[Closed] Debt.........or the lack of.

i have got no debt apart from a small matter called the mortgage. so no.

no debt here... also though.. no credit rating which can prove to be a bit of a sod sometimes.. like the other day when I tried to get a bank account with an overdraft facility.. or the time I tried to get a mobile phone contract..

None here, other than that mortgage thing. And my student loan (which is cheaper to ignore than pay off in full currently)

I have an inbuilt aversion to any large debt, to the extent that it makes me anxious...

So no credit card, small mortgage, bikes bought on interest free credit with the knowledge that I could buy them outright if needed.

no debts except a v small mortgage (c. 30% LTV) compared to our assets now.

I got debt free (excl. mortgage) aged 27ish and it was bliss. Student loans, a graduate loan, an overdraft and a small credit card debt were uncomfortable (mainly because I never missed a payment). I think at their worst about £14k, but par for the course for a 1997 graduate I guess.

I find the amount of debt some folk intentionally rack up frightening, I couldn't sleep at night! I'm old tho'.

none here and a reasonable sum in savings.
that thread gave me the fear, thing is we all pay for their stupidity and need for instant gratification through consuming.

i did get interest free credit on my iphone (6 monthly payments of £70)
i manage to sleep at night 🙂

Had a good but of debt for years, cleared it all for a couple of years other than the mortgage but needed to take a loan out last year and some on a CC. It took along time to sort things out and was helped by a once off windfall. The debt I have I can live with but rather I hadn't needed to take the loan out.

No debt whatsoever thankfully. Means I am not a burden on society in my unemployment. If I had borrowed like mad in better times, i could be getting my offset mortgage interest paid by you. What a mug I am for not doing that! I prefer to not have debt though, makes life simple.

without being rude............i think the older people seem to save up for stuff they want rather that using credit.

me and the mrs have 3 years left on a mortgage and that is all.
i would not sleep if i have a load of debt hanging over me.

just a mortgage , small one at that 😀

Mortgage (offset) and have overpaid a chunk of it so have a bit spare on that.

CC's - two totalling about £6K, but both are on 0% deals so cheaper than having that on the mortgage and paying interest on it. The amount spare on the mortgage exceeds the CC debt so I could pay that off any time, but at 0% why would I?

And then a couple of daily use CC's, for the convenience / purchase protection aspect, they all get paid off end of the month.

Debt in itself isn't bad. Unmanaged / unmanageable debt is a different matter.

small mortgage, that's it. No loans or Card debt. Don't have much in the way of savings tho.

Aaaahhhhhh..... Sanctimony.

surfer................sense

£38k mortgage
£1k on 0% credit card
so no big debts in the grand scale of things

Might have about £50 on the credit card at this moment, but no other debts, no mortgage, just a surplus of sanctimony 🙂

I used to have no debt and indeed no credit history, which made it nigh-on impossible to get a credit card/finance/loan/etc. as the sharks had nothing to base a credit score on.

Thankfully, I'm now up to my back teeth in it 🙂

Not for much longer, morgage is paid in two years and when I asked about another fixed rate deal they just laughed, don't think they were desperate for my business.

Going to take my pension early at 52, pay the house off and go do a degree, just didn't think of that sort of thing when I was a youngster, it was for the wealthy which we were definitely not

So will have a student loan, great if I ever get a part time job that pays enough to give some back, but if not its written off at 65 so not too worried about that debt

no mortgage, no loans but we have let the credit cards build up a little bit. We're down to one card now, not a huge amount on that.

Debt in itself isn't bad. Unmanaged / unmanageable debt is a different matter.

the world runs on debt so why shouldn't we? I have a small amount of unsecured debt, about a month's salary worth, but I don't lose any sleep over it as it's managable.

Ton ... you've got kids I seem to recall ... are any of them going on to tertiary education. If so that is kind of a debt ridalled business now and it conditions people into having significant debt - I left University after 4 years with a shade under 20K debt.
When you start "life" with that sort of debt it becomes quite normal to live with it for a while if you'rw not careful.
I was one of the first of the non grant University leavers so everything was borrowed and at the time perceptions fio the student loan system were a little hazy !

Just the mortgage now. Credit card automatically pays the balance each month. I was rubbish with money in my early twenties though.

In it up to my ears 🙁

Duc.......i do have kids mate.
one is 19 and works with me, other is 13 and still at school.

i was not having a go mate, just interested.

No debt, no mortgage, credit card paid in full by DD every month.
In terms of disposable income, as opposed to gross income, I reckon I'm better off than almost anyone I know.
Living in a shed, dressing like a tramp and having simpletastes does have some advantages. 😉

Student Loan.

CC paid of monthly. No overdraft. No loans. Not yet exposed to the joys of a Mortgage.

surfer................sense

No, see what theotherjonv did? He's using debt (on 0% credit cards) to actually save money elsewhere. i.e. make money.

apart from a modest car loan, nothing.

You may be misquoting me Jon

credit card paid in full by DD every month.

That's why I'm in the shit then - I'm paying your bills 🙂

is it a good thing that credit is now being refused and harder to get?

people seem to be saving money and not a quick to spend it.

deadlydarcy, credit cards are one of the highest interest rates around.
Barring loan sharks, it's worth borrowing money just about anywhere to pay it off and start again, assuming you can stay on top of it in the future and not slip further back.

No debt except mortgage - hate using the credit card - is stupid to spend money you don't have.

Three years ago I got declined for a contract mobile phone, despite having (at the time - since been all spent on a house!) a lot in savings, simply as I had no credit history - had only used a credit card a couple of times, only used my debit card. From their perspective I would have been better off with bad credit history than none at all.

Yes it is but for what its worth I think things like EMA don't actually help

Did you hear the news reports when the cut in EMA was announced - a load of teenagers saying that it would ahve been impossible for them to get a part time job as well as go to colledge - come on.

Part of my problem was that money was too easy to come by so I didn't appreciate the value of it. It was very easy at University in the first couple of years to get money via several overdrafts and the student loans company because it was virtually being thrown at me by them. It did eventually click that this wasn't an entirely healthy position to be in but when your 18/19 and someone says yes we'll give you a bank account and here's an overdraft of 1200 notes as well you'd take it as that a set of Rock Shocks Judy DH's to hang on the front of the bike. (in fact I only sold them a few motnhs back on ebay). WHen you have several people doing that then it becomes even more difficult to resist.
The same thing happened when I left Uni - the day I got confirmation of my first job I rang up the bank and the credit card company to inform them of my change in circumstances and my overdraft facility doubled and so did my credit limit (with different terms in the small print)

The sooner that stops the better in my opinion

No debt here, not a sausage, save for everything and have money in the bank to boot, work very hard (not saying people with debt don't,)never buy until i can afford.

lifes much easier when you never argue or worry about money,

18 years left on mortgage - current balance around £115,000
About half way through a £10k loan
£7k going nowhere on credit card

On the plus side, as long as work doesn't dry up, I earn quite a lot of money, so it's all manageable.

Failing that I'll probably die before it's all paid off.

Got my mortgage which I think is going down credit card but that's got a grand that is going a little quicker and then that 'interest free' student loan

Not a penny owed 😀 it really is a nice feeling!

No mortgage, no CC, no loan. If I could get one I would, but I can't 🙂

CC is just used as another card in my wallet, got fed up not having any money if a card got wiped for whatever reason (static, left near speekers, bank randomly canceling it etc) and being refused phone contracts and the protection might come in handy, never managed to get it over half my sallary in a month though so always paid off.

Student loan, its there, just like tax and pensions, cheeper to ignore it than do anything about it. Got about a similar ammount in savings, although they're earning about the same in intrest 🙁

Mortgage, you must be mad, pay the bank 5%pa for an asset that loosing 5%pa when I could rent the same asset for 5% and not have to deal with any of the liabilities arrising from it?

No personal or secured loans. Although apparenly my gym membership is a loan if you read the small print it appears the gym gets your moeny upfront from a finance company then you pay it off over 12months at ~3% intrest. Bit cheeky as they don't mention this when you sign up.

I like buying stuff, but I like doing it with my own money and feeling like I've earnt it.

£98k strangely that's the amount I got one this time last year. Didn't have 98k spare so had to look at bankruptcy or selling the house. Wife also became ill after an operation so no income.

Worked day and night six/seven days a week etc etc. Got it paid off just before Christmas, where there's will there's a way.

Long and short of it I have no debt except the mortgage which if I'd not been done would have finished October 2011 😥 it's tiny though...and the mortgage.

Gonna work my moobs off to get it all back and put my money under the mattress.

told you older folk save to pay for stuff.......... 😉

Mortgage, you must be mad, pay the bank 5%pa for an asset that loosing 5%pa when I could rent the same asset for 5% and not have to deal with any of the liabilities arrising from it?

So, are you telling me that for the 5% interest pa.. that you would pay the banks, you can rent a property?

I doubt it, so whereas everyone else's monthly payment (minus the bank's cut) will come back to them in 15, 20, 25 years - yours will be in your landlords pocket.

Renting is not a long term financially viable prospect and your logic seems flawed.

By the end of this year it [i]should[/i] be just the mortgage plus a decent bit of savings.

Which will make a nice change.

No debt, no mortgage, credit card paid in full by DD every month.
In terms of disposable income, as opposed to gross income, I reckon I'm better off than almost anyone I know.
Living in a shed, dressing like a tramp and having simpletastes does have some advantages

Likewise. Mortgage paid off in 2-3 yrs and savings on the side to setle now if i felt like it. I'm sat here on a free lap top, free phone bill, wearing patched jeans that are 6 years old, in a house barely decorated in 8 yrs. I ran my last car to 130,000 miles despite much mocking at work and paid cash for a new one last year. My brother in law retired at 50 last year with a massive savings pot and not because he earnt mega bucks but because they lived modestly. Most consumerism is just a load of bobbins.

I do feel very sorry for todays grads though with a $hit jobs market and bonkers house prices. The class of 1986 were lucky in those respects.

37, massive mortgage, secured loan, credit card debt I have defaulted on, massive student loan, no savings, no pension and I'm now unemployed.

I'm poor but I'm happy. Made some catastrophic financial decisions in my life and I'm know paying the consequences. You can't take it with you so I'm past caring. Just gotta live my life..

Student loan, at least £18k + interest. That doesn't really count though since everyone has that debt now 😛

I've got a 100 grand mortgage and about £300 quid on student loan, have a overdraft that varies between 0 and about £800. Got a free hand me down car from the parents and an old motorbike thats currently knackered. Having a baby last of all my friends helps too hardly had to buy anything. I get paid **** all though and less than I did about 6 years ago.

im 24, the only debt i have is my car. i owe about £1200 on it. keep up with payments. on the grand scale of thing im not in any massive debts and could pay my car off tomorrow if i needed to.

i also have savings (ok not much but a few thousand)

shaun

Earning a lowly bureaucrat income ... bloody bureaucracy.

The computer says nnnoooooo so no CC to mess around but I like pen pushing.

Cash is king.

None at all here... Well, I have a credit card debt on a 0% deal outstanding, but I can pay that off once the 0% expires so I'm not considering it debt.

[i]Renting is not a long term financially viable prospect and your logic seems flawed.[/i]

It seems to be viable, and the norm in a lot of Europe, I've often wondered why that isn't considered the case in the UK

Loddrik. You are a Red, money cant buy that 😉

No mortgage - critical illness payout thankfully. Current debt is a small loan on our only car to accomodate the wifes 60+ mile round trip commute. Minimal credit card debts.

I'm renting.. and totally debt free.. (and skint)

I never really bought into the whole mortgage and bricks and mortar thing.. yeah sure it's a nice investment but it also kinda binds you pretty securely into 'the mans' blueprint on how we should live our entire adult lives..

I've watched grown men fall apart over their debts and what have they really had to show for it.. a few baubles and trinkets that the evil emperor of materialism has seduced them with at some point..

live outside the box and stick it to the man maaaaaan.

Debt free! 😀

Wealth free too. 🙁

Ah well.

I've seen too many family members, friends and others get into serious trouble with debt, to be even tempted to borrow. Seen people's hopes and dreams be dashed against the rocks of reality. Got friends who work their bottoms off doing 60+ hours, six days a week etc, just to maintain a fairly simple lifestyle. Looked on with amazement at folk who've bought first homes in the last 5 years or so, top of the market, now seeing their property's value dropping.

I get annoyed when my bank offers me all sorts of loans, CCs, etc. I ask them why, with my account barely in the black, do they think I have the funds to pay owt back? Insane. Credit is far, far too easy to get.

I believe in the mantra of 'if you can't afford it, you can't have it until you can'. Saves a hell of a lot of trouble.

Though someone once told me 'it's not a debt if you can/are paying it'

Cash is king.

I used to stick it to the man but i am the man now.

£13 on my credit card but I have 2 weeks to pay it off.

used to have lots, now i have none. took a good few years to pay it off and i feel no richer now it's gone. still have a mortgage

12 years left on a 100k mortgage and just over 3k on a 0% credit card.

No savings as such, but I have been putting money into various pensions since I started working 16 years ago. What they end up being worth when I draw them down at retirement is anyone's guess!

Define 'older people', ton...

I came out of University with £1500 overdraft - interest free in my graduate account. I paid that off in a yr & I got a graduate loan out for my car which I paid off a year early.
Since then I have always saved & bought stuff outright. I use my credit card, but only so I have a buffer while I transfer money over from my savings account, which I then use to pay off the CC immediately.

I am currently in the process of buying a house with my other half so will have a mortgage, but we reckon we'll be able to significantly over-pay on it and everything we need will be bought outright.

Debt gives me the willies - even owing friends small amounts.

32 and no debts or mortgage. Dont really feel like I have missed out on anything due to 'sensible' spending either.

buy a house in west yorkshire, it can be paid off before you know it. obviously moving south will be painful whe it happens.

A huge crippling mortgage. Nothing else.

Been there though and its not a nice place.

Although most people with a major Debt problem will not tell you. The shame of debt and financial mismanagement can be crushing.

Likewise. Mortgage paid off in 2-3 yrs and savings on the side to setle now if i felt like it. I'm sat here on a free lap top, free phone bill, wearing patched jeans that are 6 years old, in a house barely decorated in 8 yrs. I ran my last car to 130,000 miles despite much mocking at work and paid cash for a new one last year. My brother in law retired at 50 last year with a massive savings pot and not because he earnt mega bucks but because they lived modestly. Most consumerism is just a load of bobbins.

If that's your bag, then fair enough. Personally I like nice jeans, a decorated house and a fairly plush car. No problem with people being frugal though and wish I managed my money a bit better at times.

On the other hand though, I wouldn't want to do without just to save for 30 odd years, then get hit by a bus.

It seems to be viable, and the norm in a lot of Europe, I've often wondered why that isn't considered the case in the UK

Because regulations around renting and security of tenure are quite different

I've never been good with money.

Been working for nigh on 30 years and due to a split I'm completely debt free (not that I ever had anything other than a mortgage and a couple of thinks on HP when I was a nipper).

Renting as although I have a bank balance greater than my annual salary its nowhere near enough to buy what I'd like remotely close to my place of work.

Being an old duffer I save rather than splurge (although with an impending 17% pay cut and then no pay increase for 3 years, if i still have a job, I have been 'stocking up' on certain things ).

The more I think about things the less I seem to need. I mean there are so many shops and that that I never have even the whiff of an urge to enter.

Not got a mortgage yet, though one is on the way. We are looking to buy this year, after our wedding. Problem is living in London... = crazy prices.

Student loan is large but being paid off gradually via salary sacrifice.

Have a credit card debt that I could afford to pay off, but have been neglecting and paying interest. This thread has inspired me to sort out a balance transfer to a 0% card.

It always amazes me how people earning so much more than me can have so much debt and always be skint. I don't earn mega bucks, don't live like a tramp but somehow have managed to pay off my mortgage and save a decent amount.

It is a pretty good feeling and the lack of fear of losing your job makes arguments with management much more fun. Will probably quit next year anyway as life is too short to stick with a S**t job when you don't need to.

I possess immense spiritual wealth.

Yeah, but you're not particularly well endowed wiv teef, are you? 🙂

All flesh is grass, fred. And that includes gnashers.

I have wealthy inlaws 😈

I live simply.

Small mortgage (<£20'000 outstanding) no CC, no loans, no car. 4 bikes & a pretty crappy low-paid job that still gives me a minimum of £600 per month after i've paid all my bills & fed myself.
A few thousand in the bank from my last employer so a nice little cushion there.
Actually, i'm not doing all that bad am i?

muddydwarf.........are you me? 😆

No Ton, you are several me's.... 😛

My business income (as a sole trader) comes in at around £5.5k per month.

My business overhead runs at around £1k per month (insurance/loan/fuel/etc).

I have 20% of the £5.5k tax deducted via the CIS scheme (so about £1100).

Theoretically that should leave £3400 per month. Can someone tell me where it is please?

I've got friends that have borrowed massively to get into flash houses and are on interest only 30yr mortgages 😯 They then get more loans to buy 'other' stuff.

I was brought up to be careful with money and I tend to save up to buy stuff. We've just bought a new house which by my measures was very very expensive but a good investment, even that will have a tiny mortgage and shoud be clear in < 6 months. It just amazes me what debts and utter carp people get themselves into - i mean, what you earn is not a surprise every month is it ? Insane.