Be badass or go home (Jen Sincero)

Cinnabar71

DFD

Credit cards £12750

Overdraft £2500

Mortgages £200,000

Personal loan £90000

Total £305250

Income £52500 before tax

2 Properties value £700,000 

My debt is really affecting my daily life. I grind my teeth in my sleep and can’t tell my family how bad it is. £190,000 of this debt is owed to family, 15 years to repay. Please don’t tell me to talk to them about it - that can’t happen as I am afraid of losing them. I’ve just qualified professionally and set up a great business, earning good money at last. Now I’m determined to deal with my mess! 

Thanks, and here’s to a good nights sleep.

makingmehappy

Hello Cinnabar71, welcome to DFW diary land. Sorry to hear that you're going through a worrying time, but well done on taking the first steps to sorting out the debt.

Congratulations on your new qualifications and business.

badmemory

As this seems to be really getting you down why not look at it a different way.  You own almost £400k of property.  I own my own property & have savings of more than that property value & I don't have £300k.  So you are worth much more than me & will in time be worth even more.  I do see why you are stressing about owing money to family.  I only ever owed my family £280 for a month & it really did not sit well with me!

mark55man

you've come to the right place, and as a "lifer" my advice would be DO worry about the debt as its a short term issue, but DON'T worry about and don't stop planning for the long term.  A desire to get rid of short term debt can lead to suboptimal longer term decisions.

I would say unless your family are clearly in need of the money don't accelerate its repayment - deal with the rest first.  Do think through the following
* Is your debt structured in the way to reduce interest payments to the least (especially now you have a good business you might be able to get better rates soon, if not immediately)
* Do all the obvious big ticket savings that you can think of as soon as you can
* Remember though in the long term, and once you have got to zero on your unsecured debt, that its the small things you do often that make the most difference - eg reducing stuff you buy out for lunch / coffee - better focus on shopping.  These can save you thousands a year on top of the normal debt repayments you have planned.

 I have recommended this article a number of times https://theescapeartist.me/2015/03/02/the-aggregation-of-marginal-gains/ 

Good luck, and I have subscribed.  Some peoples journey's are about managing the trickle of money against their needs, other people have a fire hose and it just needs to be directed properly and leakages and waste minimised

Cinnabar71

Biggest thing I did recently to save money was get an electric car on subscription. I pay zero in charging costs and my business version 1/4 of the monthly fees (mileage equiv.) thanks for the responses, very much appreciated!