By the end of this year it [i]should[/i] be just the mortgage plus a decent bit of savings.
Which will make a nice change.
No debt, no mortgage, credit card paid in full by DD every month.
In terms of disposable income, as opposed to gross income, I reckon I'm better off than almost anyone I know.
Living in a shed, dressing like a tramp and having simpletastes does have some advantages
Likewise. Mortgage paid off in 2-3 yrs and savings on the side to setle now if i felt like it. I'm sat here on a free lap top, free phone bill, wearing patched jeans that are 6 years old, in a house barely decorated in 8 yrs. I ran my last car to 130,000 miles despite much mocking at work and paid cash for a new one last year. My brother in law retired at 50 last year with a massive savings pot and not because he earnt mega bucks but because they lived modestly. Most consumerism is just a load of bobbins.
I do feel very sorry for todays grads though with a $hit jobs market and bonkers house prices. The class of 1986 were lucky in those respects.
37, massive mortgage, secured loan, credit card debt I have defaulted on, massive student loan, no savings, no pension and I'm now unemployed.
I'm poor but I'm happy. Made some catastrophic financial decisions in my life and I'm know paying the consequences. You can't take it with you so I'm past caring. Just gotta live my life..
Student loan, at least £18k + interest. That doesn't really count though since everyone has that debt now 😛
I've got a 100 grand mortgage and about £300 quid on student loan, have a overdraft that varies between 0 and about £800. Got a free hand me down car from the parents and an old motorbike thats currently knackered. Having a baby last of all my friends helps too hardly had to buy anything. I get paid **** all though and less than I did about 6 years ago.
im 24, the only debt i have is my car. i owe about £1200 on it. keep up with payments. on the grand scale of thing im not in any massive debts and could pay my car off tomorrow if i needed to.
i also have savings (ok not much but a few thousand)
shaun
Earning a lowly bureaucrat income ... bloody bureaucracy.
The computer says nnnoooooo so no CC to mess around but I like pen pushing.
Cash is king.
None at all here... Well, I have a credit card debt on a 0% deal outstanding, but I can pay that off once the 0% expires so I'm not considering it debt.
[i]Renting is not a long term financially viable prospect and your logic seems flawed.[/i]
It seems to be viable, and the norm in a lot of Europe, I've often wondered why that isn't considered the case in the UK
Loddrik. You are a Red, money cant buy that 😉
No mortgage - critical illness payout thankfully. Current debt is a small loan on our only car to accomodate the wifes 60+ mile round trip commute. Minimal credit card debts.
I'm renting.. and totally debt free.. (and skint)
I never really bought into the whole mortgage and bricks and mortar thing.. yeah sure it's a nice investment but it also kinda binds you pretty securely into 'the mans' blueprint on how we should live our entire adult lives..
I've watched grown men fall apart over their debts and what have they really had to show for it.. a few baubles and trinkets that the evil emperor of materialism has seduced them with at some point..
live outside the box and stick it to the man maaaaaan.
Debt free! 😀
Wealth free too. 🙁
Ah well.
I've seen too many family members, friends and others get into serious trouble with debt, to be even tempted to borrow. Seen people's hopes and dreams be dashed against the rocks of reality. Got friends who work their bottoms off doing 60+ hours, six days a week etc, just to maintain a fairly simple lifestyle. Looked on with amazement at folk who've bought first homes in the last 5 years or so, top of the market, now seeing their property's value dropping.
I get annoyed when my bank offers me all sorts of loans, CCs, etc. I ask them why, with my account barely in the black, do they think I have the funds to pay owt back? Insane. Credit is far, far too easy to get.
I believe in the mantra of 'if you can't afford it, you can't have it until you can'. Saves a hell of a lot of trouble.
Though someone once told me 'it's not a debt if you can/are paying it'
Cash is king.
Yep and audaxes that's me from now on.
I used to stick it to the man but i am the man now.
£13 on my credit card but I have 2 weeks to pay it off.
used to have lots, now i have none. took a good few years to pay it off and i feel no richer now it's gone. still have a mortgage
12 years left on a 100k mortgage and just over 3k on a 0% credit card.
No savings as such, but I have been putting money into various pensions since I started working 16 years ago. What they end up being worth when I draw them down at retirement is anyone's guess!
Define 'older people', ton...
I came out of University with £1500 overdraft - interest free in my graduate account. I paid that off in a yr & I got a graduate loan out for my car which I paid off a year early.
Since then I have always saved & bought stuff outright. I use my credit card, but only so I have a buffer while I transfer money over from my savings account, which I then use to pay off the CC immediately.
I am currently in the process of buying a house with my other half so will have a mortgage, but we reckon we'll be able to significantly over-pay on it and everything we need will be bought outright.
Debt gives me the willies - even owing friends small amounts.
32 and no debts or mortgage. Dont really feel like I have missed out on anything due to 'sensible' spending either.
buy a house in west yorkshire, it can be paid off before you know it. obviously moving south will be painful whe it happens.
A huge crippling mortgage. Nothing else.
Been there though and its not a nice place.
Although most people with a major Debt problem will not tell you. The shame of debt and financial mismanagement can be crushing.
Likewise. Mortgage paid off in 2-3 yrs and savings on the side to setle now if i felt like it. I'm sat here on a free lap top, free phone bill, wearing patched jeans that are 6 years old, in a house barely decorated in 8 yrs. I ran my last car to 130,000 miles despite much mocking at work and paid cash for a new one last year. My brother in law retired at 50 last year with a massive savings pot and not because he earnt mega bucks but because they lived modestly. Most consumerism is just a load of bobbins.
If that's your bag, then fair enough. Personally I like nice jeans, a decorated house and a fairly plush car. No problem with people being frugal though and wish I managed my money a bit better at times.
On the other hand though, I wouldn't want to do without just to save for 30 odd years, then get hit by a bus.
It seems to be viable, and the norm in a lot of Europe, I've often wondered why that isn't considered the case in the UK
Because regulations around renting and security of tenure are quite different
I've never been good with money.
Been working for nigh on 30 years and due to a split I'm completely debt free (not that I ever had anything other than a mortgage and a couple of thinks on HP when I was a nipper).
Renting as although I have a bank balance greater than my annual salary its nowhere near enough to buy what I'd like remotely close to my place of work.
Being an old duffer I save rather than splurge (although with an impending 17% pay cut and then no pay increase for 3 years, if i still have a job, I have been 'stocking up' on certain things 
).
The more I think about things the less I seem to need. I mean there are so many shops and that that I never have even the whiff of an urge to enter.
Not got a mortgage yet, though one is on the way. We are looking to buy this year, after our wedding. Problem is living in London... = crazy prices.
Student loan is large but being paid off gradually via salary sacrifice.
Have a credit card debt that I could afford to pay off, but have been neglecting and paying interest. This thread has inspired me to sort out a balance transfer to a 0% card.
It always amazes me how people earning so much more than me can have so much debt and always be skint. I don't earn mega bucks, don't live like a tramp but somehow have managed to pay off my mortgage and save a decent amount.
It is a pretty good feeling and the lack of fear of losing your job makes arguments with management much more fun. Will probably quit next year anyway as life is too short to stick with a S**t job when you don't need to.
I possess immense spiritual wealth.
Yeah, but you're not particularly well endowed wiv teef, are you? 🙂
All flesh is grass, fred. And that includes gnashers.
I have wealthy inlaws 😈
I live simply.
Small mortgage (<£20'000 outstanding) no CC, no loans, no car. 4 bikes & a pretty crappy low-paid job that still gives me a minimum of £600 per month after i've paid all my bills & fed myself.
A few thousand in the bank from my last employer so a nice little cushion there.
Actually, i'm not doing all that bad am i?
muddydwarf.........are you me? 😆
No Ton, you are several me's.... 😛
My business income (as a sole trader) comes in at around £5.5k per month.
My business overhead runs at around £1k per month (insurance/loan/fuel/etc).
I have 20% of the £5.5k tax deducted via the CIS scheme (so about £1100).
Theoretically that should leave £3400 per month. Can someone tell me where it is please?
I've got friends that have borrowed massively to get into flash houses and are on interest only 30yr mortgages 😯 They then get more loans to buy 'other' stuff.
I was brought up to be careful with money and I tend to save up to buy stuff. We've just bought a new house which by my measures was very very expensive but a good investment, even that will have a tiny mortgage and shoud be clear in < 6 months. It just amazes me what debts and utter carp people get themselves into - i mean, what you earn is not a surprise every month is it ? Insane.
debt averse yorkshireman, £60k mortgage ~40%LTV.
clear the credit card every month.
dont see the point in buying flash tat as a hobby..
yorkshireman in being a tightwad shocker! 😉
£3600 to go! down from 0ver £9000 in 2007, so I'm going the right way. I know friends who have run away from £5000 student loans though, and changed their names by deed poll, to call themselves "debt free"!
Thoroughly depressing reading this thread btw.
Tbh it's not the debt as such that bothers me as my car is nearly paid and I'll never have another credit card or buy consumer goods on HP and I don't really class my student loan as debt. I have at least 25 years to go on a mortgage which is probably not far off what my house is worth with the last couple of years fall in prices.
So at this rate I'll be 62 before it's paid off... 🙁
Though I guess when the kids are old enough and nursery fees are finished with then overpayment is doable. Unless I start buying unnecessary bike bits...
I do have a little debt - but only because I make more from investing the funds than I pay in servicing the debt.
Loddrik there aren't that many folk around who are gonna retire before they're 60 so if everythings manageable I shouldn't get too hung up on it!! Then there's always the ability to downsize once you're rid of the kids, however looking at it that'll probably when there in their mid 20's the way things are going 😯
Mortgage, about 133K - less than 70% of house value
Credit Card 3.5K
Student loan 14k - this is one thing I always forget about and when I think about it I get pissed off, I'll be 50 before its paid off at the current rate of repayment..
Nothing as the car loan is about to be paid off, cash is waiting in the wings.
No credit cards, I refuse to have them.
Hard as it is I don't want consumer credit either even though there are thing that I need, I can live without them.
Not interested in a mortgage after seeing how much the banks wanted in charges and inerest, I will buy with cash. Even with all the charges the greedy ****ers can screw up the economies.
I see the greed and living beyond means as the main contributor to the current crisis.
Smug? Me? Never... 😉
I was brought up with a strong aversion to debt, and until recently was entirely debt-free (rented). Bought a house last year and now have a mortgage the size of a large elephant which scares the life out of me, but we'd had enough of ******* landlords. It may be late in life to be in so deep, but hey that's the penalty of getting attached to someone in my 30's who cynically took all my money and tried to get the house, essentially I had to start again despite having always been careful with money. But I'm not bitter, oh no.
If I use my credit card I always pay it down, except this last month I didn't as I had several thousand pounds of annual season ticket on it. I was horrified at the size of the charge at the end of the month - I was completely unaware that they charge interest on the whole amount not the balance outstanding (I'd paid some off during the month) - now I see why credit cards are such good business and how they are the route to hell if the consumer doesn't manage them properly. I won't be doing that again.
I hope to pay off my only credit card in 2 months - Its one that has had about 3-5k on it rolling from one balance transfer to another. I have had no overdraft for some years. I have a small amount of savings for emergencies, but once I've settled the credit card I'll have substantially more disposable cash.
Apart from that I have the mortgage and student loans, however I've got used to the amount that goes out so not really noticeable, but it will be a bonus when I pay them off in a year.
So apart from the mortgage, not a lot really.