What do you consider debt free to be??

arthurdick

true, but if you can pay it, try not to look at it as a debt... but as just buying something you want on h.p.. its the only way i can get by, knowing that at the end of it, its mine..

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hiya lovelies!

Good question LP! Doesn't Martin always say that there are different kinds of debt? Some are good debts and some are bad ones?

Our DFD doesn's take into account our mortgage, and I wouldn't want it to! That would add many many years! :eek:

I agree with Gemmzie - having a mortgage rather than renting is an investment isn't it?

Many people go from their DFD to working on being MFD don't they? We probably won't though. The next thing on the agenda once we get out of debt is to get all the work done on the house that we've been putting off whilst we sorted this debt mess out.

The student loan's a bit of a separate case as well I think - because it's not consumer debt, it's interest free, it paid for your OH's education, and it can get written off.

I wonder how it impacts on credit scores? Do lenders count student loans in the same way that they count consumer loans?

Sorry hon, More questions than answers there!

Love Jacks xxx

nearlyrich

I suppose to be truly debt free is to have nothing owing to anyone including the Student Loan company and a mortgage company however most people have a mortgage until they are at least 45 to 50 ( if they started buying a house at 25 ish and didn't keep extending it. SL are a modern burden that most 45 to 50 year olds don't have however some of us have had to (or chosen to ) support our children through uni to minimise their student loans.

If you have no debts and enough in the bank to pay your way for a couple of months you can consider yourself debt free and lucky.

LilacPixie

This is turning into an interesting thread with vary opinions.

OH student loan is quite small at 3k but it is not interest free. Interest is currently 4.8% according to the statement. I looked it up on the SLC website and in the early 90's apparently interest rates were around 10% on them so I guess they could rise that far again. :eek: Last year he payed a grand total of £18 via his wages and they added £113 interest. :eek:

I guess that while the amount owed is increasing and the amount being deducted from his earnings is only a few pounds then it should be considered a debt just not one of massive priority.

I dunno about the mortgage. The plan was gonna be get usual debt free asap then save up for a deposit and buy a larger house Now that seems a good bit off.

MoneyMagnet

I do class our mortgage as a debt, and won't truly feel debt free until it's paid off and I don't owe anyone a penny. Having said that, paying off my unsecured loan (my only other debt) will feel very freeing, and I'll probably think of myself as debt free at that point to a large extent, even though technically it won't be the case. But silly consumer debt like the loan does feel a lot different to a mortgage.

Holeypockets

I look forward to being debt free

A few years later I will look forward to being mortgage free afterwards.

It's easier to seperate the two just to make the goals more manageable

Billy-no-Money

Debt-free to me means everything but the mortgage, and that's my intention, but I do have motorbike finance (it's my only transport) and while I'll put a deposit down for its replacement I'm sure I'll still need credit.

That to me isn't a problem - it's not 'good debt', but it's for a specific thing and as long as the deposit's big enough I've got the security of knowing I could sell it in an emergency. Very different from credit-card debt!


Our mortgage has seven years at a fixed rate to go and there are penalties for early repayment in that period, so we'll deal with that one later!

doodledo_2

Same with me I will consider myself debt free once I am just left with my mortgage.

postingalwaysposting

Well I would say, in my opinion you are debt free when everthing except the mortgage is payed off. However saying that a sudent loan is something like base rate interest which means its the 'best' debt you can have. If I was in your situation I would class myself debt free and then throw everything at your mortgage and pay off your student loan last as its prob less interest than your mortgage. This is my opinion anyway

EssexHebridean

We don't consider the mortgage to be a debt in real terms, so. having said that, we do obviously want to get it paid off as quickly as we can - there's a lot of years left on it yet (although less than there were a while ago before we started regular overpayments!) but we're working at it now, as part of a long term plan.

OH has a student loan, and we also have a £6,500 loan which part paid for our car back in November. Both are under control payment-wise though so while they are debts, I'm not worrying about them. To me "being in debt" is when you get to the stage of struggling to make payments, or when you start using one debt to try to pay another......