Anyone else feel over indebted?

[Crumpetpie]

Morning,

just having a whinge really, which is daft as these are all choices we’ve made. We earn well (7.6k take home combined) but our outgoings on essentially deny us crazy. Mortgage has risen to £2100. We also have car debts of £600pm total for 2 cars. A PO personal loan that we had for renovations at £260 as well as us both having bits on credit cards etc. the unsecured stuff will be gone in 20 months thankfully.

so about 3.5k of our take home pay is just paying debts! Seems a bit soul destroying. Is anyone else in the same boat?

Well stop taking out debt then!

Debt should be avoided at all costs for this exact reason. Can you cut the car leases and buy cheap run arounds for a few years?

I would cut up the credit cards and make a resolution to not add to the debt ever again. If you don’t have the money, you’ll need to save. That’s my mantra anyway but I know it’s easier said that done once you’re in debt and at the mercy of interest rates.

if you change your spending, in time, you’ll be back on your feet and enjoying your income!

Car finance seems like the obvious thing to drop.

Yes, our mortgage is roughly the same as yours and we are a long way from paying it off. A lot of people who got on the property ladder post 2008 are in a difficult position with mortgage repayments, especially if they didn’t have large deposits. And that’s people who are lucky enough to be on the property ladder. It is unfair.

But life is unfair and a lot people are far worse off. That doesn’t mean you can’t feel frustrated or have a whinge. But it might help to recognise that you’re very lucky and have a lot more stability than a lot of younger people.

Doesn't seem very problematic if you have £4100 left over, what is it you're not able to do that you want to do?

I hear you OP. We are the similar. Circa £7k monthly income. £1800 mortgage, we have literally just got rid of £500pcm debts. Another £2k bill a month, after household bills we are left with around £1.5k. Sole destroying

I always look at my net worth and it makes me feel better about any debt.

How much savings do you have at hand?

The answer for the future is not to take out date. We only ever had a mortgage and a car loan. Everything else was saved up for. We didn’t use credit cards and if the car needed repairing it was off the road till we could afford it.

Only about 5k right now which we keep as an emergency fund

Only ever took on a mortgage. I get as I’m probably a lot older than you that money went a lot further but you need to look at how you ended up with the debt.

Cars, how much was each car and could you have gone cheaper?
Renovation debt. Was the roof falling down or did you just replace a bathroom you hated but was perfectly ok.

This is where attitude to debt is a big factor. For some debt is about not having food or living in unsafe housing but for some it’s because the need is too strong and it’s not essential.

In that much debt on a personal level I would hate it and be buying nothing unless essential.

I use 0% credit cards all the time. I would not have my car off the road if I knew I could fix it. I also used 0% credit cards to buy cars outright.
This was much cheaper than taking out car loans or bank loans.

You will have good cash flow once you have paid off your current debt.

I would concentrate on building savings but if I had your take home pay I would still use 0% credit cards for big purchases and holidays etc just make sure to pay them off in time.

You could transfer the debts to 0% card/s. I think it’s 0% for up to 24 months so not much longer than you’re looking at being debt free anyway. But it would reduce your monthly payments and you can put the balance at the end of the 24 months on to another 0% and keep doing that until it’s all repaid.

As @2025istheyear said 0% transfers are a useful tool in money management