We’re starting this getting rich theme for the year where we’ll be featuring some personal finance tips once in a while so here’s one for today.

The thing with living in the US is that you need to live with debt in order to establish a good credit rating. But one thing that you have to manage is a good debt-to-income ratio in order to present yourself as a good debtor. Your debt-to-income ratio is simply the comparison of how much you owe in credit cards and other loans to how much dough goes into your account.

This mostly is just a matter of arithmetic but it’s all about knowing the real figures.

To get your monthly income, just take all of your monthly wages (if you happen to work a few jobs) all your bonuses, overtime pay, and all the other money that regularly goes into your bank account. If you happen to receive a variable income, just take the average of what you get for the past year or two.

The next value you need would be your monthly debt obligations which you get by adding up all your credit card bills (if it’s plural, better start getting rid of all of them save one), your bank and car loans (and other loans), and mortgage payments. If you pay rent, put that in too.

To get your debt-to-income ratio, divide your monthly debt by your monthly income. Told you, it’s just arithmetic.

The magic number here you’re looking for is 0.36 or less. This means that you have a healthy debt load. Anything higher than 0.50 means that you need professional help to manage your debt. And fast!

Or for a quick fix, try out this debt-to-income ratio calculator.