£43,800

onehitwonder · 6 February 2018 at 6:44PM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

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?

Thanks for the input enthusiasticsaver. You are probably right, maybe I had dim lightbulb moments.
Yes most of the debt is currently 0% or low rates (around 5%).
I know I have been burying my head in the sand. But now I intend to reduce the debt each month. I should be able to pay off the minimum and pay of a few hundred more each month. I will see how it goes in the next couple of months.

onehitwonder · 7 February 2018 at 1:36PM

My cryptocurrency has gone up and I now hold £2268. About £117 down on them overall at the moment.

Sunkencosts · 7 February 2018 at 1:53PM

Exciting watching the currency move. Have you got an idea of what level you would cash them out at if they rose?

I have similar debt (actually about 10 k more!) so will be following your journey too. I always look around for people with similar levels to me -- it's like a weight loss forum, you identify most closely with the journey of people with a similar build to you!

Good luck

onehitwonder · 7 February 2018 at 2:44PM

Sunkencosts wrote: »

Exciting watching the currency move. Have you got an idea of what level you would cash them out at if they rose?

Haven't thought of a level I would cash out. If they rose to £20k I would probably cash out £10k.
I am under no illusion though - I would love their value to rise and rise, but I know rising to 20k is a VERY big ask and probably won't happen before I retire in about 12 years time.
Therefore I expect I will cash them in when I retire at whatever level it is at or until I get bored with them

...and good luck with your debt busting as well Sunkencosts.

onehitwonder · 19 February 2018 at 12:05PM

Been recalculating and decided to sell some of my litecoins.
An updated total:

Debts: Virgin Card £5,765, First Direct £7,990.00, Halifax £3,964, Halifax Clarity £0, Tesco £3,981, MNBA £6,755, Loan £15,834 Total: £44,287
Hold: Crypto value (6 Litecoin 1.1 ETH) Value: £1,750.

So paid off my Halifax clarity card. Going to tackle my other Halifax card next so hopefully repay that on the next few months.
Going through the process of selling the Etherium now. Might regret it if the value rockets but think it best to reduce the debts. Will still retain some Litecoins - for now anyway.

enthusiasticsaver · 19 February 2018 at 3:13PM

I think that is sensible. Holding volatile assets is all well and good if you are financially secure but with £114k of debt and only 12 years until retirement holding your savings in cash or less risky investments would be wiser. Will the mortgage be paid off by the time you retire? How much are you aiming to repay off the debt each month or year?

onehitwonder · 20 February 2018 at 9:49AM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I think that is sensible. Holding volatile assets is all well and good if you are financially secure but with £114k of debt and only 12 years until retirement holding your savings in cash or less risky investments would be wiser. Will the mortgage be paid off by the time you retire? How much are you aiming to repay off the debt each month or year?

Thanks.
Yes the mortgage will be paid off in 10 years. I am going to pay off as much as I can

I am aiming to reduce it by at least £500 a month - hopefully more. I know that means a long time before it is repaid, but if I keep it up then it can only get better.

Paid off one of my cards with some of the money already received from the cryptocurrency so will update my signature. Also another few hundred still to come so that will go off the other cards soon.

onehitwonder · 22 February 2018 at 10:52AM

Sold all my cryptocurrencies and applied the money to my debts. My title says £43,800 but it was more than that - more like £45,000.
I have updated my signature and the figures are more accurate.
Next month I will drop below £43,000 which is good.
Still aim to reduce the total by at least £500 a month.

onehitwonder · 4 March 2018 at 11:05AM

Cleared one card that had the lowest balance.

Not made my £500 target to pay off things this month. But may pay off some more before the end of the month. Keeping some aside just in case I need it.
Updated my signature.
So far paid £398 off the balance this month.

onehitwonder · 4 March 2018 at 11:13AM

At the moment paying £500 a month off the debt means I won't finish paying it off for another 7 years !
I am hoping to reduce that especially when the debt starts to go down I should be able to bring the end date closer - hopefully.

*Just checking some balances and I think after normal payments are all taken from my account I will have paid off £500 or more this month. I will redo the calculations later in the month

That's without me paying extra. So I think I could end up paying off closer to £700 this month. That would take it down to around 5 years to clear my debt if I keep it up - determined to reduce that further as well.

Not a bad month so far though.

£43,800

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