How Old Will You Be Before You Are Debt Free? ( This Is A Shocker )

[TheCountOfNowhere]

http://news.sky.com/story/1634737/how-old-will-you-be-before-you-are-debt-free

"On average, Britons will not be free of repayments until the age of 69 - 12 years older than they anticipate being debt-free."

So, all your productive life, then you die shortly afterwards.

It's like the system has been set up to suit the bankers.

5-50% of peoples lives have been handed to them on a plate !!!

[JoeDavola]

Sounds about right. And the extra stress of having to work until such an age to pay everything off will ensure that you die either before you reach that age, or shortly afterwards.

You are a slave. A resource to be mined for your banking overlords. A huge percentage of your time on this earth belongs to them.

School. Uni Debt. Uni. Rent Payments. Work, Mortgage Debt. Work. Work. Work. Die.

Thank you for playing.

[tomandlu]

Something I posted on the Guardian the other day:

How angry are you? Unless the answer is "very", then you've missed the trick.

The rise of house prices world-wide was not some natural event - it was a direct result of excessive lending by the banks. Without that lending, prices could simply not have risen so high. So, the banks leant money that they essentially created out of thin air, pushed up house prices, forcing anyone who wanted to buy a house to enter the same competition of seeing who could borrow the most.

End result? Something that was affordable is now very expensive, and to service that debt, more and more of our wages will go straight to the banks. The banks have, very neatly, using nothing but credit, captured a big chunk of the value of our labour, forcing us to compete using weapons that they created.

Be angry.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Job done for the banking industry.

They are now making profit on people till they stop earning money.

Well done Maggie

[davidg]

My dad was in debt nearly all his life... always overdrawn at the bank. He only cleared things in his late 50s.

I've never borrowed a penny.

[sandster]

40 due to my savings earning nothing

[Democorruptcy]

It's joint income mortgages that do it.

That's what has created the extra lending that has pushed house prices up. Plus any second income used to be disposable and a surplus saved, now it's going to go to the bank.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

40 due to my savings earning nothing

There are some 3.9% saving rates about.

5% if you are prepared to gamble some on Peer to peer.

Inflation outwith housing is at 0%.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

You are clearly excluding the national debt. The national debt is expanded to help us keep private debts down in the face of a chronic balance of payments problem.

Look to the current account for a true picture.

Need to take into account 'national wealth' too (including that held by UK individuals as they can be taxed). As that silver is being sold off to help too.

You can get rid of your slice of the national debt....by leaving

[disenfranchised]

I've been debt free since 2001, aged 24.

My brother has been in debt since then.

If you want to summarise the difference in approach to life between us, he recently required a fridge freezer. He spent over £1000 on a thing the size of a tardis that makes ice cubes for you. This is probably more than the combined total I have spent on kitchen appliances in my entire life.

I have no credit cards. He had (at one stage, until I loaned him 10k to sort it out) 4 credit cards.

We both recently came into some inheritance in the form of shares. I consolidated mine down to about 20 companies all with a price to income ratio over 5% and put the cash I released into savings. He sold the lot, moved from his terraced house into a detached house with a double garage and a 5 year fixed rate mortgage.

I suspect there are far more Brits like my brother than me. Anybody 45 and up today had ample opportunity to be debt free AND own a house by 50 if that was their intention, but that isn't reality!

[Bruce Banner]

As someone once said to me "You're worth as much as you can borrow" .

[onlyme2]

It's joint income mortgages that do it.

That's what has created the extra lending that has pushed house prices up. Plus any second income used to be disposable and a surplus saved, now it's going to go to the bank.

And if you do have savings the shysters at the central banks have rigged market rates so that every investment return out there is a fraction of what it needs to be to justify its risk. Direct manipulation that has benefitted the banks directly in their goal to bury the popultion under ever larger debts to accrue interest themselves.

A total stitch up.

[frederico]

Well duh, banks are in the state where they cannot exist without lending money.

[Motor_Blade]

I've been debt free since 2001, aged 24.

My brother has been in debt since then.

If you want to summarise the difference in approach to life between us, he recently required a fridge freezer. He spent over £1000 on a thing the size of a tardis that makes ice cubes for you. This is probably more than the combined total I have spent on kitchen appliances in my entire life.

I have no credit cards. He had (at one stage, until I loaned him 10k to sort it out) 4 credit cards.

We both recently came into some inheritance in the form of shares. I consolidated mine down to about 20 companies all with a price to income ratio over 5% and put the cash I released into savings. He sold the lot, moved from his terraced house into a detached house with a double garage and a 5 year fixed rate mortgage.

I suspect there are far more Brits like my brother than me. Anybody 45 and up today had ample opportunity to be debt free AND own a house by 50 if that was their intention, but that isn't reality!

Precisely - how much debt is "necessary" & how much is to allow conspicuous consumption to keep up with the Jones's??

[canbuywontbuy]

I was last in debt in 1993, 21 years old. I'm weird.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Debt is al

Precisely - how much debt is "necessary" & how much is to allow conspicuous consumption to keep up with the Jones's??

Debt is probably necessary....BANKS IN THEIR PRESENT FORM ARE NOT.

[winkie]

As someone once said to me "You're worth as much as you can borrow" .

Actually that is quite true.......just because some people borrow doesn't mean they don't already have their own money they can access and use......some will try and borrow other peoples money, as much as possible, as cheaply as possible, over a longer term as possible having no intention of ever paying it back, except upon death only if secured......otherwise debt dies with them.

Edited February 3, 2016 by winkie

[mattyboy1973]

I've often thought that it would be interesting to see a graph of what percentage of a person's (or family's) lifetime income is being handed over to the banks as interest. I suspect we'd see a very strong upwards trend over the last 5 decades and think that the absolute figure now would be rather shocking.

I am not in debt personally and hold no credit cards - I used to, up until perhaps 10 years ago. Also self-employed, so almost a complete write-off in terms of perceived credit worthiness (despite significant savings). In fact when we had some exploratory discussions last year about getting a mortgage, we were told to get some credit cards for a couple of years to improve our credit score..

[geezer466]

age 45 when I paid the mortgage down over a decade ago..

Always been debt aversive the sort of person who didn't have the car or holiday on tick we only bought if we can afford it. I had a credit card for convenience but used to pay it off every Month on the rare occasions I used it.

These days I just use it for the excess on hire cars having already bought an independant insurance policy which is tons cheaper that the hire company's waivers and lasts for a year as opposed to the hire term.

[wealthy]

I was last in debt in 1993, 21 years old. I'm weird.

I'm about the same weird, never liked debt at all

[Guest]

My 16k student loan put me off debt for life. The day I finally paid it off was one of the best days of my life. God knows how students cope now.

I might - one day - have no choice but to get a mortgage, but I won't be smiling when I sign the papers.

[cashinmattress]

Live within your means and that number comes down significantly.

Something that about 90% of Brits are unable or unwilling to do.

[R K]

Depends on perspective.

One could equally say "by 69 average Brit has unencumbered assets"

or "by what age is average Brit "rent free" if he rents all his life.

"debt" rarely looks at the other side of the balance sheet. i.e. what are the balancing assets.

edit:typo

Edited February 3, 2016 by R K

[999house]

Im debt free now. Never had it, dont like it.

Edited February 3, 2016 by 999house

[janch]

I often remind myself in this world where there is so much debt paid for wealth that I am probably in the small percentage that is and has been totally debt free for a decade now and with decent savings. Of course I never feel like I am one of the well off, and it takes some positive thinking to remind myself that I am in a good place because of the way things are.

Which also I might add makes me understand the fear of those that define themselves on the value of their property paid for with debt, the only thing holding their esteem together being the property valued more than the debt.

I've done the same. There is no substitute for peace of mind which comes from being debt free with some savings and a place of your own to live in mortgage free. Most people would see me as quite poor as I have a tiny house and live very simply. I'm not playing the game they (TPTB) want me to play.