Unsure whether to consolidate - please advise

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  • enthusiasticsaver
    enthusiasticsaver Posts: 15,594 Ambassador
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    I have just read of your good fortune and agree that paying off your interest bearing debts is definitely a good thing to do.

    My suggestion would be you think hard about your long term goals. How old are you, what is yours and your partners pension situation and do you have a decent emergency fund?

    I do agree that if you live in the London area you are definitely disadvantaged in buying property due to the excruciatingly expensive house prices and you would need a much larger lump sum before being able to consider buying a property. I would suggest that having paid down the interest charging debts and as your sister is not in a hurry for her money and the sainsburys debt is at 0% that you use the monthly amount you were paying to your debt to put into a regular saver (check out Nationwide flex saver which was paying 5% pa). Another option is to look at your pensions and see if it is worth paying more monthly to these especially if you are HR tax payers.
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  • zippygeorgeandben
    zippygeorgeandben Posts: 1,273 Forumite
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    Hey enthusiasticsaver - hope you are ok.
    I'm 38 and a teacher. I've paid into the TPS for 8 years now with no break. My partner works for civil service but has only worked for them for 9 months so not much pension. Neither of us has an emergency fund. We could look into moving somewhere else for a lot less money. My salary would take a bit of a knock (as I wouldn't get the London weighting) but still be classed as a decent salary.
    Yes you're right about the monthly saving but I calculated today that if I throw £700 at the debt each month (which is just a little above what I paid monthly in September last year, I would be debt free by July 2018. That is a real incentive for me. End of school year = 6 week holiday = debt free!
    Savings as of April 2023 Savings account - £26460.50(14474.88)Current account - £2140.24(4576.79)Total - £28600.74(19051.67) £1010 (£65pm CS/BS) £250 CS/BS/JS
  • System
    System Posts: 178,093 Community Admin
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    zippygeorgeandben wrote: »
    Hey enthusiasticsaver - hope you are ok.
    I'm 38 and a teacher. I've paid into the TPS for 8 years now with no break. My partner works for civil service but has only worked for them for 9 months so not much pension. Neither of us has an emergency fund. We could look into moving somewhere else for a lot less money. My salary would take a bit of a knock (as I wouldn't get the London weighting) but still be classed as a decent salary.

    You could buy some extremely nice houses where I live on a teachers salary as in 4 bed detached ones with front and rear garden. London weighting doesn't come close to making up for the difference in housing costs compared to the rest of the UK.
  • Verbatim
    Verbatim Posts: 4,830 Forumite
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    I live in N London and know how high the property prices are.
    As a ftbuyer would you get govt help with help to buy? I think you only have to find 5% of the price for the deposit and have to be under 40 and buy a new build but you'd qualify on the enough income to afford the mortgage criterion I guess.
    CCs @0% £24k Dec 05 £19,621.41 Au £13400 S 12600 Oct £11,981 £9481 £7500 Nov £7250 D £7100 Jan 6950 F £5800 Mar£5400 May £4830 June £4660 July £4460 Aug £3200, S £900, £0 18/9/07 DFW Nerd 042
  • zippygeorgeandben
    zippygeorgeandben Posts: 1,273 Forumite
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    Tarambor wrote: »
    You could buy some extremely nice houses where I live on a teachers salary as in 4 bed detached ones with front and rear garden. London weighting doesn't come close to making up for the difference in housing costs compared to the rest of the UK.

    Hi Tarambor hope you are having a lovely Sunday. Where do you live can i ask? Any kind of garden would be lovely! I have to make do with window boxes at the moment!
    Savings as of April 2023 Savings account - £26460.50(14474.88)Current account - £2140.24(4576.79)Total - £28600.74(19051.67) £1010 (£65pm CS/BS) £250 CS/BS/JS
  • zippygeorgeandben
    zippygeorgeandben Posts: 1,273 Forumite
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    edited 1 October 2017 at 2:50PM
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    Verbatim wrote: »
    I live in N London and know how high the property prices are.
    As a ftbuyer would you get govt help with help to buy? I think you only have to find 5% of the price for the deposit and have to be under 40 and buy a new build but you'd qualify on the enough income to afford the mortgage criterion I guess.

    Hi Verbatim. Hope you are ok. Yup, they are high aren't they. We've looked into HTB schemes but even then, and we aren't greedy at all, they are just too high. We aren't looking for a 3 bed townhouse.
    Savings as of April 2023 Savings account - £26460.50(14474.88)Current account - £2140.24(4576.79)Total - £28600.74(19051.67) £1010 (£65pm CS/BS) £250 CS/BS/JS
  • zippygeorgeandben
    zippygeorgeandben Posts: 1,273 Forumite
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    Hello everyone,
    I've now paid off the ZOPA and TESCO loans, leaving currently just my sister and credit card.
    Savings as of April 2023 Savings account - £26460.50(14474.88)Current account - £2140.24(4576.79)Total - £28600.74(19051.67) £1010 (£65pm CS/BS) £250 CS/BS/JS
  • Verbatim
    Verbatim Posts: 4,830 Forumite
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    Great. So only 0% debt left now.
    CCs @0% £24k Dec 05 £19,621.41 Au £13400 S 12600 Oct £11,981 £9481 £7500 Nov £7250 D £7100 Jan 6950 F £5800 Mar£5400 May £4830 June £4660 July £4460 Aug £3200, S £900, £0 18/9/07 DFW Nerd 042
  • zippygeorgeandben
    zippygeorgeandben Posts: 1,273 Forumite
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    Yes verbatim indeed and if you look at my original post, I used to pay £653 off my debts this time last year. So I'm thinking that £133 to my sister and then upping my DDs to £520 off the Sainsbury's card.
    Always appreciate your response.
    Savings as of April 2023 Savings account - £26460.50(14474.88)Current account - £2140.24(4576.79)Total - £28600.74(19051.67) £1010 (£65pm CS/BS) £250 CS/BS/JS
  • zippygeorgeandben
    zippygeorgeandben Posts: 1,273 Forumite
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    Hello everyone, it's time for my monthly update.
    So it's kind of like an anniversary today, it's 12 months since I started attacking my debts like a yorkshire terrier.
    I've really paid off ALOT this month. The Tesco loan is NO MORE! The Zopa loan is NO MORE! The Halifax CC is NO MORE! I'm just left with the Sainsbury's CC which annoyingly, didn't take an amount out this month and it will come out next month. I might actually change this to come out mid month so at least 1 payment comes out regularly. Same with what I owe my sister, no payment taken out.

    My salary was £300 more this month due to a salary increase from moving jobs - this is exactly what I forecasted for each month. As I have also paid off long term debts freeing up an extra £280 per month this means I can put this extra money against the remaining Sainsburys CC.

    Other good news is that I have started doing some private tutoring - last month this brought in an extra £200.

    All in all, an excellent month for repaying debts - I'm going to start helping my lovely OH with their debts soon as I'll have freed up money. My original debt free debt was May 2019 but at this rate it'll gone by this time next year!
    Thanks for reading.
    Savings as of April 2023 Savings account - £26460.50(14474.88)Current account - £2140.24(4576.79)Total - £28600.74(19051.67) £1010 (£65pm CS/BS) £250 CS/BS/JS
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