How much debt you in ?

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papachris

Well-known member
There's an assumption isn't there that people in debt are in debt because they're shit with money or they like a gamble or whatever.

I don't have the data but I'd wager the vast majority of people in debt are in out of necessity rather than recklessness.
Sometimes there are very good reasons for taking on debt. I think the key is to try and use the money wisely and don't let the debt get out of control.
 


spongy

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2011
2,780
Burgess Hill
£170k mortgage.

Just under 3k on 2 cards but all going down by juggling balance transfers between the 4 cards I have. And was only on there because of car issues.

When it's cleared it's new car time so back onto HP for a new one.
 




Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,685
The Fatherland
On the subject of moving overseas and returning. We lived in Spain in the 90's, good life with own car and apartment fully paid for as cheap. Returned 1997 having sold up and my money was only enough for a deposit on a house. 22 years later debt free again. Taught kids to save, no credit cards and buy only what they can afford.
what made you return home?
 






Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,106
Faversham
£170k mortgage.

Just under 3k on 2 cards but all going down by juggling balance transfers between the 4 cards I have. And was only on there because of car issues.

When it's cleared it's new car time so back onto HP for a new one.
Morning squire. Were you the bloke is a tizz a couple of years ago because a mortgage looked like an impossibility? If so - congrats - happy for you! If not, sorry for mixing you up with someone else.,
 


Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
62,405
Location Location
Just around £250 left on HP for a suite. I only ever use the credit card to pay for holidays (for the extra cover), but its always cleared straight away before any interest goes on. My first job was working in a credit control call centre, it put me off debt for life.
 






Couldn't Be Hyypia

We've come a long long way together
NSC Patron
Nov 12, 2006
16,723
Near Dorchester, Dorset
To benchmark:

11m homes out of 29m have a mortgage, the average loan is £151,000.

Average non-mortgage debt per household is currently £16,200.

Do you know what the average personal pension provision is? Do people have personal pension pots?
And what is the average level of savings?
These four stats seem to sit together to give us a decent picture of what might be coming down the road for us all. I worry about a generation relying on building up equity in their potentially lower value home, already with debt and no pension provision. How the feck are we going to support everyone?
 


Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,106
Faversham
There's an assumption isn't there that people in debt are in debt because they're shit with money or they like a gamble or whatever.

I don't have the data but I'd wager the vast majority of people in debt are in out of necessity rather than recklessness.
I got £5K in debt during the Lawson bust, with £800 a month going out on mortgage and commute (up to London every day) and a post tax income of £1000 a month. I'd bought a house in 89, largely to please the missus (we were renting in Brixton, so....) but the interest rates soon zoomed to a peak in 92, and with one income I was heading in one direction only. A stroke of luck born of hard work earned me £3K, which wiped out the mortgage arrears and reduced the debt to manageable. With my 'local' bank still in London, the manager was happy enough to let me sustain a debt of a couple of grand in the expectation I'd get rid of it in a few years as my salary increased - he was dealing with greedy consultants at the nearby hospital who had taken massive risks during the Lawson boom and were building unsustainable debts. Meanwhile my pal Bob the Social worker, who had a better income than me at the time, was having to operate with financial restrictions because his local bank was in Faversham, where the norms were set at a different level.

Today, my son is older than I was when I went through all that shit in the early 90s, and he has no prospect of coming out of the rental sector unless I retire and give him my lump sum. My niece is getting married later this year and the elephant in the room is 'where will they live?', a conversation my brother has yet to have. The expectation is she will live at home with mum and dad half the week and round her husband;'s mum's house the rest of the time (which is what they are doing now). How old is she? About 30.

My personal circumstances are now excellent (apart from the health - oh, the irony) but for the next two generations.....perpetual renting, little prospect of saving, and the prospect of a private pension worth far less than mine. My junior work colleagues can expect a pension worth the equivalent of about 25% of my expectations when I started the job. This is so impactful that two young lecturers in 'permanent' positions quit their jobs in the last year, to do other (less attractive but less demanding) things. They were not prepared to make the financial sacrifices I made at the start of my career in the expectation of 'gravy tomorrow' because the gravy will be too thin. The idea of walking away from a relatively safe job in one of the top 5 universities in the UK would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.

 




WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
27,767
Mortgage aside, absolutely nothing.

Got myself into a bit of credit card debt when I was in my early twenties and that f***ing sucked so once that was paid off I swore I'd never do it again.

Don't even have a credit card these days.
Exactly the same (but more significant than a bit) and only managed to clear it because of selling a house. Apart from mortgages, never did it again and although I have credit cards, they've always been paid off every single month since. Having grown up in a poor family in a very poor area, I really should have known better :blush:

I have also instilled in my kids that if you don't have the money, you can't afford it, but am very aware that not everyone is that lucky.
 


theboybilly

Well-known member
Being debt free is very nice of course but I read somewhere that it can affect your Credit Score (should the time come that you need a loan) therefore having a Credit Card with a small debt on it (say £500) and paying most (but not all) off keeps the lenders happy. A small monthly interest actually being a positive. I'm not sure how that works though.
As for me I'm retired, have a moderate Work pension and my State Pension coming in. I'm just about having the same disposable income as I had when working without the worry of a mortgage anymore.
 


The Antikythera Mechanism

The oldest known computer
NSC Patron
Aug 7, 2003
8,086
Thirty years ago I was in negative equity and credit card debt. A "being in the right place at the right time" career move 25 years ago means I am now debt free, have three mortgage free properties, two SIPP's, ISA's and Bonds. My Mum died twelve years ago and left her house to my Brother and I. I gave my half to my two sons, so free of IHT liability after 7 years. Could've been so different.
 




Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,685
The Fatherland


Glawstergull

Well-known member
May 21, 2004
1,074
GLAWSTERSHIRE
Being debt free is very nice of course but I read somewhere that it can affect your Credit Score (should the time come that you need a loan) therefore having a Credit Card with a small debt on it (say £500) and paying most (but not all) off keeps the lenders happy. A small monthly interest actually being a positive. I'm not sure how that works though.
As for me I'm retired, have a moderate Work pension and my State Pension coming in. I'm just about having the same disposable income as I had when working without the worry of a mortgage anymore.
The credit score thing is a strange idea. I have a £300k mortgage and spend a decent amount each on cards. I clear all cards every month. My score just got a few points worse. What they cannot see is that i have enough cash in other investments etc to pay the whole mortgage. i also earn six figures and own a business valued at several million.
 


LamieRobertson

Not awoke
Feb 3, 2008
48,419
SHOREHAM BY SEA
This is your Ghost of Christmas Future, young man.

Your debts will fluctate but never really leave you.

Tough times ahead, especially in Winter 2022/3 which you'll be glad to see the end of.

But, although tough, your magnitude of debt will be much less by 2023.

16.5 years later :

Credit card 1 - 1200
Credit card 2 - 700
Credit card 3 - 500
Credit card 4 - 250
Credit card 5 - 200
loan 1 - 800
loan 2 - 670
loan 3 - 330
Overdraft - 1950

= 6.6K

Well done!

Been there to the tune of 50k….cleared and a rebuilt credit record.

Mortgage nearly paid off….pity I’ll be paying an ever increasing ‘rent’ for as long as I’m living
 






Insel affe

HellBilly
Feb 23, 2009
24,335
Brighton factually.....
45k left on the mortgage which no matter which way you look at it, is debt.
That should be paid off 2/3 years, we have money saved for daughters education which is over probably 3-4 times more than we have left on the mortgage, so she should be sorted (hopefully).

I do not use credit cards, or an overdraft and have not since my dark days and paid them all off.
The wife does put the certain things on a credit card like as others have said the holidays and she pays them off after we have been, she has taken a credit card out in my name for holiday, only because most car hire places need one in the drivers name when you go abroad.

I hated debt, I feel for anyone in it.
 




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