Did you 'waste' your debt?

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

debt all though a pain is hardly the end of the world and i doubt very much as i said debts will being paid of 25 years later ,once your in debt and in trouble you cant get any further in debt some you will pay off some will get written off some you will be given a rebate hence debt gone ,as for was it wasted depends on wheather you enjoyed every minute of it

Chortle_2

dudleyboy wrote:

But when one has not yet felt the effects of ongoing, monthly, seemingly-endless debt repayment (such as, and no offence ever meant to, the OP who started this thread) one could soon come to view their debt in an entirely different light.

The operative word in that sentence is COULD though Dudleyboy - and you're talking as if it is inevitable. It's most certainly not! Your sig doesn't show how long you've been repaying your debt, or how much you've paid off, so its hard to gauge how much you're basing this on personal experience, but I've been repaying my debt for a long time now, and have cleared a HUGE amount. I admit I 'wasted' a good proportion of that money, but not through WHAT I bought, but HOW. I don't regret for one second the things I spent the money on - including rather a lot of travel It's down to individual priorities, if once-in-a-lifetime experiences and travel aren't a priority to you, that's fine, but to others they are. Live and let live.

LHM

THE_LONE_RANGER wrote:

debt all though a pain is hardly the end of the world and i doubt very much as i said debts will being paid of 25 years later ,once your in debt and in trouble you cant get any further in debt some you will pay off some will get written off some you will be given a rebate hence debt gone ,as for was it wasted depends on wheather you enjoyed every minute of it

Finding this site wasa big wake up call I tell you, I can say hand on heart I will be debt free (apart from mortgage of course!) within 10 years at most but if all goes to plan within 5 years. I suppose I'm luckier than most in that I have a fairly decent salary which enables me to afford the minimum payment on my debts. I get really upset reading the stories from people on here who struggle to even do that, it must be awful to be in that situation.

I got into debt, I enjoyed what I spent it all on...now I'll pay for it.

dudleyboy

LHM wrote:

Work-shy? I've been in full employment for the last 10 years thank you very much.

Dudleyboy, you question why I haven't paid much off my debt in the last 4 months? The reason...my wife is 4 months pregnant, I wanted to buy things for the new baby at the January sales thus saving me money in the long run.

You are entitled to your opinion but isn't this board meant to be about mutual support? I started the thread to see if there were similar people to me who have run up debt and are now PAYING FOR IT but don't necessarily think they made a waste of the debt they got themselves in.

Apologies if I've rubbed you up the wrong way.

Likewise, and no offence intended either. You can only reply based on the information given.

This board is a great place for mutual support but it's also great for insightful discussion... and I still think it's possible to change your view on your debt as time progresses, as I have done myself. I don't think I know anyone who isn't in debt and all for different reasons... such is life... but everyone's opinion towards it has seemed to change the further down the road they go and I was just putting that POV forward.

As I say, no offence meant. :beer:

LHM

dudleyboy wrote:

As I say, no offence meant. :beer:

Non taken :beer:

Bah, you posting that 'cheers' smiley has made me want a beer but I've no money.

Hmmm, however I do have some strange looking 40% proof spirit I bought from Poland last year. I could neck a few of those!

EthelBloggs

Some of it was wasted, without a doubt, but some of it was stupidity - I took out a loan for my ex to pay off his debts - he then went bankrupt, took the money and !!!!!!ed off , leaving me with a 10k loan to pay and no income. Only got 6 months left on it now tho thank gawd. Last november my fridge, washing machine and dishwasher all died at the same time and the only way I could afford to replace them was by ordering from a friend's catalogue, didn't check the terms and the interest is extortionate. Looking into cancelling the PPI on it and the rest of the loan atm tho so hopefully I'll be clear by this time next year.

mom23

LHM wrote:

Non taken :beer:

Bah, you posting that 'cheers' smiley has made me want a beer but I've no money.

Hmmm, however I do have some strange looking 40% proof spirit I bought from Poland last year. I could neck a few of those!

You go for it!!! you only live once!!!

LHM

mom23 wrote:

You go for it!!! you only live once!!!

Indeed it is! :T

lynzpower

I started off in my indebted life at university, where I was expected to take a loan out to live on. My folks arent loaded ( well they werent then, but they are compared to me now!) along came the credit cards, the overdrafts and the consolidation loan.... If I look back to those cards statements, there is the books, the travel, the trainfares home, and cash withdrawals. Id come back in the hols and work like a trojan, get the balances down and respend them existing for the next semester.

However, I look at recent credit card transactions ( over the past couple of years) and they include me paying my mobile phone bill, or council tax arrears and 60 quid here and there at supermarkets. Quite frankly living lifestyle i coudnt afford. The last big silliness was after a really bad time health wise, I had a new CC with 1200 limit on and took a flight to the tropics and spent the lot! However it was the best holiday Ive ever had and Ive found where I want to live. Since finding this site, I am on a complete mission to get rid of the debt, move to a cheaper flat in a cheaper area, and do everything I can to be in paradise by the time im 35.
I dont think that holiday was a waste (although the interest ive paid on it was...) butthe bits and pieces spent, nights out i cant remember, clothes Ive given away, ad nauseum, that was wasteful.

dudleyboy

Chortle wrote:

The operative word in that sentence is COULD though Dudleyboy - and you're talking as if it is inevitable. It's most certainly not! Your sig doesn't show how long you've been repaying your debt, or how much you've paid off, so its hard to gauge how much you're basing this on personal experience, but I've been repaying my debt for a long time now, and have cleared a HUGE amount. I admit I 'wasted' a good proportion of that money, but not through WHAT I bought, but HOW. I don't regret for one second the things I spent the money on - including rather a lot of travel It's down to individual priorities, if once-in-a-lifetime experiences and travel aren't a priority to you, that's fine, but to others they are. Live and let live.

Well that's why I said COULD and not WILL... (!)

As for me, I've been repaying debt for the last 6 years... I had my LB moment early when I was 22... shortly after graduation when I had about £12k of debt (approx £4000 student loan, £2000 CC, £2000 OD and £4000 loan from my dad). I've not really calculated how much the total debt was ... i suppose £12k... tho I've spent most of those 6 years CC tarting and making the min and additional payments while generating other debt in the meantime (as we all know life's expensive and bills have to be paid). So I did seem to be topping it up as regularly as I was paying it off (which is why I say about opinions changing and not having fully calculated the total debt - the bggr never seems to go down no matter how much you throw at it! )

But I guess my approach is as a result of various family circumstances at the time and now. My dad was diagnosed with cancer when I was 22 and when I learned that the £4000 I'd borrowed from him had come from a loan he'd taken out (rather than savings he didn't have)... I had a pretty severe wake up. The opportunity for travelling and going on spending sprees was there for me just like any other 20-something who wanted to have those "once in a life time experiences" but I knew I had to repay that money I borrowed. I also knew that spending time with my dad now was more important than something I could postpone until some day in the future. I certainly know which memories and photos I'll cherish longer.

I'm certainly not criticising other people for being in debt when i'm in it myself, nor am I criticising people for taking extended holidays because I would have myself under different circumstances and will do at some point in the future. But right here and now i'm staying put and enjoying the company of the family and friends around me because the world will be there long after all of us have gone. It would seem that life is too short after all. As you say, it's all about priorities.