How much debt are you in?

Had a mortgage of course (paid off at 42) but neither of us have ever had any other debt (loans, CC etc).
Even before we met we both worked on the principle that if we don't have the money, we don't have the item. Have always saved and paid for cars etc outright. CC used for most days to day purchases but paid off in full at the end of the month.

I am in my 30s with two children and a partner. I currently have:

• £250k outstanding on the mortgage. This is likely to increase as we want a bigger house.
• £10k loan used for a car
• 2k left to pay on student loan (will be paid off this year)
• £2k on credit card (will be paid off on payday)

All of this has been on what I see as investments except for the car which was a necessity. I.e. buying a home has given us stability and equity, going to university was necessary to get my job which is relatively well paid, the credit card covered materials for the garden interest free which means I can keep money in my savings account where it is accruing interest.

Unsustainable and poorly managed debt is bad but borrowing can actually be a good way of building equity. I grew up v poor so this took me a long time to learn compared to my friends from well-off families.

£1400 on credit card which will be paid off at the end of the month, don’t have any other debt. Mortgage paid off.

zero. House bought outright and no other finance. Actually I lie, I bought something online with credit card the other day, so £120 which I will pay off in full.

I was on about 80k for most of the period of the mortgage. DH was earning similar. We paid it off during over about 7 or 8 years during the period of very low interest rates which was much easier than it would be now.

I’m late 40’s now.

No help with deposit but we bought a relatively modestly priced house compared to our salaries so it was achievable.

I now earn well in excess of 6 figures with no mortgage so I max out my pension contributions. It means DH and I will both be able to comfortably retire well before DS leaves primary school with enough to buy a more expensive house at that time if we choose to and still fund the family forever with no lifestyle changes.

Our biggest challenge will be the new pension IHT rules which will mean we’ll need to structure how to withdraw and pass on huge chunks of our pensions funds to DS over time to avoid a colossal IHT bill.

Most people in our situation ended up buying much more expensive houses. If you work out the additional cost of that including mortgage interest over the years and then calculate how much capital you would have if you had instead invested the same money you will be shocked. You end up with a pot of money that is several times more than the additional value of the houses the others buyers eventually ended up owning. That buys you a lot of freedom to enjoy a very early retirement with a high income.

348,000
Most of that is mortgage. I have two loans that are nearly paid off, car finance and a bit on a credit card.
We have been renovating a house we bought two years ago and it’s been expensive!!

0 and its not a stealth brag. Im poor 😆 but no credit or anything.

I have no debt of any sort other than the amount currently on the credit card which is paid off every month, but I am edging towards retirement. I would not think it remotely odd if a younger person living in the the South East/London had 500K of debt if all/the majority of that was a mortgage. Paying mortgage payments isn't really any different to paying rent each month, and the mortgage payments might be lower!

I do think it's eye watering that 500K is considered "normal" though - that is a huge amount of money by any measure.

I don’t think a mortgage should be included in this. It’s an investment as others have said.

We own outright so don’t have a mortgage or rent to pay. We do have around £7k in debt - we have a credit card with a high limit on it and we book our holiday on it every year and then pay it off throughout the year. Sometimes it gets paid off before the next holiday, sometimes it doesn’t. We don’t really worry about it, always pay off a lot more than the minimum and move it around if we get a better 0% offer. We always keep the card open though even if we do this as we like the high limit we have on it (very aware they could just reduce this). Mumsnet is very anti debt but I think as long as you’re sensible and can afford the repayments even if someone lost their job etc (which we could do) it’s not a problem. We’ve had some fantastic holidays! 🙈😂

Mortgage and about 20k on 0% cards that I.move around as needed. Im an SP with two expensive teenagers. That 20k has built up over the last 10 years but will go when I can downsize and free up equity. Im not worried about it. Life id expensive and so long as you keep the plates spinning its ok.

I have about 2.5k on a credit card, it will be paid off in around 6 months if I can be bothered.

I have friends that have 10s of thousands on various cards, car loans, bank loans etc probably about 50ks worth not including their mortgage, I find it terrifying but they are adamant it's a good thing because it means they are allowed better borrowing.

I don't see mortgage as a debt (unless in negative equity).
I see the mortgaged property as something I co-own with the lending bank and gradually own a bigger and bigger part, one "rent" at the time. But I generally could walk out, sell the house, get my part of the value, no debt as such.

I'm not sure student loan counts as a proper debt either - it is a weird pseudo tax, but if you lost the income, no-one will come to collect that month's payment, so it is a burden , but not the critical one.

250 mortgage
At least 100k student loans

No consumer debt.

I have about £88k left on my mortgage
£35k student loan debt
Around £3k on credit cards (which i hate and am desperately trying to reduce)

500k seems like a massive amount to me!

Almost a mil. It's all my mortgage and we pay it comfortably. No big deal.

If you’re including mortgage as debt then most people are in debt tbh. We paid off our mortgage about 3 years ago thank God. Have CC debt of approximately £500 which will be paid off by end July hopefully

About 8K on an interest free car loan. The equivalent is in an ISA earning interest while the repayments keep up my credit rating and my monthly spending in check.

other than that, none. No mortgage.

300k left on the mortgage
1k on a credit card
2 cars on PCP
18k left on a loan that I needed to pay for urgent private surgery that was refused on NHS

337k of a mortgage and that’s it. I don’t really consider it bad debt though tbh.

Other than mortgage:-
£7000 car loans ( we have 2 small cheap second hand cars though mine cost me a bloody fortune in repairs amd sure I’d be better off on finance deal)
my next account is usually between£300/500 owed (terrible interest rate I really need to pay this off)
we do have about £5000 savings.
always skint last week of the month

No debt and no mortgage, own outright. We don't live a flashy lifestyle though, car is 6 years old, mostly shop at Aldi and bulk buy in Costco. We're very fortunate.

I have had debt in my life and it was a very worrying time. I think it got to around £60k on various credit cards at its worst. I was married to a financially abusive man for many years and life was hard. I wont get into the details but I did eventually get it paid off. The cards were cut up and I've never used a credit card since.

I'm now completely debt free aged 60 and mortgage paid off. Life is definitely better on this side of the tracks.

Zero debt , but I do have an older car and rent, so 🫤

I only class real debt as money you’ve borrowed that you don’t have the means to pay back e.g. my mortgage isn’t really debt as if I had to I could sell my house to pay it off, I have a loan for my kitchen for £11k which is interest free but, I have that amount of money in the bank so could pay it off. With that approach I only have my student loan which is about £35k. If I was to add up all of my debt, including mortgage, it would be around £340k.