Young and in debt :(

Muttipops

Hi,pay those loans off as soon as possible, get together some savings of at least £1k and work out a budget and stick to it.
I know you are only 19 and want to live life a bit, but you chose to take on some responsibilities that you can't just take or leave. You have made a start in life on the property ladder and it would be a shame to get off again so early, but with some careful budgeting so that you live within your means, I hope you can continue to live in your house.

Whilst working out a proper budget isn't anybodies idea of fun, it is essential so that you keep on top of the bills.

Mrs Oldie here ( me) has lived enough of life to know that circumstances change and s**t happens; what happens if you are made redundant, have an accident and can't work, have a baby, car gets totalled, all this crap happens to most of us at onetime or another. You need to make your finances bomb proof, so that you can ride the storms, not just rack up debt. I am not a killjoy saying don't have a life, but looking further than the next wage packet is important in odrder to avoid getting into a situation you can't borrow your way out of.

As for the bankruptcy idea, it was always a non starter, as any loans to family are included in the bankruptcy and you would not be allowed to pay them back, so they would loose all their money, hardly fair on them.


Could you have a friend to share the house with you and so split the bills?. I am sure you would prefer your own privacy, but making a spare bedroom work for you would be a good idea, if you have one. You can earn up to £7,500 per year, tax free, if you rent out a room as a resident landlord.
Finally, good luck to you and your boyfriend. I hope you take some of the advice on here; some of it might sound like being sensible and boring, but sensible and boring gets the bills paid and keeps the wolves away from the door, at least as far as money is concerned.

redpete

olivia.denny wrote: »

Now we need to decid whether to pay extra on our loans each month to get them paid off in 2 years, or to enjoy this extra income and let the loans continue 'naturally'

Stop being so selfish and pay your nan back.

MrsSave

At a guess you'll be back here in a year or 2 with much bigger debts if that's your attitude. You owe £24,500 and instead of working to pay it off ASAP (and pay your gran back that was urgent just a couple of days ago) you want to enjoy the money.

Pay off your debts ASAP. You can still leave a little 'entertainment' money so you're not going without, but pay off your debts and get some savings behind you. If you can pay off within 2 years, you'll still be young and can get yourself in a good financial situation.

I wish I'd sorted myself out in my early 20's. It's a lot more difficult when you're quite a bit older with the added responsibility of a family, etc.

autumn2012_2

Get as much money together as you can, work two jobs each if possible and get out of debt asap! Trust me it will be like a weight off your shoulders. You dont have kids or anything so it will be alot easier than leaving it til later on in life. Speaking from bitter experience here

Retrievermomma31

AllyMac wrote: »

Well that's your slippery slope right there.
One minute you're desperate for money and asking about bankruptcy.
You have debts. (a lot, for a 19yo on a low income)
You have experienced how quickly that can go wrong.

Yet when you suddenly have more money about to come, you think you might just "enjoy it".

I advise you to enjoy it paying off your debts!

Believe me, you'll enjoy spending all the more when you have no debts, some savings, and you can spend without a care.

It's foolish not to pay off what you owe - it's all the more foolish when you *know* circumstances can change in an instant.

What happened to paying back your family?

redpete wrote: »

Stop being so selfish and pay your nan back.

MrsSave wrote: »

At a guess you'll be back here in a year or 2 with much bigger debts if that's your attitude. You owe £24,500 and instead of working to pay it off ASAP (and pay your gran back that was urgent just a couple of days ago) you want to enjoy the money.

Pay off your debts ASAP. You can still leave a little 'entertainment' money so you're not going without, but pay off your debts and get some savings behind you. If you can pay off within 2 years, you'll still be young and can get yourself in a good financial situation.

I wish I'd sorted myself out in my early 20's. It's a lot more difficult when you're quite a bit older with the added responsibility of a family, etc.

I forgot to mention that my nan has 5 years until she will begin to run out of money. My loan with her will be up in a couple.
Things aren't 100% set in stone with her yet

wow people can be rude when they're behind a screen! :money:

Muttipops

olivia.denny wrote: »

I forgot to mention that my nan has 5 years until she will begin to run out of money. My loan with her will be up in a couple.
Things aren't 100% set in stone with her yet

wow people can be rude when they're behind a screen! :money:

Olivia, your first post stated that you were at your wits end with worry and that your nan needed the money back as soon as possible and then hey presto, a couple of days later you had a new job, money and seemed to have forgotten about nan needing this 11k asap, so people I would guess felt like you were being unthinking about your nan by saying you were going to carry on as before. Sometimes, people on here tell it like they see it, we are not your mates, we are often people who have been in shed loads of debt, have life experience of trying to get out of it and can see young people making the same mistakes we did; they are trying to save you a lifetime of worry and if being what you call rude shocks you just one little bit into thinking a bit clearer about debt and not falling into the same old trap year after year, then it is worth it.
Don't take offence, you asked for advice and got it, you might not like what you heard, but I expect that if you thought about it, you did seem very unfeeling about poor old Nan who now wasn't going to get a look in about her 11k, according to you.
I hope that when you get over being p'd off, you can see the sense in some of what was said about budgeting and paying off debt asap. Good luck.

takman

There is no point in deleting your first post there is no way that says she needs it back as soon as possible did you mean 5 years!.

olivia.denny wrote: »

Hi everyone,
this is my first post here - I'm here out of desperation unfortunately

I am 19 years old and me and my partner are in about £25k debt

Here's a list of everything we owe:
£11k left to my Nan (mortgage desposit)
£5k car loan
£5k personal loan
£2.5k credit cards
£1k computer finance

We are both only earning about £1k a month each as we havent started our actual careers yet, we were just so desperate to move out and buy a house and didnt realise how expensive it is!

We have got to th point where we have no money left each month as it's all going on bills or debt payments.

Would it be an awful decision to declare bankruptcy?

We were planning on selling our house to pay off most of our debts but due to personal circumstances my nan now needs the loan back as soon as possible.

I've looked into DMP but that will only pay off the smaller debts (the biggest debts are with family members, which it wont pay)

Can anyone suggest anything? We're at our wits end it's really getting us down, especially when we're this age!

enthusiasticsaver

First of well done on getting a better paid job and hopefully you can now start to see a way forward on this. You can understand people being a bit off with you as in your first post your nan needed the money back as soon as possible and in your latest she does not need it back for 5 years. Which is it?

I think people are trying to inject a note of caution into your attitude with money. You are in a considerable amount of debt for someone not yet 20 and as you now have a better paid job you will be able to make a plan to clear it. Enjoying the extra income should come after debts cleared. It is not being rude to point that out but people trying to save you from falling into a lifetime of debt spiral. Something many on this forum have done quite a few times over. Only winners are the banks and credit card companies.