Help! In trouble from keeping up with the joneses

Cornishpixie_2

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Wait, i know, start gambling.. you should be able to go to vegas and win enough to pay off your debts AND not reduce the quality of your lifestyle

:eek: Hey! are you on a roll?:D

[Deleted User]

Let's translate this.. he's on a £55k salary in a £750k house with £92k of debt. His wife spends £1000 a month by going to a country club.

Back to being serious, i would downsize your house. Your debts are 12% of the value of your home.. so downgrade to a home worth £650 ($1.3m) and you'll clear your debts AND have a few grand left over. You then need to aim to not spend more than you earn.

Now, in my eyes, people on £55k salaries aren't meant to be spending like millionaires. It's good money, but it's not amazing, especially for California. Are you able to look for a better paying job / promotion?

shuttyian

Plavoie,

Please go amuse yourself elsewhere, this site is for genuine people, i think considering the situations most people are in on this forum, you must be quite sad and a chronic fantasist.

bandraboy

Wah it's straight out of an episode of Desperate Housewives!

What is it they say? "Denial ain't a river in Egypt!" You can't keep up the pretense any longer. Your wife and kids are going to have to share the responsibility.

Most of your problem is in your head! Everyone around you is also suffering - or about to, because of the recession.

Cut up the credit cards.

Drop the club membership - $24000 a year and you've got a perfectly good place to socialize/entertain at home. Impress all the club members with your fantastic BBQ!

The four holidays a year have to go. You're probably spending 5-10k on each of those with a family of 6. When the debts are paid off, then you can go.

With petrol prices so high, you can trade in for a more fuel efficient model and no-one will even question you.

Grocery bill can probably be reduced by 50% without even noticing.

Stop buying electronics for 18 months. Nothing will be that much faster, shinier or useful (time saving) within that time. And if it is, you'll look forward to buying it when you're debt free.

There are so many ways to cut costs without the rest of the world even noticing.

There's no reason why your wife couldn't work from home. Get her to write a book or a movie script. Plant an idea that she thinks will be aspirational/win face but actually keeps her in the house and not spending.

And if this is a wind-up, call Suze Orman!

smashedbooboo

Guys, please, until we know this poster is real or not, can we please afford him the chance to speak. If he is troll then so be it. But until then some of you are acting like trolls yourselves. What happened to being non judgemental. Some of your posts are getting a tad personal. Please not on. And even if you think he is a troll then please dont post with comments like you are. It only encourages them to come up with more stuff. Just ignore posts altogether. Sorry peeps. Everyones situation is different. And if you are a troll you will get booted off hun. And if not stick with us and you will get the same great advice veryone else gets from these fab people on the boards. Whether you choose to take said advice is your choice. x x x

smashedbooboo

And it is so easy to pick up if you are real or not. All the MSE team have to do is find your ISP. So if you want help genuinly then please feel free to talk to us. If not then please i ask you to leave the site.

view

Sorry, but you need to get your priorities straight. If you carry on this way, the choice of what to do that you're currently mulling over will be swiftly taken away and your main concerns wil be 'where do I house my family' as opposed to not being able to play golf/have the right clothes/holidays. With the way the American economic situatin is currently, you really need to act now and make your own choices now, before these choices were made for you.

I'm sure you're a smart guy and are lucky enough to have a lovely family, focus on their needs (and believe me, it's not the latest ipod, wii etc..). Learn that the most important things in life are truly your family and friends and good health. What lessons are you, perhaps unkowingly, passing onto your kids? You're setting ground for them to follow, which is good to be reaching, however, bad to think that a life of credit is a good one. Also, what will you have to pass onto them? All your debts could be eaten up by your estate.

Just a thought... I wonder if your neighbour next door has also maxed his credit cards up to the eyeballs trying to keep up with you whilst you're both sending each other to financial ruin!

You should start by getting everything down on a spreadsheet so you can see exactly what is coming in and what is going out. Sit down with your family and just say that you're looking at things differently, you don't need to completely shock them by sayign you're drowing in debt, just say you have been thinking more about their future and that by closing the belt a little now, will only provide them with a stronger and financially sound future.
This may sound like tough love, you know yourself you're struggling, as I say before I'm sure you're a very clever guy - burying your head in the sand is not the way to go ahead with this, nor is taking out a consolidated loan.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly with more help, mine are really just thoughts.

Best of luck
GJ x

shopaholic2008

If this is a serious thread then why dont you just start by cutting back, shopping around for the best deals etc.
Its quite obvious you dont want to give up your lifestyle but the fact is you cant afford it. You need to start living within your means rather than spending on credit. By spending what you can afford at least then you wont be adding to your debts. You need to budget properly and cut back on spends such as groceries, leisure and unnecessary items ~ do you really need to get a new car every couple of months. Most people get a new car every couple of years or wait even longer.

As for your question did we take drastic measures to become debt free. Of course we did cause everyone on here wants to sort their lifes out and make the day when they will be debt free come as soon as possible. If your that serious about becoming debt free then you will follow the advice of the people on this site and swallow your pride.

I hope everything works out for you

lifesuckssometimes

Pobby wrote: »

I know the problem. If my neighbor buys a K plate Ford Fiesta I have to rush out and get a L plate Escort. Last week one of his kids had a new baseball cap. I said it looked nice but inside I was hurting. Anyway this week we have out done them by getting new trainers from Primark. Man this keeping up with the Jones really takes some doing!

pobby you snob :rotfl: primarks. I have to make do with peacocks. And i have to make do with my A reg lada..:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Overthetop

Im all for the family being part of debt busting. I would start with a family meeting where budgets are spoken abou, this enables to children to start understanding some of the pressures, not all just some. I think you will be surprised at how they can be a part of the solutuion.
As for keeping up with the neighbours when they are in the nusring home in later years they wont give a fig about what they had accumulated nor should you now.