Is this really as bad as my friend thinks?

tallyhoh

Its not that bad as you have a good income, the only problem would be having that income taken away.

Do you have a plan in case of redundancy or something similar?

C_Mababejive

Scheduled and managed debt is fine. Its what the country,industry and commerce runs on. Money is merely leverage to raise debt. Its when its out of control and unmanaged that it becomes a problem.

immoral_angeluk

Debt is relative. £1000 owed will be a lot of debt to someone on little to no income, but not to someone on £100k income for example. It all depends on how much you earn, how you're dealing with it, what it was for, how long it's going to take you to pay it off and what safety net you have in place in case it all goes pete tong.

bobmonkeydog

Scheduled and managed debt is fine. Its what the country,industry and commerce runs on. Money is merely leverage to raise debt. Its when its out of control and unmanaged that it becomes a problem.

This is a great point and the simple answer is..... NO.
If I lost my job it would be a real problem as my partners income alone would not cover it. In reality the possibility of me losing my job is VERY slim but I agree it is a concern. This is one of the reasons why I am paying it off so quickly (£600 per month) so that it is gone and something that I do not have to worry about!!!

bobmonkeydog

I do worry about your attitude towards it and feel that it's a situation you may fall into again by seeing the words 'interest free' or 'low interest rate'

I disagree with this statement. I think out attitude towards our debt is good. we take full responsibility and have a plan of action in place. Neither of us want to go down this road again.

Trajal

Of course it's not that bad especially given that you've already paid back more than you currently owe and on a lesser income!

Moneymash

Sorry to put a dampner on the love-in but I am confused as to why so many posters think 14k on CCs is ok simply because a majority of it is on 0% and the remainder on a low rate. It's all still got to be paid off!

You've admitted that if your lost your job, this manageable debt would soon become unmanageable. None of us know what is round the corner. You've now got to hope that the worst doesn't happen, before you clear the entire debt and have some savings and how long will that take?

Well at least you seem to respect the debt and are paying it off as quickly as possible. Good luck.

shortcrust

Sounds to me like you've got it under control. I wouldn't be stressed or worried in the slightest. You've just got to ignore the people who, like your friends and a couple of posters on this thread:), want you to be stressed and worried!

suburbanwifey

shortcrust wrote: »

Sounds to me like you've got it under control. I wouldn't be stressed or worried in the slightest. You've just got to ignore the people who, like your friends and a couple of posters on this thread:), want you to be stressed and worried!

Removed my post as one later poster has the wrong impression that I was bragging. Not so, sorry you felt that, was merely trying to show an example of how debt can work in your favour if its the right sort of debt.

Apologies it upset anyone.

harrys_dad

suburbanwifey wrote: »

Debt is under control when it is working for you, not when you have to work to pay it off! An example:



Have double that in the same bank currently paying me 8% interest last year and 6% interest this year.

These interest rates are at least double the currently available best buys (even if they are not tax free). Where do you invest? Maybe you could share it with Martin for the weekly e-mail.