Page 28 | To ask how much debt you are in?

IHaveBrilloHair · 20/02/2021 08:42

None.
I don't own my home though and my car is a motability car.
I don't have credit either, I've been down that road before, and I just won't now, the stress isn't worth it for me.

IHaveBrilloHair · 20/02/2021 08:50

Everything I have is owned outright even my phone.
My TV packages, (I have Sky, Netflix and Prime) are not on a contract so can be cancelled at any time.
I have a small amount of savings if I suddenly needed a new washing machine or fridge, plus car insurance excess.

Allypally12 · 20/02/2021 08:52

Only mortgage. Savings of around 7k.

Proseccoagain · 20/02/2021 09:36

None; mortgage paid off and credit card paid in full each month. Oh, I probably owe the paper shop about £30....

Ninjamilo · 20/02/2021 09:46

I’m the polar opposite to most on here...

£370k mortgage
£100k HTB loan
£16k personal loans
£40k ish on credit cards/finance

I don’t think most of these comments are typical of the UK population.

Pinkwithwhite · 20/02/2021 09:58

Wow! Well here's mine...
£200,000 mortgage (with DH)
£7,000 on credit Cards (not 0% I wish it was)
£11,000 car finance
£2,000 DFS

DH has roughly the same amount plus a loan of £7,000.

I'm not able to go back to work with 2 children under 18months. But that's our own fault for having children before we could afford them (both were surprises).
We pay minimum payments on everything and have no idea how we will ever get out of debt. It's extremely stressful!
We are that couple who don't have the best of luck, we try so hard to make the right decisions but it always bite us in the bum!

Chewit2022 · 20/02/2021 11:12

Why is it so baffling that so many posters are in very strong financial positions on this thread?

Because if you’re in loads of debt, many will be very stressed about it and won’t click on a thread about the issue!

Whereas if you’re in a strong financial position, you’re going to be happy to post and intrigued about others

Chewit2022 · 20/02/2021 11:14

One thing I wish the Op has asked for posters to include is age

SpaceRaiders · 20/02/2021 12:09

A secured loan/mortgage is probably the cheapest form of capital you can access. Why are people so obsessed with paying it off? I have so many friends who have houses worth on average, lets say £500k... most are "sensible" and claim to only have £100k or so mortgage left. They can be quite smug. I just cringe and think that if I were them i'd remortgage for £300k and get 10-20% return in investments whilst paying 1.5% on a mortgage!!

Absolutely this, refinance and reinvest! But I guess it all comes down to financial literacy and your attitude to risk.

Mydoghasbettereyebrowsthanme · 20/02/2021 12:37

Yes that is it exactly. I am nothing special at all in any way, shape or form in regards to my financial situation - this is a skewed thread of course. People who have worked hard, made good decisions and calculated risks that have paid off of course should be proud ! But hard work does not always reap rewards as a pp said. I have told my dcs this a few times - capitalism and Maggie thatcher would have you believe hard work is rewarded. It isn't always the case. My dad (70) has worked his absolute arse off in a manufacturing job all his life and does not even own his own home. Many many people I know and I'm my family own their own homes mortgaged (I am 43) but I don't. I have worked hard since I was 16 but ultimately, asset wise , it has come to nothing.
I am facing a rather bleak retirement ( if I ever get to and am praying for continued good health to get there !) But I have had to make my peace with that so I can enjoy my life and be content now and in the future.
And , as a footnote , debt is only affordable for those who qualify. People only use payday loans and loan sharks as no other option is available. You are very privileged if you judge someone for using them - ppl who do are not stupid or uneducated ,or financially illiterate - a high percentage are in desperate need and , with not a flawless credit rating or a property to secure it on , have no choice. Been there , it is absolutely shit .
Sorry for long waffle - I jus wanted to speak up for those who may feel a bit sad at reading this thread

PurpleFlower1983 · 20/02/2021 12:51

@SpaceRaiders

A secured loan/mortgage is probably the cheapest form of capital you can access. Why are people so obsessed with paying it off? I have so many friends who have houses worth on average, lets say £500k... most are "sensible" and claim to only have £100k or so mortgage left. They can be quite smug. I just cringe and think that if I were them i'd remortgage for £300k and get 10-20% return in investments whilst paying 1.5% on a mortgage!!

Absolutely this, refinance and reinvest! But I guess it all comes down to financial literacy and your attitude to risk.

We’re just about to go this based on the advice of a financial advisor. Adding 40k to the small residential mortgage to enable us to fully finance a second buy to let that will pay the residential mortgage. We live in Yorkshire so a cheaper area, I understand others have it harder in more expensive parts of the country.

savvy7 · 20/02/2021 14:50

[quote SmilingHappyBeaver]**@mumoftinyterrors yes, it does make me wonder about peoples financial literacy? A secured loan/mortgage is probably the cheapest form of capital you can access. Why are people so obsessed with paying it off? I have so many friends who have houses worth on average, lets say £500k... most are "sensible" and claim to only have £100k or so mortgage left. They can be quite smug. I just cringe and think that if I were them i'd remortgage for £300k and get 10-20% return in investments whilst paying 1.5% on a mortgage!! They wonder why my house is bigger!

Mind you, my approach to risk is so high that our financial adviser takes valium before our annual meetings!

I'm bringing my kids up to understand the principles of the cost of capital: interest rates and impact of inflation on erodibg the value of debt over time.

Debt is only a problem if you can't afford it, and/or can't access cheap rates. The financially enlightened see it as a world of opportunity. [/quote]
Not necessarily a great idea to have all your eggs in one basket i.e. bricks and mortar. Very illiquid asset.

FreddieMercurysCat · 20/02/2021 16:16

Car and house owned outright. About £1k on a credit card and £4K on other assorted debts.

Ninkanink · 20/02/2021 16:47

We bought outright and have not remortgaged because we never want to be tied down to work. Neither of us wanted the mortgage millstone and we’re happy with our little home and the security it affords us. We have savings, pensions and a steady income. But this way my DH, who works in a very stressful and demanding role, has the option to just walk away, from one day to the next. And we have a buffer if either (or both) of us become too ill to work. That’s very important to us.

Agwen · 20/02/2021 19:06

Loads! I divorced 5 years ago and didn't do well financially because I was so desperate to get away. But god, I'm happier.

£10k credit card (moved to a battered house following marriage breakdown, it was literally falling apart and this covered new kitchen, bathroom and some minor decoration)
£3k loan for other stuff eg furniture
£1.5k on my next account
£800 left on emergency credit card that I applied for when the shit hit the fan and I had no access to any joint funds or personal savings
£1000 overdraft. Been there since student days and never got round to reducing it further than that.
£235k mortgage that I got based on my own earnings and small deposit/ settlement that my delightful ex husband deigned to provide so that I could buy a place to house our 3 children.

So £251,000. BUT... it was worth it. I worry about having no savings to speak of (have savings for stuff like car tax/insurance, heating oil etc but I know this is for a specific purpose and will definitely get used, they're not "just in case") but meh, we're doing ok.

SpnBaby1967 · 20/02/2021 19:25

Mortgage is £130k

Car £20k

£900 left to pay on a no interest debt.

DanielODonkey · 20/02/2021 19:34

£92k on mortgage.
£6.51 on credit card.

Student loans - ~£6k? Seems to fluctuate and never reduces.

H has maybe £4k on credit card.

minnimiss · 20/02/2021 19:45

28k left on mortgage
£400 overdraft
2.5k credit cards
1.k left on car finance

That's between me and DH. We are late 30s. We have stopped using finance and now pay for things outright/save for things and are working on paying off our debt. I'm really surprised by the number of people on here with no mortgage and no debt!

riceuten · 20/02/2021 20:04

@Sunshine3013

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

Just curious!

Long term debt ? Zero - mortgage paid off, no loans, no HP/Lease agreements, savings in a variety of places and a healthy balance in the current account.

Short term debt ? Apparently not enough for it to benefit my credit score. Yes, Experian reduced my "score" from 998 to 990 because I was using less than 1% of my available credit, which is apparent a BAD thing. On average, my "transactional debt" is between £400 and £600 every month, but I pay all of them off every month.

It wasn't ALWAYS like this, I was financially slapdash and lackadaisical, and carried a CC debt of around £4000-5000 until someone showed me how much it was costing me overall - particularly as I had savings as well that could have paid it off.

Barney60 · 20/02/2021 20:44

none own house outright, dont believe for me, in credit cards. worked hard did 1 full time and 3 part time jobs for a few years, every extra penny went off the mortgage untill paid off.

TravellingTilbury · 20/02/2021 20:57

Have moved somewhere cheaper and paid off mortgage in process.
£3,000 o/s on a loan (for a car).
No savings or life insurance or anything like that though.

pallisers · 20/02/2021 21:15

[quote SmilingHappyBeaver]**@mumoftinyterrors yes, it does make me wonder about peoples financial literacy? A secured loan/mortgage is probably the cheapest form of capital you can access. Why are people so obsessed with paying it off? I have so many friends who have houses worth on average, lets say £500k... most are "sensible" and claim to only have £100k or so mortgage left. They can be quite smug. I just cringe and think that if I were them i'd remortgage for £300k and get 10-20% return in investments whilst paying 1.5% on a mortgage!! They wonder why my house is bigger!

Mind you, my approach to risk is so high that our financial adviser takes valium before our annual meetings!

I'm bringing my kids up to understand the principles of the cost of capital: interest rates and impact of inflation on erodibg the value of debt over time.

Debt is only a problem if you can't afford it, and/or can't access cheap rates. The financially enlightened see it as a world of opportunity. [/quote]
This is correct - our financial advisor definitely didn't want us to pay off our mortgage when we could and I delayed it for years because of that. But the thing is though for me my home was just that - our home. not a financial asset and not something I wanted to leverage as a financial asset. There was an emotional satisfaction to being mortgage free (at 50 so not absurdly young) that was worth not having that money in the market. It didn't make complete sense financially but it did on every other level. That said if we had no other savings/money in the market financial prudence might have overcome my need to own outright.

TurquoiseDress · 20/02/2021 21:17

Loads!

We've finally just managed to buy our first home together (after years of saving for a deposit, renting & missing out/losing properties over the last few years!)

That mortgage is 300k for me and DH

I've got around 5k credit card debt (0% interest) as we didn't really have any big furniture of our own when we left rental.

I've still got a sizeable student loan but not sure of exact figure, it comes out of my salary each month.

We're now considering taking out a small loan to pay for redoing the bathroom which is v dated...for us it's a practical debt as it's for a home improvement as opposed to say the cost of a luxury holiday or something (not that anyone is going on those at the moment!)

TurquoiseDress · 20/02/2021 21:20

Oh and we are late 30s/early 40s

I have around £1200 in savings which isn't too bad really after buying our place

Blinky22 · 20/02/2021 21:21

About 300k in mortgage debt on two properties which are now worth 3x what we originally paid for them so I don't really see it as debt.