Could your debt problems have been avoided?

lieutenant_dan

I fell into a hole when I lost my job and couldn't get work for a while. But there's always the risk of that happening when you don't live within your means, and you have to factor in things like changes of circumstances when you're whacking things on the plastic!

So mine could have been avoided, definitely.

Gemmzie

Scarily, we don't know because we still don't know where a large chunk of it went - how terrifying is that :eek:

fermi

With the hindsight I have now and a small time machine, yes.

Things would be different.

Learnt plenty of lessons for the future though.

poorandindenial

I know mine could, if I am honest then at no point in the last 11 years (which is how long I have had some sort of debt) could I have absolutely not afforded to live on the money I earned. However I decided that I wanted to live a lifestyle that I couldn't afford (I say decide, really I sort of fell into it) and now I am paying for it.

I know that there are lots of people who were forced into debt and that makes me feel a bit odd about mine as I know it was mostly squandering and silliness (aka compulsive spending). Oddly anough I don't really regret my debt, I did lots of cool things with it as well as the squandering, but I sometimes see it stretching on for ages in front of me although I am lucky enough to be able to pay it off in 18 months - 2 years now that I have woken up and smelt the coffee.

Numpty_Monkey

First time was a change in pay (weekly to monthly)
then made redundant(carp government redundancy payout) no job for 3 months)

Then the classic falling in love and trusting someone and letting her have my PIN number:eek: for C/c and talking me into getting a loan for "us" in my name, thinkling she was paying the bills:o Etc

most of mine could have been avoided if i never got a credit card:mad:

Mozette

Gosh yes. And I wouldn't have a houseful of crap!

Mind you, my life would have been less interesting - not sure if that is good or bad...

bathgatebuyer

My debt was partly a mix of being young and thinking that, at the age of 24 earning £30K a year and driving a sportscar, that things could only keep getting better in my life. I thought, "£30K now, and £50K in a few more years time".

The redundancy happened and I was forced to take a much lower paid job which I absolutely hated. That all happened 3 weeks before Xmas, so I took a crap contracting job working for the most appalling slimeball imagineable who treated me like dirt because I was on day-to-day contracts. First chance I left to go to a job I absolutely loved in teaching, however, I was again on a short-term contract and found the stress and uncertainty of it all so soon after the redundancy really difficult. Anyhow, I was offered a secure job, or so I thought, which ended 2 weeks after starting after my new colleague decided to complain about the company taking on someone more qualified than he was while he thought he was getting an assistant to train up. Threatened the 'she goes or I go taking my clients with me' so that was it.

My Dad was terminally ill at the same time and I just thought, "Sod it - I'll make sure he's ok" which is exactly what I did. I paid his mortgage and my own, my car loan repayments were kept up (and I now own it - woo hoo!), I got no assistance from the Benefits Agency, no carer's allowance, and as a consequence still had to pay full council tax (which they in fact increased for a time because my Dad came to live with me!). So, when I started work again after his death on may 2006, the debts were at £34K.

Some of it was down to me enjoying city live in my early twenties and not thinking about saving at all, with the remainder being down to bad luck.

skint_spice

after reading posts like bathgate's it makes me angry with myself as most of mine has been squandered and needlessly - still there's time to change. DF before I'm 40 hopefully!

lieutenant_dan

I'll tell you another way my debts could have been avoided, if I didn't get so much easy credit thrown at me!

Was thinking the other day, if I had had applied for credit cards in the current climate, I would probably have been declined due to the tightening of credit, which would have been a good thing.

Was irresponsibly given more credit and used it irresponsibly, so it's an equal blame in my eyes, myself and the banks.

Mozette

As the saying goes, I spent most of it on sex & drugs & rock 'n' roll...
the rest I squandered...

Numpty_Monkey

Bit of a can of worms i think,
but yes i agree with you that it was "easy credit" but at least it is regulated and should have been tighter.

The other option is the loan sharks, they will be rubbing their hands at this new credit crunch. sad but true