To think a lot of people must have a high amount of debt

[user495827]

I wouldn't dream of being nosey enough to ask people in real life. So thought I would ask on here. I'm asking more from people with average incomes rather than very high. When I say average I suppose I mean around £20000 to £35000
I'm from the North West which I think is relevant as the average house price /wage is lower than the South.
A lot of my friends and their partners are in this bracket. They seem to spend a lot of money. One friend, for example, got married last year a beautiful wedding easily £10000. A honeymoon to Dubai and also a mini moon to Paris. Beginning of this year they bought a house and are completely renovating it top to bottom. I happen to know her salary just through conversations is £25000. Her husbands job probably pays around £30000. Another friend again completely renovating a new house. Both have Audi's cars on finance.
AIBU to think a lot of people spend like this now and that it is normal to have very high debts/high mortgage?
I know it's not my business I certainly don't begrudge them and how they spend their money. I use to earn similar but im now part time and I suppose I'm abit of a saver.

[Asdf12345]

240k mortgage, 5k and 15k student loans, no other debts/leases/etc, combined income 110k.

If we want something (except the house and previously education) we pay cash for it.

[Bergerdog]

We had lots of debt previously, probably 15k which thankfully is all paid now and I never want to get anything like that ever again.

We have sofa finance which is pennies a month and a leased car, both of which we can afford easily plus a mortgage.

We may need to take a loan one day to renovate our house but hoping to do as much as possible first!!

[MrBennsshop]

DH and I dont owe anyone a single penny. This is the fist time in my adult life (other than living at home) I can say that. It is a very liberating feeling. That said, it's come about through multiple deaths in a short space of time so to be frank, I'd rather have the debt tbh.

[Scotmummy1216]

If i can't afford or include in budget i don't buy or get credit. Recently paid off my car in march. Have a mortgage left of 87,000 that's it in terms of debt. Don't own a credit card but may get one due to buyer protection it offers.

[DanniArthur]

Our combined income is £64k. We've £92k left on our mortgage and owe around £3k left on my car, his is paid off (both bought on hire purchase) We have a credit card each but rarely use them or pay the amount back if we do.

[octobersky19]

I'm from the north west and I have a relatively low mortgage, I'm about to become a student - so I will have student loans. My husband earns a decent wage, through probably not a "high" earner but we live very comfortably because we've kept our debts low and lived within our means so in a few years to come we'll be mortgage free and can begin a lovely early retirement.

I think it's all about living within your means, I wasn't brought up to use credit cards and catalogues to have the best of everything. If I wanted something I worked for it.

Not only that, I do think credit is pushed on the younger generations and I think as parents it's crucial that children are educated in finances.

[TheGoogleMum]

Joint income of around 50k - we're both in the wage bracket as OP suggests. We have about 12k debt over 2 (0% promo rate) cards. We have a car on pcp and we have a mortgage. Got a 1 year old child and nursery to pay for, it always feels like money is a little tight but we aren't really adding to debt much now but can't afford to pay it off either and just doing minimum payments. Both of us continued working throughout pandemic. We bought our house and saved up for our approx 8k honeymoon before having a baby whilst renting. The reduction in work hours (we both reduced a bit, I earn slightly more than DH) + childcare costs leaves us with less wriggle room for savingand repaying debt.

[user1471510720]

A lot of these houses people are quoting are going to be dropping like stone very soon. No doubt about it. The good old days are gone people. Get used to living, let’s say, less well.

[botedbored]

I'm always surprised at how small people's mortgages are on here.

[botedbored]

We have a joint income of £60k and at one point had 2 kids at private school!

Was this a long time ago though?

[Daftodil]

Roughly £90k left to pay off mortgage. No credit cards, loans or other debts. Mortgage was taken out on full time salary, but I dropped hours when I had kids which knocked off 40% of my income so finances are tight. I live frugally as I have so many friends who have debts that have spiralled to the point of no return and the thought of being in that position absolutely terrifies me.

[botedbored]

I’m on £16,000 a year and have £8k debt which is my car finance, as well as a £120,000 mortgage

How do you have such a high mortgage vs your salary?

[blue25]

@user1471510720

A lot of these houses people are quoting are going to be dropping like stone very soon. No doubt about it. The good old days are gone people. Get used to living, let’s say, less well.

The value of my house makes no difference to my quality of life though.

We plan to stay here forever, so unless we decide to sell it won’t affect us. Those planning on using house equity as their pension may be in trouble though.

[NeutrinoWrangler]

My parents taught me to avoid debt whenever possible (aside from when buying a home), and I married someone who has a similar approach to finances.

We don't live extravagantly, but we're comfortable and spend enough to enjoy life (in our quiet, non-flashy way). The peace of mind of being debt-free is priceless.

[Planetaryexplorer]

268k mortgage on a house valued at £330k. We also have another house which is rented out so a mortgage of approx 92k on a house valued at 145k. I also have a student loan.
We have a combined income of 115k. We have a loan to family with about 12k on it. We pay it off at 500 per month so it will be cleared relatively quickly and if something happened they would be fine with us stopping payments. No other debts.
We have about 6k in savings atm.

[KaitK]

Wow, it's quite depressing reading this! Everyone seems far more organised with their finances than me!

I went back to uni in my mid twenties, the course was paid for and I was salaried to be a full time student during the degree but had to take a massive pay cut (dropped my take home pay by nearly half) so put a lot of debt during that time on to credit cards. I lived alone and had a mortgage which was my priority. I had to do a lot of travelling to different campuses so high fuel costs. These bills, vet bills and shopping and fuel costs were put on the credit cards. Consequently, nearly ten years later, I'm still paying the credit cards (and subsequent loans) off. I don't use that degree at work and have never actually worked in that field since graduation. I went back to the field I was previously working in and progressed in that field.

My salary now is £33500 with a monthly take home pay of around £2000. I live alone. I have around £100,000 to pay off the mortgage, about £18,000 loan (loan is split across two loans, one of around £7,000, one of around £11,000), around £2,500 on a 0% credit card and another £2,000 on my only credit card that I actually use. I'm making a concerted effort to pay off my credit cards currently (I've managed to pay a couple off this year). I plan to remortgage the house in the autumn or winter and add the smallest loan on to that. The credit cards shoupd be paid off within the next year at which point I will start overpaying the remaining loan (may overpay the mortgage first though if I can take payment holidays in the future, need to look in to it a bit more).

I have absolutely no savings whatsoever but have access to a lot of finance on my credit cards (nearly £20,000) should any large, unexpected expenses arise. I have cut all these cards up, except my day to day one, so I can't make any impulse purchases.

I'm not worried about my debt. I work in a very secure job with absolutely no risk of redundancy ever. And I will receive a pay rise next year which will see my salary rise to at least £38,000. I will almost certianly receive a promotion in the next twelve to eighteen months which would bring my salary to around £40,000, rising to around £45,000 after (around) five years.

I would like to get rid of my debt as I plan, within the next 12 months, to start trying for a baby as a single mother, which will be expensive (either private IVF here or abroad) and I would like not to have to worry too much about finances during maternity leave and on returning to work.

[PenelopePitstop49]

Combined income of around 80k, no mortgage and no debts. Good savings. Good pensions. We also own our business premises outright. DH is late 50s, I'm late 40s.

It's taken 30 years to get here but it was worth the wait.

[80sMum]

Being in debt would worry me hugely and I would work hard at paying it off as soon as possible.

I subscribe to the Mr Micawber school of thought "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Apart from a mortgage, I've never been in debt. But the downside is that I did end up waiting 21 years for a new bathroom! When we bought our house, we hated the bathroom and said we would replace it when we could afford to - and that turned out to be 21 years later!

[sassysoul]

Very little people mention their age bracket which I think is important, I mean if someone has a mortgage of £150k at 25 and another at 65 there's a big difference

[elliejjtiny]

No debts apart from mine and dh's student loans. Not sure how much they are, about £10k each I think. We don't earn enough to pay any off. We rent and own our cars outright so no mortgage or car loan.

[EmmelineGreen]

People may look at us and wonder how we afford things. Combined income of around £80k. To be honest it’s just good luck for the most part. We both first bought properties in our 20s. We’re now early 40s. There’s been a huge rise in value in that time. Good friends of ours are 10 years younger, earn significantly more and would love to be able to afford a house on our road. And we have a pretty low mortgage. Yes we had to save at the beginning but it was a different time, low deposits, lower rents and much more doable. I need £8k for my first house. Even going back 16 years that was achievable.

Then of course as we’ve had years of low mortgage payments we have also been able to build up savings.

[elliejjtiny]

Good point @sassysoul. Ok then, I am late 30's, dh is early 40's and we have no debt apart from student loans.

[dicksplash]

We earn just under £34,000 and about £31,000 ish. Only debt is a small about £2,000 credit card bill which we could pay off with savings but its on an interest free credit card and will be paid off by the end of interest free. We do get cars on finance but they are about £150 and £170 a month so doable then we have a mortgage. Day to day living are within our means usually or payable off in a short amount of time.

[gingajewel]

Joint income is £50k and we have debt of about 25k through various circumstances. I have 77k left on the mortgage and house is worth about 115k.
We are re mortgaging in august and I’m hoping to use the equity from my house to re mortgage and borrow the 25k to pay off my debt. I no this will make my mortgage payments a lot higher but it will be cheaper than what we are paying in debt repayments, I can’t see any other way to do it and am hoping we will be able to do this with the way things are at the moment!

[Kinlocrhum]

My SIL and BIL earn approx £600K per annum. Porsches on lease, house remortgaged and about 150k on credit cards. It's all to do with 'keeping up with the Jones'. It horrifies me!