Dan's desperate dash towards solvency

enthusiasticsaver

Looking at your soa from a week ago I think aiming for a £2k per month reduction is sensible. I also think you need to rebuild an emergency fund although I can see that your wife's £14000 isa is there. If it is in a cash isa interest rates on those are awful by the way.

I would also say I am still a little worried about you opting out of your pension as you did earlier on in the year. Saving for retirement is important. Initially it was just for a year and I would urge you not to let it go later than that and make it up once the debt is lower. The benefits of compounding are so important in pensions and you are missing out on employer contributions (presumably?) and tax relief.

Filo25

Dan, I just saw this thread today and have just read through it and your original thread on the main DFW board.

I just wanted to say many congratulations on getting on top of everything and getting it all moving in the right direction, as someone who has suffered from Anxiety myself I can well appreciate how unpleasant this experience was and can recognise so many of the typical behaviours in your earlier posts, but you seem like a completely changed person now and that is also worth patting yourself on the back for just as much as the debt reduction is.

Have you found the CBT sessions useful by the way, they were a godsend for me.

Just in case you are still feeling bad about your debt levels, ours peaked at a even higher level than yours, but there really is no point dwelling on past decisions, far better to focus on all of the progress you are making towards your future goals.

Happierdays

Hi dan, just stopping by to say wow! What a journey you have been on and how well you are doing! :T Thank you

worriedDan

Hi Everyone, I hope that everyone is ok

We had a really good month in October and managed to clear a full 2k. By the end of this month we will have paid off 14K since we started our journey in the Spring. We are starting to feel the difference now as minimum payments have decreased etc.

I have a slight dilemma ... We have agreed to buy our son the games console that he wants for Christmas. it's a bit more than we would lie to pay at £279, however we have decided to not really buy for each other so that we can justify buying it. I have the money saved, however we have been offered 0% for 12 months from the place that we are buying it from. My first reaction was to say no way. I have gotten so used to living without credit!

On the other hand I could use the £300 that I have saved to clear another debt that isn't 0%, and then pay for the console at 0% over 12 months. I guess that this would essentially be swapping interest accruing debt for 0% debt.

My wife thinks it's a no brainer but I can't help feel weird about taking debt.

What are your thoughts?

enthusiasticsaver

I would think twice about adding to your debt by taking on a new debt considering you still have almost £50k of credit card debt to be honest. I know you say you would use £300 to pay off 0% debt but in your situation I would be the savings to Pay off the non 0% debt as they are surely costing you more than you are earning in interest and paying more off each month as you still have a high disposable income. As you have £2k spare each month and only pay £700 or £800 towards the credit cards from that surely that means £1200 spare? Can't the £300 come from that?

Different people have different attitudes to debt though and if you are content to bring it down at the current rate that is of course your choice.

EssexHebridean

I'll be honest, and say that right at the moment I think you're better to go cold turkey on credit - so not take anything new regardless of the fact that it's at 0%. This is mostly due to needing to cure the old habit of just putting things on credit - but also the fact that putting that purchase on credit now means an additional sum being paid over the next 12 months, and the fact that this will mean that you'r still paying for the christmas present by the time his birthday comes around...so what happens if (when?) he wants another £300 present then?

You've saved the money, so use what you've saved. In the future, when you're debt free, you can play about with offers like this to your own benefit, but for the time being, I'd say keep things very, very simple.

Suffolk_lass

It is a dilemma isn't it? Reading both the post above they make perfect sense and address the mental "addiction" element of taking the credit as it is offered. It has made me reflect on my own position. I have the mortgage (going up from 7th December) and I now have a 0% finance deal. For me it comes down to my hatred of paying interest. I am overpaying the mortgage and letting the 0% deal run. This means I am nearly £400 down on cashflow though. Martin warned the 0% deals were shortening and becoming less available so for me, I would be paying down an interest bearing CC and, I would look on Martin's Credit-checker to see what your credit score is now, with a view to moving one to a 0% deal and then concentrating on the other for a few months.

I know it is my little brain but I like seeing the total go down more quickly on the accounts that I pay for. It does mean I have struggled with cash-flow three months out of the last four, where big things mean my CC use has been enormous, but we have resorted to freezer and low-cost meals to get them paid in full each month (just).

Either option would work for you but you need to reflect on the psychological impact and whether it would affect your manageability filter - by which I mean, if having another account would impact on your mental sense of coping - don't do it. On the other hand, if you can see that balance reducing on an interest bearing card and you can reconcile that additional account (in your head, the money appears to be there) - then do it

worriedDan

Hi Everyone,

I hope that everyone is ok and enjoyiing the Festive season.

December has been a little tricky for us. We have had to replace 3 major appliances over the last 6 weeks - washing machine, tumble dryer and Fridge Freezer! My car has also had to have £300 worth of work done to it!!! At least it's all done now!!

As a result of this, we have struggled to pay out 2k per month target. I am not overly worried about this as we have still managed to pay off about 14K this year, which I think is ok. This time last year we were racking up debt like no tomorrow with no real plan to repay it!

I had to use my credit card for my car repairs. This felt weird and uncomfortable. I have already set up the payment to clear it when I get paid!

On a positive note, my wife's savings ( the ones that she can't really access without talking to her parents) have increased to nearly 16k. We are really pleased about this as on paper, this more than covers the debt that is in my wifes name.

Taking the savings into account, out net debt is now hovering around the 30K mark. This is still WAAAAYY too high, but a hell of a lot better than where we were 9 months ago.

Looking forward to the paying of LOADS more in 2018

remote_control

Inspirational!

worriedDan

remote_control wrote: »

Inspirational!

Thanks remote, but there are some really inspirational stories on here. We are still in the relatively early stages of our debt repayment.