'normal' amounts of debt in this day and age

tallyhoh · 21 March 2017 at 6:46PM

When I was younger the only debt I had was a small mortgage. I paid that off.

Fosterdog · 21 March 2017 at 7:08PM

I don't think there is any "normal" level of debt it will very greatly between person to person or couple to couple.

We are me early 30s, OH mid 40s and our only current debt is an almost 60k mortgage. Around three years ago we bought a car and took out finance on it but only because we were offering on a house and if we bought the car outright we would have spent our deposit, our old car was beyond economical repair and we needed a new one ASAP. As soon as the house purchase fell through we put house hunting on the back burner for two years and paid off the car in full.

Other than that we did borrow off my parents a few years ago to pay for solicitors costs while fighting for access to OHs children, it had already cost us every penny of our savings and they were kind enough to lend us the extra and we paid them back as quickly as we could. OH did also have a few things to pay off when we first met that his ex wife had lumbered him with but they were gone within six months

We have had to be very careful with money to live within our means, pay off the few smallish amounts we have owed and still save for a house. It has meant some big sacrifices when it comes to social lives and entertainment spends and we finally had our first holiday together last year after 8 years together as that's how long it took us to be in a comfortable enough position to go away without eating into our house deposit.

Ilona · 21 March 2017 at 7:38PM

Interesting thread. I am the oldie here, 67 and retired 7 years. I started on the housing ladder when I was 27, on my third house now. I spent years flat stoney broke, but never went into debt and never missed a mortgage payment. I lived in houses that were in desperate need of renovation, but couldn't afford it. I was brought up to save for things I needed.

My income is just under 10k a year, mortgage paid off, I don't care what my credit score is because I will never need it. As soon as I have changed my car I start saving for the next one. All this I have achieved by myself.

Things are a lot different now, jobs are hard to come by, jobs are not secure, which makes it difficult for anyone to buy a house. Even so, I still think that it is not normal to spend money you haven't got, money that isn't yours, money that will cost a lot in interest. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

Ilona

datlex · 21 March 2017 at 7:58PM

My highest debt was £10K. (£25K salary) I now have none and don't intend getting any. If I have not saved for it I don't buy it! (I do have the advantage of renting so if my boiler breaks down it is up to the landlord to fix). I find that I save for things and then decide not to buy it after all or to wait for the next model etc.

blues · 21 March 2017 at 8:17PM

We're early 40's. No debt other than mortgage. Save for cars/holidays etc. but appreciate that we are fortunate to be able to do this. No idea about friends, colleagues. We don't discuss debt!

Puddylove · 21 March 2017 at 8:48PM

I'm middle aged

, live alone and earn approx £60k in total. Rather oddly, I owe £6k ish for a car loan, although I have more in savings so could pay it off if I wanted.

When I joined MSE I owed £23k plus, courtesy of vet bills, and my financially incontinent ex.
The advice of posters here helped me pay it off (although I had always managed my debts well enough so had access to balance transfers etc.).

I am not worried about my current debt, and save every month.

gardner1 · 21 March 2017 at 8:55PM

rich81 wrote: »

We earn 70kish between us and have debts close to 40K. Do we have stuff to show for all of it? unfortunately not. Some of it was used to finance a new car but a large chunk of it is down to silly spending and poor budgeting. Do I care? Yes, I wish I had been more careful, but we are sorting it out now so I try now to dwelll on it too much. I think that a lot of people have significant debts with not much to show for it. I don't think it is uncommon at all. I think that people just might not share it!!

that's a hell of lot "silly spending"

Anthorn · 21 March 2017 at 9:18PM

Tommymxm wrote: »

Hi,

Just trying to get my head around some money/debt stuff. We currently have about 20K of unsecured debt between the 2 of us. We earn about 35k a year in total ( me 25k, and wife 10k)

We have no problems paying it etc, although it'll be nice to save the extra money when it is gone.

I know that it's relative to income, but what is a 'normal' amount of debt for a young couple aged 30-40 to have in this day and age? I know that the average is something like 10K, so based on that figure, we are not doing too great.! Most of our friends have car loans and credit cards too so I think that our situation is quite normal??

Debt isn't normal. Debt is a product of Capitalism which is founded on debt.

I don't think there is a normal amount of debt. I have it through credit cards for things I need but I pay it off very quickly. I tend to treat balances on credit cards as short-term loans with calculated repayments.

My friends though are the opposite and buy things they want and calculate the total amount they can spend from repayments they can afford. To me that's a recipe for disaster.

I'm a 67 years old pensioner and normal debt for me is roughly 25% of income and that amount is covered by my rainy day fund.

Fosterdog · 21 March 2017 at 10:08PM

blues wrote: »

We're early 40's. No debt other than mortgage. Save for cars/holidays etc. but appreciate that we are fortunate to be able to do this. No idea about friends, colleagues. We don't discuss debt!

That's pretty much how my parents have always done it (now mortgage free) and have brought me up the same way. I really do hope that now I'm a home owner I never have any debt other than my mortgage however as explained in my last reply circumstances have previously come along at the worst possible times which has lead to us needing to borrow relatively small amounts over short terms. It is only because my parents were so careful that they were in a position to help us out when we needed.

We do technically have credit card debt but only because we have a cash back credit card so put all spends on it but pay it off in full every month so not the same as a real debt, it's money we do already have just spending it in a more sensible way to make the most of it.

freshcotton · 21 March 2017 at 11:18PM

We are 32 and 38, joint income of £70k and have no debts, we overpay our mortgage and spend about £100 per month on luxuries. We certainly have the worse cars on the street though.

A debt free forum may give you a false sense of debt to income ratio.

'normal' amounts of debt in this day and age

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