Daily Mail today

climbgirl

And don't get me started on the last one :eek:

That kind of spending is just ridiculous and irresponsible. To say "it's just the culture we live in" is a bit absurd too. I don't care how many loan ads and unrequested credit card limit raises you get, nobody forces you to take out massive loans to have £30 lunches, Manolo Blahniks and £1000 holidays to Brazil to "cheer yourself up". How absurd.

climbgirl

Xbigman wrote:

Does earning 50k really just mean you can go farther into debt before you are in trouble?

I think that old adage is true in this case, the more you have the more you spend....(or the more you're allowed to spend before the bailiffs come knocking!)

RibenaBerry_2

"In fact, the reality is that our £185,000 mortgage plus other overdraft and card debts of at least £20,000 - which will undoubtedly keep on rising - won't be paid off until we are in our late 60s. Failing that, we will have to transfer that debt to our children - because if mortgages remain unpaid children now legally inherit the debt. "

I'm sorry , but what rot! Yes, it's part of the estate, but it's not the children's debt. That could terrify people.

magyar

nrsql wrote:

Only read the first one

>> It does put pressure on our marriage - most of our arguments are about money and not having enough. I don't want anyone to think that I am whinging too much because we are not on the streets, we're not on the breadline and we live in a lovely house, but I worry all the time about money.

She worries - but not enough to do anything about it.
The problem seems that they always wanted a lifestyle they couldn't afford and still do.

Quite agree with this point. We are in a similar situation to them at the start of this; we have a medium-sized mortgage (~£80k) and are pretty comfortable will two of us earning. We want to have a family which means
(a) larger house and (b) loss of one income.

Our plan is that, now that we have started to plan a family, we are changing our spending patterns NOW and trying to live off one income, then saving one salary. This means that it won't come as a shock at the time and we have a buffer for the extra spending.

I'm certainly not trying to come across holier-than-thou, but surely it occurred to them than losing one salary would have this effect.

Also, I noted the final quote:
"Coats have to be mended, friends give me hand-me-down clothing for the children and I swoop on all the special offers in the supermarket. I dream of escaping - I'd love to go to New Zealand, where the cost of living is so much lower, but all our friends and family are here in the UK. As my husband is working from 7.30am to 7pm, we're running to keep still. I keep thinking we should be welloff, but we're having to budget for every penny."

and though.... Actually people have done that for years. My parents did exactly the same; it is because they were careful with money and didn't waste it where possible, that they lived within their means.

nrsql

What happened to the similar young lady who was freelance, buying buy-to-lets on sub-prime mortgages and then was writing a diary in a paper (think it was the mail) whinging about it all going wrong when she was having a baby and couldn't work?

no it was the bbc site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5170278.stm

climbgirl

nrsql wrote:

What happened to the similar young lady who was freelance, buying buy-to-lets on sub-prime mortgages and then was writing a diary in a paper (think it was the mail) whinging about it all going wrong when she was having a baby and couldn't work?

no it was the bbc site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5170278.stm

She was on the BBC and I think I recall reading her last post. Round about the time she sought help about paying it back and it all got interesting!

Prudent

bekkki1 wrote:

This is the online page

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/credit-and-loans/debt-news/article.html?in_article_id=415162&in_page_id=62

In the article it said that if a mortgage remains unpaid, the children inherit the dect. Please can someone explain this to me?

magyar

Prudent wrote:

In the article it said that if a mortgage remains unpaid, the children inherit the dect. Please can someone explain this to me?

Prudent wrote:

In the article it said that if a mortgage remains unpaid, the children inherit the dect. Please can someone explain this to me?

Well, it isn't correct. (A mortgage expert may correct me here)

When someone dies, their assets, equity and debts are considered "the estate" are passed on. Usually the sum of all this is a positive number, i.e. there's some cash left in the pot.

If someone dies and they still have a mortgage, then either they will have life insurance to cover the cost, or the house must be sold to cover the cost. If there wasn't enough money to cover the debt, then usually this would be waived by the lenders (or the terms and conditions would say it fell away automatically). Also, many other debts are cancelled on death so there should be 'cash in the pot'.

A recent mortgage company has offered a mortgage which, if the beneficiaries of the will can afford it, allows them to take on the liability as a way of ensuring the house doesn't have to be sold (probably at quite a loss). People are trying to use this to avoid inheritance tax which is at best dubious....

Phoenix79_2

The Mail does have a good money section on Wednesdays. £220k debt though at 25 is scary! My sub 10k debt scares me!

CFC

>> But I have to hold my hands up - I really have only myself to blame. I have been sucked into the middle class debt culture of 'I want it now, never mind saving', and it is impossible to get out.

Interesting. The middle class cultural attitude used to be delayed gratification. That was supposed to be the difference between the working class, who wanted instant gratification, and the middle class, who were content to wait to get what they wanted, eg willing to spend longer in education and plan out their lives, save for kid's education etc.

I don't think there is a 'middle class debt culture'. I think that the world has changed and there's now a 'me me me' culture in every strata of society.