What is your motivation to be debt free?

jojitsui

All my debt has been caused by my love of credit cards and although I have been trying to be debt free for a few years I never really have found the motivation to make the changes I know are needed. That is until now.

I am hoping to buy a house with my fiance very soon and have found this has really helped me to cut back on my spending and start addressing my debts.

What has motivated you to start addressing your debts and what has been the one thing you have done that has made the most difference?

Doubtful_Guest

My LBM came when I realised that our life had turned down a fork in the road that I really hadn't anticipated when my wife's health deteriorated. We had both run up student overdrafts and credit cards with the expectation that we'd be able to pay them off when we graduated and started work. However, it hasn't worked out like that.

My motivation is that we really want to move back to Scotland to be with family and have a better quality of life. We don't have much opportunity atm to increase our income so the only way we can do that is to reduce our outgoings and pay off our debts. Once our debt is gone, we can try and accumulate some savings to be able to move.

When I feel tempted to spend money on something daft like takeaway, I try to think of it as a choice between that takeaway pizza and our future home, with a wee garden, where my brother could pop in on his way home from work, where our parents could come over for dinner, where we could have a dog, maybe even a baby one day down the line. There's no way the pizza is going to win when I think of it like that.

Nottoobadyet

I am now debt free, but I had two incentives when I was on the DFW journey:

1. I wanted to take a job that would mean a paycut but would allow me to do the work I've always wanted to do, and which would move me forward in my career. As soon as I was debt free, I halved my salary and moved to Africa. Dignified poverty for me!
2. My debt was entirely my (£13k!!)MSc tuition fees, which my mum had generously lent me. Paying her back as soon as possible allowed her to pay back money she had borrowed off her own dad to send my sister to university. Making three generations happy at once!

I love your reasons, Doubtful. I hope your dreams come true!

Marine_life

Thats simple.

My monthly mortgage payment is 2,279 of which around 1,600 goes in interest. 19,200 a year in interest.

That's a very nice car every year.

I will be mortgage free in December 2013

dreamdreamer

That's a mortgage and a half Marine_life! Bet you'll be glad to see the back of it! :eek:

My LBM was a series of moments in 2008/2009. Meeting my OH, who is slightly older than me but thanks to better financial choices already owned a house, had no debt, had a bit of savings etc, compared to my 16k of unsecured debt. Secondly getting my electric cut off and realising I had no way of paying (that was a real rock bottom moment). Third once the light bulb had flickered and I'd start "paying stuff off" - which to me then meant servicing the debt by paying minimums - having a discussion with OH about getting married, having kids, and realising my debt was stopping me from getting anything I wanted out of life.

I'd like a few really nice holidays with OH (we've been together 3 years and never had a holiday). I'd like to save up for a wedding with him. I'd like to be able to afford to go on maternity leave for a year. I can't do any of these things with my massive debt repayments.

Bring on August!!

Trajal

I didn't really have a lightbulb moment, I just fell into debt because of losing my job at a bad time. Soon as I got back onto my feet I started to work towards fixing those debt issues which had arisen. Still fixing them now and will be very happy when they're gone!

Diplomat365

A few years ago now I met my now wife and we bought a new house together, the house cost an arm and a leg as I went frm a 2 bed to a 4 bed at the peak of the boom. The plan is this is our house for a long time, to raise kids etc...

Now the about 6 months after my bonus got canned just after a very expensive 3 week trip to Mexico and then 2 weeks later the now wife was made redundant. Many other misfortunes followed, house rewiring, gas system replacement, internal wall collapse during DIY (the previous owner was evidentally not the best at things). after all this our debts had racked up and we were close to being in trouble.

I decided there and then to take a full review of everything we were doing. In just 3 months we reduced out monthly fixed outgoings from £3,600 a month to £2,500 a month.

Having done that I started to think how much money I'd wasted over the last 10 - 15 years and decided to change. I still want my quality of life but our aim is to get to a point where 1 income will support us to allow my wife to stop work for children and to allow me to retire early.

This goes beyond just debt free this is looking at building a sustainable future for both of us for the long hall. I think in 3 years we will have achieved debt free bar the mortgage and 3 years after that made the mortgage more manageable.

Next is extra incomes!

ste_coxy

Sick of watching every penny.

Sick of having this debt cloud hanging over me affecting my sanity.

Sick of having minus figures instead of positive figures showing on statements.

Sick of not enjoying my youth.

Annoyed at myself with allowing it to tot up so much and not thinking about the consequences.

Want to start saving up for a deposit for a house.

anh1904

I think CONTROL is the main matovation.
Approximately half of our household income is used for debt servicing. Lose that and we can have much more control in terms of choices we make for the family and even retirement.

foxgloves

Agree with the last post. What motivated me was seeing how much of our monthly income went into servicing debt. We were never in a position where we couldn't pay it & rarely ever only paid the minimum repayment but nevertheless, it made me think just what else we could be doing with that money. After that, the motivation was having control over our finances. It took me 2 decades to realise that spending on credit cards, loans or overdraft is quite simply spending someone else's money, not mine. Now, my mantra to avoid us getting back into debt (apart from the mortgage, we will be completely debt-free by the end of this month) is that if we have to put it on cards, loans or overdraft, that's not our money so we obviously can't afford it. We live a much simpler life now, but the feeling of being in control is wonderful & there's no way I'd swap it for all the spending we used to do.

kaya

i stay well clear of money, i just give it all to my wife! our only debt is the mortgage which is a paltry £520 pm atm , no hp, finance, loans, credit cards etc, if it were me alone i would be in it up to my eyeballs no doubt