What is the difference between happiness and misery?

ffs

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. - Charles Dickens

There have been a number of posts here recently querying how people can possibly get in to so much debt. I have suggested on several occaisions that it is rarely flagrant overspending, and more often due to a change in circumstances, such as divorce, redundancy, birth, ill health etc.

However I thought it would be interesting to calculate how much you would have to overspend per day to reach a five figure debt in ten years.

The answer is One Pound.

This assumes a monthly interest rate of 1.5% which is not uncommon on many credit cards over the last decade.

I can now see how my debt of £50k reached over twenty years could be the result of an overspend of just £1 per day.

tinalives

Good observation - Disturbing isn't it!

delboypass

Can you post your calculations please.

ffs

delboypass wrote:

Can you post your calculations please.

Calculation assumes 30.42 is added to capital borrowed each month (one pound per day), and compound interest of 1.5% is applied to the total debt each month:

Year Debt
One 397
Two 871
Three 1,438
Four 2,116
Five 2,927
Six 3,896
Seven 5,054
Eight 6,440
Nine 8,096
Ten 10,077
Eleven 12,445
Twelve 15,276
Thirteen 18,660
Fourteen 22,707
Fifteen 27,546
Sixteen 33,331
Seventeen 40,248
Eighteen 48,518
Nineteen 58,406
Twenty 70,228

Turning_into_scrooge

!!!!!! wrote:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. - Charles Dickens

There have been a number of posts here recently querying how people can possibly get in to so much debt. I have suggested on several occaisions that it is rarely flagrant overspending, and more often due to a change in circumstances, such as divorce, redundancy, birth, ill health etc.

However I thought it would be interesting to calculate how much you would have to overspend per day to reach a five figure debt in ten years.

The answer is One Pound.

This assumes a monthly interest rate of 1.5% which is not uncommon on many credit cards over the last decade.

I can now see how my debt of £50k reached over twenty years could be the result of an overspend of just £1 per day.

Frightening isn't it :eek: I personnaly am happier now that i'm on a DMP than i was before. Strange thing is I now have control of my finances, i love having just a basic cash card account with no credit faculties, I have a brilliant relationship and basically to a certain point peace of mind. I don't worry about money any more. Sometimes we have to come down a level in order to obtain a grounding. I certainly did and from that point my life turned around for the better :T

bonnie_2

having got my debt down to £400 i am now very careful with money so much so that my doctor thinks i have ocd.i am obssessed with writing lists and budgets and checking the atm balance.i have weekly lists, monthly and yearly lists i wish my husband was the same he still owes who knows what.i dont even shop on the internet any more and get a real buzz from handing over cash at the till,even though they give you a funny look for it, eveyone seems to pay by card now.

Turning_into_scrooge

bonnie wrote:

having got my debt down to £400 i am now very careful with money so much so that my doctor thinks i have ocd.

I'm not even half way there and i've got it too lol i will spend an hour a day checking my bank balance, downloading statements, etc. i have my accounts on MS Money up to the end of the year so i can see if i'm going to hit a black spot. I also have an account fo the money i have in my purse fo day to day spending which i have to balance off daily if i spend even 1p :eek: . I am definitely obsesed, if i haven't had time -which is extreamly unusual - to do my accounts i cannot go to sleep untill i have done it, it wont let me rest :eek: . Definitely obsessed lol rather be obsessed though than complaicent(sp?) :rotfl:

tinalives

Turning_into_scrooge wrote:

I'm not even half way there and i've got it too lol i will spend an hour a day checking my bank balance, downloading statements, etc. i have my accounts on MS Money up to the end of the year so i can see if i'm going to hit a black spot. I also have an account fo the money i have in my purse fo day to day spending which i have to balance off daily if i spend even 1p :eek: . I am definitely obsesed, if i haven't had time -which is extreamly unusual - to do my accounts i cannot go to sleep untill i have done it, it wont let me rest :eek: . Definitely obsessed lol rather be obsessed though than complaicent(sp?) :rotfl:

LOL!!! You sound EXACTLY like me!!!

roversbabe

And me !!

thanks to the advice I've read on this site I'll be debt free next December (joint & my own)

Thanks all

Malestrom

You people need to get out more! :rotfl:

tinalives

You're not wrong!! LOL!