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Personal debt level
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Food for thought.
If this happened the money being saved in the share scheme would be used
Personally I'd sit down and work out out what your personal priorities are. Life has a nasty habit of biting you on the backside when you are least expecting it. Carrying debt is fine, until you've no monthly income coming in. Or something unexpected happens causing debt levels to spiral out of control.0 -
Money_Muppet wrote: »Then sell the car, get a banger and pay down your debts.
Thought about it but be lucky to get 5k so dont see the sense0 -
enjoyyourshoes wrote: »What is a priority ?
1.0 Fancy wedding
2.0 House
3.0 Debt free
Don't say all 3 !
Work that out and things will drop into place.
If it debt free, then savings will pay for the most costly debt witch has no EPC, and you will have enough to pay off the 0% by their term before exorbitant interest rates hit. You will also get married abroad, just the two of you on a planned and saved for holiday.
If its the fancy wedding, then the house will be put on the back burner.
If it hose, wedding done frugally and you balance debtbrepayment with mortgage/deposit maximisation (use on line calculators with the different parameters available to you )
We did this, and decided on house - we were paying virtually the same amount in rent as the mortgage will be, and without the pressure to save a deposit we're going to have more money to hit the debts with.
To some people paying debts would take priority, but we took the view that we're in control of our debts, we still have over £1000 spare after essential bills / repayments so we wanted to get on the ladder.
Wedding will come a very distant 3rd.0 -
What a tremendous amount of debt. I would be doing everything I could to shift that as fast as possible.0
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Firsttimebuyers wrote: »We did this, and decided on house - we were paying virtually the same amount in rent as the mortgage will be, and without the pressure to save a deposit we're going to have more money to hit the debts with.
I don't think it's that important to make the decision today what you're going to spend money on.
However the return you're getting on your ISA is important to deciding where to put your money today, but you didn't mention what it was & you can't make a decision without knowing this.
You are effectively borrowing the money to put it in your ISA. If it was just the 0% credit cards then it would be ok. But that 3.5% car loan is eating away at finances, your ISA return needs to cover that. If it does, then it's a great strategy. If not, then you're paying a fee for a wam feeling about having savings.
The shares are essentially gambling, but you say the money is tied up so there might not be anything you can do with that money anyway. For all I know they might be worthless when you come to buy your house, or they might buy you a million pound house with no mortgage (I'd er towards the former than the later).
There is probably an advantage in having cold hard cash to pay a deposit, but they will look at your level of personal debt too. The lender can easily just add the two figures together and see that you don't actually have savings, you have money that you borrowed for your deposit.
All you can really do is keep earning money and spend as little of it as humanly possible.0 -
I'd pay down debt in preference to aggressive saving
You will be gutted if the personal debt prevents you getting the mortgage you want. Interest rates in general are expected to rise so affordability on all forms of finance will get ever more scrutiny.
You say you are in control of your debts but the situation changes rapidly if you can't refinance at 0% or you hit an employment or health blip. You're not really in brilliant control either if you have £9k outstanding on a £5k car.
Personally, I wouldn't want to go into my first house with material other debt at the same time - unexpected costs and house buying go hand in hand.
PS also agree with the above comments - you don't have to actually commit while the 0% runs.0 -
I don't think it's that important to make the decision today what you're going to spend money on.
However the return you're getting on your ISA is important to deciding where to put your money today, but you didn't mention what it was & you can't make a decision without knowing this.
You are effectively borrowing the money to put it in your ISA. If it was just the 0% credit cards then it would be ok. But that 3.5% car loan is eating away at finances, your ISA return needs to cover that. If it does, then it's a great strategy. If not, then you're paying a fee for a wam feeling about having savings.
The shares are essentially gambling, but you say the money is tied up so there might not be anything you can do with that money anyway. For all I know they might be worthless when you come to buy your house, or they might buy you a million pound house with no mortgage (I'd er towards the former than the later).
There is probably an advantage in having cold hard cash to pay a deposit, but they will look at your level of personal debt too. The lender can easily just add the two figures together and see that you don't actually have savings, you have money that you borrowed for your deposit.
All you can really do is keep earning money and spend as little of it as humanly possible.I'd pay down debt in preference to aggressive saving
You will be gutted if the personal debt prevents you getting the mortgage you want. Interest rates in general are expected to rise so affordability on all forms of finance will get ever more scrutiny.
You say you are in control of your debts but the situation changes rapidly if you can't refinance at 0% or you hit an employment or health blip. You're not really in brilliant control either if you have £9k outstanding on a £5k car.
Personally, I wouldn't want to go into my first house with material other debt at the same time - unexpected costs and house buying go hand in hand.
PS also agree with the above comments - you don't have to actually commit while the 0% runs.
The share money is a sharesave £500 per month so the minimum I will get back is what I have put in.
I get what you're saying, the consensus seems to be pay down debt.
The ISAs are HTB ISAs so fingers crossed for every £400 we're putting in each month we'll get £100 back so I think it makes sense to keep these going.
I think I will pay down as much debt as I can in the next 18 months and evaluate where we are then, perhaps cut the sharesave short (matures May 2020) and use it to bring debt down as much as possible...thanks all for your input I feel a bit clearer in what to do0 -
Thought about it but be lucky to get 5k so dont see the sense
There's the problems there, Buying things which are clearly not money saving, no shame in having an old banger to drive for a few years. It only needs to go A to B. I had a Rover and an old Vauxhall Astra for 8 years, no shame in that.
No point in being poor and drive a nice car and watch it depreciate in value. Rather save some money and the outcome is still the same, I still get to work and I save a fair amount too."It is prudent when shopping for something important, not to limit yourself to Pound land/Estate Agents"
G_M/ Bowlhead99 RIP0 -
thanks all for your input I feel a bit clearer in what to do
In the longer term you'll see and feel the benefits. You'll appreciate your wedding day even more if you aren't left with a large bill to pay. That's settled over the following 5 years. Time is relentless. You never get a second bite.0 -
Thought about it but be lucky to get 5k so dont see the sense
Because it's a depreciating asset. This time next year it will be worth £3350.
If you buy smart (I don't mean Smart - you know what I mean) you can limit depreciation to a few hundred and liberate maybe 4k to pay down the loan.
On your numbers you could be debt free in a year0
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