To ask how much debt you are in?

[Sunshine3013]

Just that really.
Wondering how much debt the average person is in.. Including mortgage, loans, credit cards, overdraft?

Just curious!

The reason I don’t have debts is because my parents had a lot of debt when I was growing up and it was very stressful at times and I don’t want that life for me or my children. I even refuse to use buy now pay later like Klarna or interest free instalments for a sofa or whatever - we bought a £250 sofa from IKEA instead of an expensive one from DFS so that we could afford it upfront.

Wow,I couldn't read all these !! Most of them seem to say the same thing !!!

Ok, I'm 48 (just) bought at 45 so have a mortgage til I'm 67. Very manageable though.
CC debt £250
and savings of £1500

Thought I was doing well to save this amount but reading this thread

I have a mortgage of about 255k on a 400k house (however we only own 80% of it so 320k)

I have no credit card debt as I have spiralled on these several times in my 20s so have since consolidated and cut them up.

I have a loan for our second hand car that we pay £160 a month. Its got about 12 months left until it's paid. It was originally 7.5k.

I have another loan which was the debt consolidation loan I took for all my credit cards. The loan was 9k and I have about 7k left to pay.

So overall we pay around 900 on mortgage, amd nearly 500 per month on debt repayment. Once the loans are paid off it will feel like we have had a massive pay rise! About to go on maternity so things will be a struggle soon. Our last mountain of debt was probably due to having two children in childcare which my wages barely covered. So I worry debt will return again.

Net worth is what matters, debt helps you accumulate net worth. Debt is an enabler for growing your net worth, not a bad thing, provided you have self discipline.

I was just about to say this! Leveraging the banks money is how you grow your net worth. It’s all relative, 30k debt with an income of 300k, is better than 30k debt with an income of 30k. Also looking closely at what you’re spending money on. An asset that goes up in value, will always be better than splashing out on unnecessary junk.

Why couldn't they comment though? Is it allowed only when you are in massive debt? I am confused. Of course they can comment but a lot of people with debt can experience feelings of shame so are just less likely to comment.

I don't know if it's an MN thing or that generally people who are debt free are just more likely to comment than those in debt.

[quote Perfect28]@harper30

Yep. These people need to get in the real world. If I didn't have debt I also wouldn't have a home, any furniture (you know frivolous things like a fridge or a bed), or a car. If I didn't have a car, I couldn't have a job. Where would I be then? On the streets probably. I would much rather have debt than nothing at all.[/quote]
I live in the real world. Always have done!

The point I was trying to make is that we all start off in debt don't we? But it is possible to get out of it, admittedly the reason we managed was because we didn't have kids! There was no point in our lives we could have afforded to, until I hit the menopause! Other people have other ways of doing it. They must do, because national average debt levels decline with age!

I don't know anyone my age who didn't start off adult life in a bedsit and then struggling when they met a partner and tried to set up home togteher. We house shared and still drowned in debt. We only managed because I was paid in cash, so the bank couldn't take it off us at source!

I thought that was normal, that everyone started off that way!

I also though t was normal to get out from under, at least part way. After 20 - 30 years of adult life, kids leave home, mortgage paid off and then you can start to pay bits of other debts off.

But yes, living with debt is the norm, I thought!

£10k in loans. Paying them off, slowly but surely :)

Mortgage, although DH is sadly about to inherit from his Dad so we will likely then be mortgage free

No other debts

Two mortgages and my student loan. Although I'm sharing the mortgages with my OH - the total is just over 900k.

OP I think this will go the same way as a 'how much do you drink' thread. Many posters proud (quite rightly so) to say they don't have any debt or mortgage and the vast majority of us, who represent 'normal' people, sit staring at the screen thinking 'fuck I must be different/ wrong/ bad'
I agree with you.
I posted that I am mortgage free, no loans , paid up bills etc.
However that is a snap shot of this moment. This could change at any time. The last 12 months has shown that life can be unpredictable.
It doesn't show the years where we nearly went bankrupt due to DH's business going under in the early 2000's or at times we were living week to week for money to come in wondering how I was going to pay the childminder so I could work to pay the never ending bills! Things got easier but we still didn't have much savings because we spent loads of money on the kids sports which meant travelling round the country costing us a fortune in fuel, hotel bills, food, kit etc. ( I don't regret a only!)
Its only in the last 18 months up to a couple of months ago that I hardly spent a penny so that I could pay the mortgage off.
I'd say I'm pretty ' normal' with an average income with an average local authority job!

Just a mortgage. It’s quite a small mortgage now, as we overpay each month.

I hate being in debt & am saving for early retirement!

Wondering how much debt the average person is in.. Including mortgage, loans, credit cards, overdraft

You can Google it op. The replies on this thread are hardly representative of the reality.
How much debt are you in?

Now only my car loan but that's because DH cleared my credit cards with an inheritance. Car loan is about £25K but is interest free

It doesn't show the years where we nearly went bankrupt due to DH's business going under in the early 2000's or at times we were living week to week for money to come in wondering how I was going to pay the childminder so I could work to pay the never ending bills! That's true isn't it? We give snapshots, not details.

I haven't mentioned the illnesses, injuries, redundancies that put us back in debt up to our necks - and shaped our miserly spending habits.

Maybe such threads need to always come with a disclaimer... could be injurious etc

But pattypan do you not see that for many people, the £250 sofa would also have to go on credit. I earn a good salary but a combination of divorce and ex being a twat I have 12k on cc, a 7k car loan and a 100k mortgage. It's all manageable month to month but I can't save so one off big purchases have to go on cc, on 0%which I monitor and shift about as needed to spread the payments. I'm not going to not take my kids on modest uk holidays, refuse them a music lesson once a week or stop them participating in a sport so I accept that life is expensive right now, but manageable. Most people I know, graduate professionals are similar.

Own house & cars outright and don’t have CC. Never had overdrafts.

Mortgage of £332k. Aiming to overpay £700-1k per month and also save separately. But we probably wouldn't be mortgage free by 40 because I am planning to upgrade to a bigger flat (if DH agrees).

Pay off credit cards in full at the end of every month.

No student loans but DH has student loans.

138k mortgage
About 5k loan debt
And I ve no clue what our student loan debt is but we ll get them written off anyway

Actually, I have about 70 pounds of credit card debt. That $100.00 USD. I'll have that paid off at the beginning of March, leaving only my monthly items (rent, utilities, cab fare) owing each month.

Zero.

I dont have a morgage yet and thats the only debt I would willingly get into.

In my whole life my debt has been neglegible (when I was 18 I owed £20 on an overdraft thats about it) I haven't ever bought anything unless I have the cash in hand to pay for it outright because if I dont have the money I simply cant afford it yet and have to save and wait.

I did get a credit card just for the extra credit score check, used it twice for about £5 and paid it off the same day, its just sat in my purse unused ever since.

I have no objections to anyone commenting that they've got no debt. That was the question on the thread after all.
It's the but I live within my means that's pissing people off.
Not everyone can do this. You need a minimum level of income that not everyone has.
You can't 'within your means' if you don't have enough money for food after you've paid your rent, council tax and utilities, and you're already working every hour you can to make more money.
I've been in the situation multiple times where I've had to buy groceries on credit card or have DS and I go hungry.
And no, I don't have a new TV (or a TV at all), I don't eat out, the only clothes I ever buy new for me or DS is underwear (everything else comes from charity shops) and I don't take holidays.

Only my mortgage.

I still have about 3x my annual salary outstanding.

I can afford the payments on a monthly basis but would dearly love to be rid of it. So I keep trickling in overpayments and praying my premium bonds win (maybe I should just overpay the mortgage with the money I have invested in premium bonds...)

I don't have debt now and have tended to live within my means.

However, I had a small student loan in the days when they were small (£500!); borrowed money to live on for my first month when I started my first job, I borrowed money to help my mum buy a house when she split up from my father (paid that loan off from a generous bonus) and I had mortgages but all those loans have now been paid off.

There won't be many people who can buy a house without a mortgage.

I used my credit card yesterday and spent £78 so I'll transfer money over this morning to pay for it

I never understand why people do this. Why not just set up a direct debit for the full amount to be cleared each month?
Because I can go for months with not using it and have zero balance, then I may book a holiday for £3,000 and not want to pay it off all at once.
My credit card is linked to my pal pal account and not my debit card and I bought something yesterday using PayPal so I've settled the account.
I do have a dd set up for a minimum balance so that I never forget a due date.
I hope that clears things up for you @BarbaraofSeville

None, we own everything we have outright.