Do you owe more than you earn? Poll discussion/results

paulj2001

My initial reaction on seeing the vote result chart was that it appears people aren't in as much debt as is commonly thought - if they're being completely honest of course! One of the posters on this thread describes themselves as being 'out of debt by December 1st'; this is great but then they go on to say APART 'from a car loan, which I see as a necessary loan'; surely, a lot of people regard their debts as 'necessary' but is that an excuse not to count it?

Keeping_Positive

Scarily close to 100%

skoda38

hi,

what % of dept would you consider to be a problem

were on dept 31% )
savings 14% ) of income
mortgage 106% )

Gordon_the_Moron

Not sure what to vote, I owe about £7k to credit card companies at 0% but I've got more than that in savings, I live with my parents so I have no mortgage or other loans. To me that is debt free but technically the money I owe the card companies is still debt, even though it is good debt.

economiser

Why no choice of "no debt of any kind"? We don't all have mortgages.

klint

Are we supposed to use gross income or net of tax & NI contributions?

If gross, why? The only thing that matters is how much you get into your bank account that you can actually spend.

Can we have clearer voting instructions please.

Mark7799

Apart from mortgage, no debt more than a month old

BlakesHeaven

Paid of mortgage and got no debt. My principle is, if i can't justify spending the dosh I don't get it and if i think it's over priced I'll wait.
Credit cards are only used for internet purchases and petrol; but always paid in full each month.
It wasn't always like this; everthing was at it's limit & 2 weeks until payday. That was 15 years ago. It is possible to sort it out and avoid debt. Good luck everyone.

smartcat04

Owe 63% of my income. Figure a lot higher than I thought It would be but but seeing it as a percentage gives me a bit more incentive to get it down.

thedayfamily

I was surprised to see that the highest percentage had no debt. Sadly, I think this is because the poll is just moneysavingexpert.com visiters. I'm afraid if you polled the whole country it would show more people in debt. Like a previous comment, I couldn't (and often didn't!) sleep at night thinking about debt, but I cleared a few thousand a few years ago now and have been debt free (apart from mortgage) for the last 5 years. I wish everyone would see what a heavy chain it is around their necks and change their life styles to get rid of it!