratio or debt income ratio is that percentage of an individual's income that is used to pay debts. It includes not just debts but also fees, taxes, insurance premiums etc. Your debt income ratio is also used by lenders to find out if you are eligible for a mortgage on favorable terms or not.

Debt-to income ratio is made up of 2 kinds of ratio. They are as follows –

One is the front ratio and the other is the bJustify Fullack ratio. It is represented as front ratio/back ratio.

Front ratio
The front ratio is the percentage of the income that is used for housing costs, mortgage principal, interest, property taxes, mortgage insurance premium, hazard insurance premium etc.

Back ratio
The back ratio includes expenses that are included in the front ratio and also the amount that is spent for credit card bills, car loan payments, student loan payments, alimony payments, child support, legal judgment etc.

The acceptable debt income ratio is 28/36. The current limits of the debt-to income ratio in the United States is as follows –

• FHA or Federal Housing Administration limits are 31/43
• A debt-to income ratio of 28/36 is the conventional financing limits.
• VA limits use only one DTI and that is 41.

It is always better to take out a mortgage as per your eligibility. This is because; there were many borrowers that had taken out mortgages by manipulating their debt income ratio so that they could take out a bigger mortgage. However, it was found that these borrowers started defaulting and missed several monthly mortgage payments only to be a victim of foreclosure.

How will you calculate the DTI or debt-to income ratio?
In order to calculate your debts, the first thing you need to do is make a list of all your debts. You can make the list of debts in the following manner –

• Monthly mortgage payments
• Monthly credit card payments
• Home equity loans
• Student loan payment
• Alimony
• Child support
• Miscellaneous debts.

Once you have listed the debts, calculate your income. You can make the following list to calculate your income –

• Make note of your income
• List down the income of your partner
• Miscellaneous income

Now, divide the total monthly debts by total monthly income, you get the debt-to income ratio. If the DTI is 30, it is regarded as excellent, DTI between 30% and 36% is good and debt income ratio of 40% indicates that you will not be able to enjoy financial benefits unless you work upon your debt-to income ratio.

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