Cautious consumers pay off debt

wotsthat

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

But why start using facts when there are millions of over debted borrowers who need the type of fairytale comfort blanket that wotstit offers.

I take it you're happy to provide some facts to back up that statement.

Emy1501

Question for me is who is reducing their debt. Is it those who were struggling when the credit crunch hit. Or is it those who have simply taken advantage of the low rates? I read something the other day from Co-op and which suggesting that the poor are still struggling and that there debt seems to be increasing rather than going down.

homelessskilledworker

pqrdef wrote: »

So it's like, of course I can afford this gadget and that holiday, I'm only 50, I've got 20 years left to pay for it.

The way I was raised by my two hard working parents left me with certain beliefs and thought patterns concerning debt which seem to have been turned on their heads in recent years.

To borrow money for whatever you wanted was the lazy and irresponsible way to handle you finances. to borrow of course meant that you could have something now, but that usually came at a cost. To wait and save meant that you go it cheaper but you obviously had to wait, thats the way it worked.

wotsthat

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

I personally would not have a clue where you would get this type of breakdown, but for starters you can wipe off over half the owned homes in the UK, those under 18 and over 70, and then there will be people out there that just live in the black or are minted.

I would say that the minority hold most of the personal UK debt, how small I have no idea.

I thought it was better to provide some broader numbers (from your own link) rather than just guess at the debt distribution per household. Sorry about that.

wotsthat

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

To borrow money for whatever you wanted was the lazy and irresponsible way to handle you finances. to borrow of course meant that you could have something now, but that usually came at a cost. To wait and save meant that you go it cheaper but you obviously had to wait, thats the way it worked.

You planning on buying a house with cash?

homelessskilledworker

wotsthat wrote: »

I take it you're happy to provide some facts to back up that statement.

..


But what facts do you provide, you have made endless generalisations and in correct statements with zero evidence.

Even if we are going on anecdotal evidence you only have to turn to turn the TV on to realise many are having to borrow at nearly 2000% APR because they are so desperate, unemployment is going up, all the debt that was a struggle to pay off when times were good, can you not imagine what is like now.

Do you not rea/ watch the media coverage on bad loans being written off. Surely nobody can question that there is a big debt problem out there, it's just how bad?.

Emy1501

wotsthat wrote: »

I don't need to do anything. I've already taken into account some of the debt holders particularly mortgage holders...

"The average mortgage holder has a mortgage debt of 4.5x average earnings. That could be quite scary I suppose until you ask yourself if the average mortgage holder earns more or less than the average wage. You might also consider that at 60% LTV the average mortgage holder is sitting on £74,000 worth of equity."

Dividing by the relevant group (households/ mortgage holders) seems to provide a basis for some context - wouldn't you agree? It's not perfect but more illuminating than just pointing out £1.5tn is a big number. I look forward to your more detailed analysis though.

Not sure the averages as a whole are really what we should be looking at. Just like Germany are not to keen to bail out Greece I don't see the wealthy in this country bail the Debted either.

For me we need to look at the those struggling and see whether their situation has improved over the last 3 years because if it has not then we are in no real better position than before other then the richer getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

homelessskilledworker

wotsthat wrote: »

I thought it was better to provide some broader numbers (from your own link) rather than just guess at the debt distribution per household. Sorry about that.

Thats ok, nice that you are showing me some courtesy at last:)

RenovationMan

Emy1501 wrote: »

Question for me is who is reducing their debt. Is it those who were struggling when the credit crunch hit. Or is it those who have simply taken advantage of the low rates? I read something the other day from Co-op and which suggesting that the poor are still struggling and that there debt seems to be increasing rather than going down.

We increased and now we're reducing our debt. We had something like £40k of mortgage debt up until 2010 and we then increased the debt to £300k when we bought our dream home - gambling on low interest rates being around for a decade. We've reduced that down by £50k and hope to reduce it by another £20k by the end of this year.

The trouble with just looking a debt levels is that no assets are taken into consideration. We owe £250k and so are massively over the average debtor. Are we knocking on bankruptcy's door?

No, because we can easily maintain our debt repayments and if all else fails, we actually have more assets than debt. I doubt that we are in the minority in this situation.

wotsthat

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

But what facts do you provide, you have made endless generalisations and in correct statements with zero evidence.

Well Foxy, that looks like you are saying that you don't have any evidence you can present to back up what you've said. Your braincell seemed not to be able to get past £1.5tn.