Your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) compares your monthly income to your monthly minimum debt payments. Your monthly income may include your: Salary Hourly wages Side hustle (e.g. rideshare driving) Hobby business Interest and dividends Rent from property that you own Court-ordered alimony or child support that you receive Other income that you receive on a regular basis Similarly, your monthly debt payments include any payments you are obligated to make each month. This includes things like rent or mortgage payments, car loan payments, student loan payments, court-ordered alimony or child support, minimum credit card payments, or any other regular payments. Calculating DTI can be complicated, and card issuers don’t all compute it the same way. But, you can get a general idea with a little bit of basic arithmetic, as in the example below. A lower DTI means your debt obligations probably aren’t burdensome relative to your income. A higher DTI means you may have more debt than you can manage. The more you increase your income and lower your monthly minimum debt payment obligations, the lower — and healthier — your DTI will be.