paulr

Taking out buying a house, i have never had a loan for anything. Always saved up. In fact i've always gone by the ethos of "if you cant buy it twice, dont buy it once".

Old hat, or is it stil alive and well today.

JackClark

It's still working for me. No debt whatsoever and loads of toys.

Jamz3k

Considering I ruined my credit rating taking the advice of my bank, I have no choice but to save up for whatever I want!

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

Couldn't agree more actually mate,I don't even look at something unless I could buy it without effecting my everyday finance's.

GlesgaKiss

Debt only makes you poorer - fact. The only sensible reason to take on debt is to do something that will make you better off. Consumer loans are for suckers.

hodgy0_2

you seem to have contradicted yourself in the space of two sentences

"Debt only makes you poorer - fact" -- no it doesn't only make you poorer - fact

debt used properly makes you rich, and with other peoples money too, (even better)

ps I have no consumer debt

Chip

Don't owe anybody a penny, if I want something I only get it if I can afford to pay cash for it.

Chip

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

well you are all heroes .. sadly here in the real world the working class have needs and lending money is the only way to get by ..

I have a mortgage and a car loan .. credit cards help to make big purchase spread out, which as much as the interest cost we need them ..

My car loan is against a people carrier for my family ..

(I own my Scooby)

davyboy

I owe money on mortgage and car. I get paid to run a car so I use that money to pay for it. I could pay it off if I wanted.

Fairly confident I could buy what I wanted. Fact is, the older I get the less I need!

acstua

iTrader: (1)

sigh

i have a mortgage and a small loan on the car and the odd cc
ive never had a full loan on a car just incase i need to get rid to clear the loan, give me a few quid to play with and get a banger etc

GlesgaKiss

Never meant it that way. Was referring more to the fact that with a debt rather than buying something outright you have the interest as well as the principle cost. I'm sure you knew what I meant though, eh?

But yes, loans used properly can make you rich. Only thing is, the people you borrow from have to have accumulated savings in the first place.

Us savers are quite a heroic bunch really. Carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. And what thanks do we get? Sky high inflation and zero interest rates.

David Lock

Chill out - it's only when you get to owing around $12 trillion that you need to start worrying....

dl

jods

Two mortgages - both due to be paid up within 6 years. One is tiny, the other is not. Just worried that the endowment is going to fall WELL short on the big one!

Car is paid off though so I'll have somewhere to sleep at least

corradoboy

A mate of mine who worked on this philosophy had a nightmare getting a mortgage as he had no credit history. Having had a few loans, credit cards and HP agreements, I got mine in a flash. Heard this story many times over the years.

subaruturbo_18

Funny, a mate of mine got a mortgage and also had no credit history....

Jimbob

iTrader: (13)

I save up for everything, I don`t like using credit for things on my car, unless its insurance where I pay monthly lol.

corradoboy

Didn't say you couldn't get one, just that it can cause problems to some lenders.

davyboy

Isn't that about 35-40% apr?

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

no

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

Being part of the older generation I was taught to save up and pay cash for things and I'm lucky i don't have a mortgage as that was the only thing I borrowed money for when inwas a young lad
Things are different now houses are expensive 130k + and cost of living is so much higher in everything and people want now and not tomorrow

I've retailed furniture for 29 years now and interest free credit (let's face it ,it is finance ,chucky ,hp
) is what makes the world go round and people take advantage of it too

I've noticed we have more declines on finance then we did a couple of years ago with finance company being more fussy and generally if you have not got a couple of credit cards or a small loan you have a good chance of NOT getting finance as they can't work out if you are a good payer
They want to see evidence of paying a small debt off without fuss amd don't seem to take account of lots of money in the bank
when there is adverts for 4 years % free and you can have a brand new car for £40-50 a week people are going to take that rather then wait 4/5 years to they can pay cash

You move into your first house you naturally want everything new and nice ,sofa ,dining set and he wants the biggest tv in the shop despite it being out of proportation to everything else that's the way of the world now and those on lower salaries want to have as much cars ,furniture ,electrical items and of course a decent holiday abroad as those with more money

People don't compare the bank books when talking in the pub or having a coffee just what they have and will argue % is so poor now there is no point in saving up

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Oh how nice it must be to own a very tall horse, sit astride it and look down upon the rest of the world.

Never had the spare funds to be able to save any worth while amounts, so i opted to make the debt work for me.

Had loans and mortgages over the years but never an amount beyond the equity of the value that i would be able to liquidate the asset for in the real world ,if that makes sense.

Also had my fair share of credit card debt too, some times for things i just wanted and other times for things i needed but did not have the cash for.

I still have a mortgage on one house that even in the current market is worth a bit more than the mortgage, I own another outright.

Currently have 4 vehicles all paid for, but thats only because they are all bangers as i don't like new modern cars, as i think they are major money pits.

Nothing wrong with credit as long as you keep it at a level that you can afford.

And if used correctly you can get all the interest back and more in the form of growth in the asset value.

Now i'm no economist or rocket scientist but it has turned out ok for me, but like someone else said the older i get the less i need or want.

I've no interest in being the richest man in the grave yard and if i died with a chunk of cash in the bank i'd be quite gutted.

Can't take it with you, so make it work for you and yours, whilst enjoying the things that it brings along the way.

The Zohan

Yup!

Currently we own both our cars, both 10 years old but they are ours! Have a mortgage but no other loans and we save if we want to buy something. We try to live within our means, not always easy but better in the long run (I hope). Our mortgage is around than 40% of the current value of our home.

CREWJ

I've seen this quite a few times.

I only have one debt and that's my student loan. The way it's going I'll never pay it off since the monthly repayments are so low so why bother? I'll save more money in the long run unless I can pay it all off in the next year.

I've been thinking about getting a loan for a new car because I can't be bothered to wait 2-3 years to save up for it.

Chip

Not heroes at all really, as you said you have needs hence you owning your scooby which is one of the most expensive cars to run both fuel and maint wise.

Some of us just cut our cloth to suit.

Chip

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

It is pretty difficult to just get by these days for a lot of people and if you do need to do stuff like get a decent family car (without going mad), get an extension rather than move as you are having another child or other stuff you would struggle without, similarly anythign is ok if you can comfortably afford the payments and have a stable income.

I think the problems arise when people get used to credit to pay for new cars every couple of years, holidays and other toys, i.e. stuff they dont need and cant really afford, they build a bit of equity in their homes because the market was going up and then mortgaged up to get that X5, it gets addictive and they get used to it and they need to maintain it so end up 100 grand in debt, I think the banking industry, the house price rises kind of divorced people from the reality of having to eventually pay for stuff, was all Disney Dollars being frittered but eventually it does catch up but they were too caught up or too dim to see it, people still do it only seeing a deposit and monthly payment on a car but completely overlookign the ten grand balloon on the end ! then its all rejigging credit cards and consolidation loans.

People tend to assume I am loaded as I dont have a mortgage, dont have any significant loans (bit of an overdraft at the moment), have some savings and earn decent money but I know if I spend the savings I will have no contingency, if I take out debt to buy something it cuts into my monthly available cash and really, if I have gone overdrawn (expensive couple of months) I cant afford it, there is loads of stuff I would like but little I need, I have not decided I am special or I deserve anything, having an 8 year old car is not beneath me, neither is taking butties to work and as I dont want to make Starbucks rich I drink instant coffee. A lot of people seem to want to project this aura of material success and seems everything is beneath them, like all the people queing to get their car washed yesterday, queueing out onto the road, get a bucket ffs, no way all those people were debt free, I get satisfaction out of doing stuff myself, plumber wanted £150 to fit two taps, did it myself for free.

One thing that makes me suspicious with people when they talk about money is when they abbreviate a thousand pounds to a "K", might be useful shorthand but it says **** to me.

Money makes money, the rich are lending the not so rich money to look rich, got you by the bollocks, if you dont have any money you have no leverage and it forces you into poor choices, expensive credit, prepayment meters etc etc, so either do without or work harder, save and buy it, its pretty simple when you distill it down.

austinwrx

like everyone, have a mortgage, but its tiny.

have always saved up for stuff and use cash.

however I do hammer zero % credit cards to make purchases to keep cash in the bank, or in stock to at least be earning me something.

got married this year and was fortunately able to pay the £15k it cost me, in full, rather than have th big day and stay in debt.

having said all that, we could do with moving hse and the thought of a larger mortgage fills me with dread. thank god I have equity.

I wouldn't want to be in my 20's and starting out now with a hse purchase etc: everything looks so unaffordable.

hodgy0_2

but the problem (and irony) is that if everyone saves where is the demand for goods and services

hasn't that been that been the experience of Japan -whos economy has fltalined over the last 20 years

CREWJ

Tell me about it!

EddScott

Have a mortgage, no loans and I owe about £5K on one card which was the cost of the kitchen. Aiming to pay it off by Christmas.

I don't think buying stuff on cards is a big issue because these days it's cheaper to buy stuff on a card than take out a loan. I could buy a car for say £6K on a card, pay it off over 3 years at 0%. At 3 years I can do it all over again and hopefully put the money from the existing car towards getting something a bit better.

As long as you're careful, using loans and cards shouldn't be a problem.

I've seen some "entrepeneurs" bank balances and they couldn't even pay the debt liability for that year let alone the entire debt owed - with the difference between liability and income being over £10K. And yet they have a big house, new cars, bird half his age with massive fake ***** (well the last bit I made up as never met her but I'd not be surprised, he's the type)

warrenm2

Yes although funny how they NEED a huge TV, NEED ****, NEED holidays abroad, NEED booze etc etc.... Maybe what they really NEED is a sense of responsibility rather than entitlement, NEED to get off their backsides and NEED a better job/any job!