Do you owe more than you earn? Poll discussion/results

Former_MSE_Lawrence · 5 November 2007 at 12:46PM

Poll Ran between 05-13 Nov 07: Do you owe more than you earn? Results

How much debt do you have compared to your annual income? We’re not talking any mortgage debt here; though if you’ve added other debts onto your mortgage, it's best to count that. Be prepared to be shocked…

How to work it out?

Step 1: Calculate your total debts. Don’t guess, add them up properly; this in itself is an important to-do.

Step 2: Divide the total by your annual income. If you owe £5,000 and earn £20,000 your debts are a quarter of your earnings.

A. I’ve no debt/only mortgage debt 38% (2876 votes)
B. I owe less than a tenth (10%) of my annual income 14% (1039 votes)
C. I owe less than a quarter (25%) of my annual income 12% (875 votes)
D. I owe less than a half (50%) of my annual income 10% (716 votes)
E. I owe less than my annual income 9% (655 votes)
F. I owe more than my annual income 9% (689 votes)
G. I owe more than double my annual income 4% (302 votes)
H. I owe more than three times my annual income 2% (170 votes)
I. I owe more than five times my annual income 3% (228 votes)

Voting has now ended but you can still click reply to discuss below.

Dill · 5 November 2007 at 3:43PM

Hi

Should we count student loan debt ?

(I have one of the 'old' student loans, and my earnings have never reached the threshhold, so it's always been deferred..)

TomJ · 5 November 2007 at 5:09PM

To get the figure, are you counting debt net or gross of savings; I owe money on an interest free credit card and interest free overdraft, but the amount is covered by savings...

Sapphire · 5 November 2007 at 6:36PM

Blimey! I'm amazed to see so far how much people owe. I couldn't sleep easily at night if I owed even as little as a thousand pounds.

Must be because everyone has been encouraged to take out loans and think they can do so without any consequences. What a shocking state of affairs.

jitsuguy · 6 November 2007 at 12:12PM

Well I'm not sure but I am not including a student load in this as they don't work the same as an ordinary loan and the payback amount isn't that much.

Jitsuguy

cazziebo · 6 November 2007 at 2:57PM

Gosh! I'm shocked! :eek:

I have worked hard to pay off all debts and credit cards over the past year and have been patting my back that as of Dec 1st, I'll have done it :T

Apart from a car loan, which I see as a necessary loan (always had company cars in the past). I'm shocked to find that the car loan is 20% of my annual salary - and that's on a really good salary and a not particularly great car.

certainly changed the way I think!

maddriver · 6 November 2007 at 6:56PM

I actually include Mortgage, which comes to a total of 4.5 times earnings !!

Then I reread it and realised it said not including mortgages, so I should have said 60%

Still, useful way of looking at things, brings a (scary) sense of perpective!

Ignatius_A · 7 November 2007 at 12:43AM

yup,
a
from a salary of approx 30k, I currently owe about 36k (not including mortgages)

No great surprise, as i'd already done this calculation, and i've got a firm handle on what I owe, and where. Done the credit card shuffle, and i'm now working steadily on getting things sorted.

And all thanks to Martin. I wouldn't have had a clue where to start but for this site.

:money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money: :money:

meyore · 7 November 2007 at 12:57AM

I owe 157% of my annual income-ouch...

lazy&indebt · 7 November 2007 at 10:43AM

I owe 54% of my annuak income in total.

But, after January I will be getting rid of my car (it's on HP) as I will have reached the point in my contract where I can hand it back. By that point, I will owe 24% of my total income

I earn £17,996 pa gross.

bigpat · 7 November 2007 at 3:54PM

Hmmm....I'm not too bad then. Apart from mortgage we only have a £500 overdraft out of combined salaries of approx £31k, so that's about 1.6%.

WITH mortgage however, we're up to 3.2 x joint salary

Do you owe more than you earn? Poll discussion/results

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free