'normal' amounts of debt in this day and age

worriedDan

Hi, we are 36 & 37. We earn 70k between us and we currently have 57k of debt. We do have 12K in an ISA so I suppose our net debt is 45k. I would imagine that we have more debt than most people our age. We are now working hard to pay it off. We do have a new car to show for it and also some of the money was spent on the house, but a massive proportion of it was simply living above our means for several years. I regret these decisions but we are where we are and all we can do now is try to sort it out!

StopIt

Tommymxm wrote: »

Hi,

Just trying to get my head around some money/debt stuff. We currently have about 20K of unsecured debt between the 2 of us. We earn about 35k a year in total ( me 25k, and wife 10k)

We have no problems paying it etc, although it'll be nice to save the extra money when it is gone.

I know that it's relative to income, but what is a 'normal' amount of debt for a young couple aged 30-40 to have in this day and age? I know that the average is something like 10K, so based on that figure, we are not doing too great.! Most of our friends have car loans and credit cards too so I think that our situation is quite normal??

I think you're not far off the average.


I'm 32, my partner 25 and we have a 6 month old DD. Edit: OMG I suck, I'm 33 in 2 weeks


We rent, which is a PITA but live in an area where our income would struggle to get on the housing ladder.


I earn just shy of £25k and my partner just shy of £10k inc CB. We have debt of approx. £217 to be paid off by September as finance for a bed set we purchased in 2015.

Whoknowskt89

I'm 27 and currently got £1,424 on a credit card and around £68k mortgage left on a flat worth around 110k
I'm temporarily on 29k a year but normally £23ish k.
I used the debt to buy a motorbike and a few other bits but I use to buy motorbikes on credit and always paid them back early. This I think is what enabled me to have a decent credit history and get the mortgage on my place.

Tommymxm

I've just googled it and apparently 13k is the average uk unsecured debt per household, not that averages mean much. I'm guessing the average for the 30-40 age group would be more than 13k

jan875

IMO it's less about how much you owe and more about whether you can afford to service it. £75000 debt would probably be easily manageable for someone earning £100k per year whereas a £2000 debt would seem insurmountable to someone living on benefits.

As long as you can afford to make the payments, reduce the debt a little and also still have a life, then you probably don't need to worry too much.

I think that there are many many people in tens of thousands of debt. It's just not discussed. If i wanted to , I could go out and spend another 60k on my credit cards as I have that much available credit. It's inevitable that if this level of credit is offered then someone individuals will take advantage of it!!

Tammykitty

I am amazed at the average debt levels.


We are mid 30's and have no debt


At 29, we had about £30k savings - but that disappeared on a house and a wedding.


Now have about £5k savings

jan875

I'm not at all surprised by the average amounts, in fact I'm surprised they aren't higher! It only takes a couple of new cars and a conservatory and bang... you're 30k down!! I know how easy my debts accumulated. I'm a reasonably educated person and generally responsible in other areas of life, and yet I ended up in awful debt.

Poppy3008

I'm 46 and OH 40 and we have just taken a loan for £13k and have two mortgages of £109k and £208k. One is a buy to let so covered, just, by the rent. The loan is the first debt I have ever had other than mortgage. In fact, itts not even mine as it's in my OH name! I intend to pay if off asap. It's for a campervan which we will use all the time so worth it in our opinion.

ReadingTim

Ask the question on the debt free wannabe board and you'll get one set of answers, ask it on the savings and investments board and you'll get another, probably very different set. Absolute numbers of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of pounds make less sense than percentgages (or multiples) of income and ability to repay. Also, some debt is "better" than other: to fund education, buy property etc is "good", to never keep a car longer than 2 years or for the latest shiny gadget or most designer of clothes, shoes and handbags probably not. To put food on the table, fuel in the car or heat and light in the house, definately not.

Happier_Me

Hi

We are both 41, have a household income of approx £80k, we have £54k mortgage on a house valued at approx £350k, but this is fully offset which means we are effectively mortgage free. We have around £20k on 0% credit cards which mainly relates to a car purchase (valued at £19k).

By 32 we paid off our first mortgage. Our income and our spare cash has been much lower in the past due to part time working and childcare costs.

We have wasted money over the years but we have also lived consistently below our means. The fact that we met at a young age and bought a house at 23 has no doubt helped us (our first house was a 3 bed detached bought for £67k).