£43,800

onehitwonder · 5 February 2018 at 4:45PM

Well the start of a new diary. I have had plenty of light bulb moments in the past and attempts to get back to being debt free - somewhere I was last at about 35 years ago when I was 17.

Anyway back to business. My total debt is around £44,000 and is made up of 6 credit cards and one loan.
I also have a mortgage, and that currently stands at around £70,000 - but the house is worth around £150,000 so not all bad.

I have accumulated the debts over a long period and have no one but myself to blame.
I am starting this diary in the hope it will motivate me to keep paying off the debts and not add to them.
I know what I have to do, or should do, and have spreadsheets and completed SOAs in the past so there is nothing to cut back on that I haven't already.
Mainly I just have to stop spending on unnecessary 'stuff' and get paying it down.

Currently the damage is with the figures in brackets being the card limit (I know I am maxed out on most):
Virgin Card (5700) £5,700.73
First Direct (8000) £7,950.00
Halifax (4000) £3,938.69
Halifax Clarity (900) £813.77
Tesco card (3500) £3,341.30
MNBA (6800) £6,482.20
Loan (20000) £15,834.73
Total: £44,061.41

[Deleted User] · 5 February 2018 at 4:49PM

Good luck on your journey xx

onehitwonder · 5 February 2018 at 5:00PM

One positive.
I have around £1600 of cryptocurrency, which I know I should sell to pay off some of the debt - but I am not. I will hold onto it as it is an incredible roller-coaster watching the value go up and down (well initially up, then down, down a lot, but hopefully it will go back up).
This is going to be my one vice.

..and if anyone is interested I have 11 Litecoin and 1 Ether. No actual Bitcoins.

Details of my cryptocurrency which at the moment is a bad investment, but I expect (hope) it will be ok long term...
Ether:£603.16, Lite:£1,011.12 Total:£1,614.28
Profit\Loss -£785.72 Percent:-32.74%

I am not asking for advice on handling my debts just want to put it all out there

enjoyyourshoes · 5 February 2018 at 5:06PM

So what happened to your multiple light bulb moments.?

Why have they ,as yet, stuck?

Can you earn more?

Can you cut back on your spending?

Good luck with the cryptocurrencies !

A shiny new Xmas present cashing them in might have been fortunate for you ! hope you didn't buy recently?

onehitwonder · 5 February 2018 at 5:21PM

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

So what happened to your multiple light bulb moments.?
Why have they ,as yet, stuck?
Can you earn more?
Can you cut back on your spending?

I freely admit I am a lazy so and so. My previous lightbulb moments just fizzled out. I know my debt is large but I have a good salary and can manage. The fact that I haven't had a problem with it is why I am, was, so bad keeping it in check. But now I realise it is out of hand and is impacting a great deal on my life.
I can't increase my incomings but can cut back on spending - which is what I am going to do.

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

Good luck with the cryptocurrencies !
A shiny new Xmas present cashing them in might have been fortunate for you ! hope you didn't buy recently?

Yes, they are the new, shiny, thing for me. Bought them in Dec. Not when they were at the highest, but 30% more expensive than they are now. I have actually recently cashed in about 5 litecoins, something I may regret in 20 years

and actually made money on them - probably 20% gain - which isn't a great deal, but better than the 30+% loss I am sitting on for the remaining ones at the moment.

Actually the 32% loss is now a 30% loss now. The value of the 'coins' having risen by about £100 in the last few hours. I love the volatility of them - mind you I prefer the volatility when they are just on the upward trend.

enjoyyourshoes · 5 February 2018 at 5:29PM

In my humble opinion if you can stop the spending on WANTS and mainly spend on NEEDS, and throw as much money ,as quickly over the longest period of time, at the debts, this may lead to happier times.

Price of Bitcoins is cascading, not sure about the ones you hold, but you will not regret selling the ones you recently sold, but regret not selling them all.

https://www.coindesk.com/price/

onehitwonder · 5 February 2018 at 5:35PM

Thanks for the comments enjoyyourshoes, I do appreciate them. I also agree with you. The smart choice would be to sell the remaining coins I have and pay off some debt. But I am not really that smart

and want to keep them to see what happens.
I know their value has dropped by over 30%. But I am hoping by the end of this month their value will raise to be close to the level I bought them at.
For me it is like buying the lottery each week - although I know a lot more expensive.

enjoyyourshoes · 5 February 2018 at 5:53PM

Why do you think the value will increase.?

What is your crystal ball telling you that mine isn't.?

I got as far as a 'wallet' and left it at that !

savingholmes · 5 February 2018 at 7:25PM

Good luck on your journey. What is your target to pay off a month? Are you on track? What are you doin to change your habits? Asks someone with a similar debt level...

onehitwonder · 6 February 2018 at 6:17PM

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

Why do you think the value will increase.?
What is your crystal ball telling you that mine isn't.?
I got as far as a 'wallet' and left it at that !

Only my gut is telling me over the longer term their value will go up. I could be completely wrong

enthusiasticsaver · 6 February 2018 at 6:28PM

I don't think you have had any light bulb moments in the past as otherwise the debt would have been dealt with. Presumably you are now in your fifties if you have been in debt for 35 years. Do you intend to clear it before you retire or are you just hoping things will sort itself out as you do not seem to have a plan to clear it?

The cards are either at the limit or very close to them which would indicate to me that although you say you have a good salary you are not paying them off. Surely the monthly repayments are affecting you as I am guessing you must be paying in the region of £1000+ just on minimums? I am actually staggered that with that amount of debt you are effectively gambling on cryptocurrency with no guarantees of returns.

Are you paying interest on those cards or do you have them on 0% deals? If not, what interest rates are you paying?

£43,800

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