When it comes time to get a loan or see if you qualify for one, one of the main things that creditors look at is your debt to income ratio.  Obviously, if your debt is higher than what you’re bringing home, you’re going to be at risk because how are you going to be able to pay for it? 

When you want to figure out how to find out your debt to income ratio, there are some things that you can do but before we do anything, you need to gather some information together before we get started.

You’ll first want to mark down every expense you have each and every month.  These are the bills that you’re going to pay.  The things you’re going to list are things like:

  • Mortgage / Rent
  • Utilities (gas, electric, trash)
  • Cable TV / Internet
  • Phone
  • Credit Card Debt
  • Loans (student, etc)
  • Car Loans
  • Any Insurance (car, home owner’s, rent)
  • Misc Expenses (Gym, Memberships, etc)

These are the basic expenses that you may have or some of them you might not even have.  Write down the number for each category and total it up at the end.

The next part is your income.  Now, when you think of income, you’re probably going to think of your job and that’s it.  You’ll want to think of side projects, bonuses and even interest and investments.  You’ll want to think of every place you make money like:

  • Annual gross salary
  • Bonuses
  • Side jobs (ebay, part time job)
  • Interest
  • Investments
  • Alimony
  • Other income

Write down how much you’re going to make for each one throughout the year or month, whatever you please.

This is all the information that you’re going to need when you start to use a calculator to figure out your debt to income ratio.  These are some calculators that I recommend you check out when you’re trying to figure out where you stand –

Try some of these sites and see where you stand.  It will give you a better idea on what kind of loan you can get and if you’ll be considered a higher risk or a lower risk.  In the end, try to balance your debt and income.  The more debt you have, the less likely you’re going to get a loan and vise versa.  See what these sites can show you and take advantage today.