Was debt free till last week. Bought a car from Mercedes /Smart car. Was going to pay for it then its interest free .So money stays in bank getting a little interest and pay for car every month less than £100 amonth. Happy days
Contraflow:
It’s funny you should say that because the things that make my life sweet are the wife and kids.
However its those things that tend to make you skint
scanny77:
without the 3 above… life is sweet
works for me too. I earn a comfortable lifestyle but not greedy. I use £100 a week for daily expenses and pay bills once a month. I could live on half of what i earn but who wants to work for no pocket money? I bought a car 2 months ago for £250 and 3 weeks ago which passed its MOT first time which means i am no rush to spend everything on my other car to fix it. Right now i am just plodding along putting a bit of cash aside for no specific reason other than a niggly feeling saying i should build up a little nest egg. I have never done it before and i don’t know why i feel that doing so may be wise 
[/quote]
Same here, I also have learned to live modestly but not frugally
Many years ago I left school at 16yrs & found myself working silly hours 7 days a week & feeling like I was on a hamster Wheel & drinking like a fish.
In the late 80s I was in the super tax bracket unusually by Dec/Jan & earning more than the site manager. Who used to send us a loverly letter telling us to stop earning more than him Then after 13yrs of this "lifestyle" ended when I was made redundant in Xmas Dec 92, or should I say chose to leave. I then spent 3yrs (on/off) travelling the world, where I soon learned that my monetary & life values where changing. I learned that I was happier when I had only the basic things, a place to sleep, 1 meal a day, and maybe as a luxury .....a beer. Now Im able (and have done) to pay cash £■■ K for a car. Buy what I want, so long as I can afford it & pay cash. working the agys long term allows me to have a more flexable lifestyle, and take time off when I want, & travel, usually on my motorcycle. I know Ill never be the riches person in the cemetery, but I`ll be happy
I’m in a fair bit of debt, still paying for my car repair from when it went bang and I decided it was a good idea to do a full strip and rebuild including a fancy turbo kit never again. Then there’s the cbr I bought for 300 buck was gonna do it up and make some money but I went a bit Ott with the profesional paint and alloy polishing then decided it was too good to sell. Also got a couple of debt collectors chasing for a couple hundred each but I’ll be ■■■■■■ if im paying they barstewards a penny.
Thunderbird:
Rhythm Thief:
I have the ■■■ end of an unwisely maxed credit card, and my overdraft. And my mortgage, which I’m not counting.Those that live within their means suffer from a lack of imagination; Wilde quote I think.
I on the other hand work to this principle: when someone rings up asking for money I say , Well I’ll put you in the hat. They say what in an arsey way? Well I say, at the end of the month I gather all my debits and pick one out of the hat, if I can afford I pay. They say WTF are you talking about, we, our company needs paying!! I say, look; take that attitude with me you aint even going in the hat!!
Sleep well, their owed the money if it’s a *ock sucking bank or parasitic credit card company, offer them a pound a month if all else fails, keep singin and dancin
I like that. 
He had a good ear for a catchy quote, did Oscar.
I’m paying my remaining credit card off as quickly as I can, should get the rest of it gone without paying any more interest. The overdraft … I’ve just learned to live with that. It doesn’t cost me much so I’ll pay it off as and when. The plan over the next four or five years is to sell the house, pay off all our debts and buy a narrowboat for cash, then live on that.
I paid my last mortgage payment two years ago and if i can give any of you a tip it will be to keep putting that money away,thats what i have done and ive got a tidy amount put by and ive still got 12 years left till retirement.
jossk1990:
Also got a couple of debt collectors chasing for a couple hundred each but I’ll be [zb] if im paying they barstewards a penny.
Careful of those guys, can’t work with broken legs now can you…!?
Article on BBC today about the issue - supposedly 18% of population have a serious debt problem.
I’m one of the lucky ‘no debt’ ones since paying off the mortgage 5 years ago. I would suspect that the majority with no debt would be, like me, the older generation who have managed to pay off the mortgage, kids flown the nest etc., or those in steady employment where budgeting is easier. However with figures like 43% of Hull being in debt maybe it isn’t that simple.
All these people with no debt what’s your best advice to us young ens?
Smoggie89:
All these people with no debt what’s your best advice to us young ens?
Don’t borrow apart from a mortgage and then pay that as fast as you can an extra £100 a month knocks years of your loan
I owe best part of 2g now I failed 3 times doing c!
ha
I’m terrible with money and always have been, and still have a fair chunk of debt. BUT- I just dont care, I’m having fun. It would be different if I had dependants but I dont and never foresee such a time. I tend to spend it on doing stuff like holidays etc rather than possessions. Been on some amazing holidays as a result and have created memories that will be there with me at the end. Yes my credit rating is awful and yes I’m over £10k in debt still but I really don’t care. If one thing this rough year has taught me is money doesn’t really matter that much, its friends and family that count, so when they ring up looking for money you haven’t got just tell them you haven’t got any yet and stop worrying! I do admire you careful types I really do but try as I might to be careful I just always fail. And I’m doing no harm to anyone. I pay back every penny I owe eventually, never been bankrupt and lets face it if it wasn’t for people like me you careful chaps wouldn’t have free banking! Its us idiots that will dig us out of the recession with spend spend spend. So young man, get that card, spend £3000 on a pair of Tom Ford slippers and look forward to a lifetime of running from card companies. #joke
Lol luke , i don’t think credit is a bad thing , yeah sure it’s better to buy in full if you can , but if you are paying it back each month it helps us spread the cost , although the interest can be a killer sometime
Overdraft & hefty mortgage, but no loans, cards, etc.
Once my house goes decently into positive equity, I might actually be worth a net positive amount overall. 
Some day Son, all this will be mine.
Advice I once had from a millionaire:
“Borrow as much as you can if it’s as low a interest rate as it’s possible to get. Live off the difference between what you are paying, and what everyone else is paying. It’s all about how much you pay - NOT how much you have.”
This guy used to go on holiday each and every year out of the country for just over six months, thus paying no taxes whatsoever. His job was a retired Physics Lecturer rather than banking, etc. He even took out a 60’s version of a low fixed rate mortgage, over-borrowed against his own property, and stuck the money on deposit during the high interest rate years - and derived an income from it! Now That’s good with money don’t ya think.
Surely it must be possible for someone out there to be doing that right now - ie borrowing around 2% and saving at around 5%…
Smoggie89:
All these people with no debt what’s your best advice to us young ens?
Go out and enjoy yourself,lost a brother ( 47 yrs) and a good few mates lately,well before there time,brother just saved,saved all his life,when he realised he only had so much time left he wanted to do so many things,see loads of things,but just wasn’t well enough for us too take him.
There a lot to be said for you only live once,enjoy yourself while your here,sod tomorrow.
Rikki-UK:
4aaaa4dd:
none of your [zb] business…So why are you here and posting?
If a subject doesn’t take your fancy move onto one that doesOn a review of your posts you like the “funny” one liners - guess what , this website doesnt like gobby one liners- either join in the discussion in a relevant, civil and constructive manner( and don’t try to get round the autocensor) or we will help you by premoderating everything you try to post- in short stop being a ■■■■
what dept I have is nothing to do with you or anyone else on here I came on here to have a banter about trucks and trucking not to tell the world about my financial problems ,
and like you ive noticed on here you like to be a little hitler with your threats of eviction if its not going your way ? if you want rid of me just do it my life will still go on and I really wont be upset I promise , people like you make me sick with your petty little lives and threats…although you will openly call me a ■■■■■■■■■ behind your little moderator mask you allow sexist ,racist ,homophobic, remarks go unchallenged and also mob rule seems to be the thing when I can watch threats been made to company tm that have been named on this site go unchallenged without any censor ship whatsoever from you or your select few? you my friend are a buffoon and really need to be more consistant when playing the moderater card.
I have an overdraft/account in arrears that I’m clearing from when I was living with the ex! All in my name so I pay it off! Car loan with 3 years to go. I’m not going down this road ever again! 
Oh! And I’m getting divorced!
On the upside!! I’m now with an amazing new woman,living in Norwich and looking at a better future!
mac12:
Smoggie89:
All these people with no debt what’s your best advice to us young ens?Don’t borrow apart from a mortgage and then pay that as fast as you can an extra £100 a month knocks years of your loan
^^^^^ wot e said
For the ten years before we paid it we doubled up the mortage payments and every time we had a spare £2k in the account bunged that in too, paid off around 10 years before due…we had planned for this though and deliberately taken out a mortgage that didn’t penalise for overpayments, some do.
Do not ever take out a loan on an asset that depreciates, such as cars or large white goods TV’s etc…interest free is tempting, trouble is that if anything happens and you fail to pay the full sum back by a certain date then a very heavy interest rate kicks in…read the small print.
It pays to develop a very healthy loathing of the system (i have) and the way its loaded against ordinary working people, the people who live in genteel luxury in Sunningdale and Gerrards Cross and the best parts of London are the ones living the high life subsidised by interest and late payment penalties that working class people pay.
They will never fear that feral scum will ransack their homes, attack them in the street, establish ininerant camps on their village green or attempt to groom their children, it won’t happen in those places because they own the country the police and the government (all of them) of the day…oh no not in my back yard thats for the serfs.
Beat them at their own game, don’t play by their rules, make sure you pay (just as they do) as little tax as possible, every large retail purchase you make will have VAT on it, thats £20 in every hundred as the VAT take alone, any profits the manufacturer makes is taxed again, and those who borrow and pay interest on it are paying interest on tax they are paying time and atime again.
As some good posts above, don’t be afraid to buy used which usually means little or no tax involved, use local businesses for tradespeople like builders mechanics etc.
The system is a monster that feeds on working people working all hours possible paying as much tax as possible and being good little drone consumers to pay it all back into the system via tax and interest payments…on what?..usually foreign tat made in sweat shops in other countries by other exploited working class people.
Don’t feed the monster.
If you are going to buy something expensive make sure its likely to be long term value and doesn’t benefit the wide boys, as an example we bought a Swedish made washing machine (ISE for anyone interested), cost just under £1k, but its built like a brick outhouse is guaranteed for 10 years parts and labour and has a design life of 20 years…yes it was expensive but will probably cost the same over time as buying cheap Chinese (they nearly all are now under £500) shiny tat that needs replacing every 3 years as they’re not worth repairing any more…as a bonus i haven’t contributed to the slave labour involved in the manufacture of the cheap stuff and the profiteering of the many in the manufacture export import and retail chain who all get fat from the hard labour of those Chinese factory workers.
Sorry thats a bit long winded, but given thought you can be a quiet dissident who they don’t have by the bollox, and its cost effective…
3 1/2 yrs ago I had a decent job/wage (engineering) and a part time job with a van delivering/collecting charity bags that I was able to fit in with my shifts . wife had a full time job and occasionally took on other work . we lived in a large house with large garden and a river at the bottom. a top of the range car sat outside , a collection of classic motorcycles and a cabinet full of guns. we had foreign holidays and weekends away in nice hotels .money in the bank . life was GOOD!! .
then the wife upped and away taking the car and maxing the overdraft on the (joint) bank accounts . the bank clamped my bank accounts (wages) so although there was money going in I couldn’t get any out .the mortgage hadn’t been paid for months and nat west wanted their pound of flesh . I was at a very low ebb and having to accept money off my kids to eat and get to work (for wages I couldn’t access ). then I had a stroke of luck… my company announced redundancies . although my job wasn’t going I managed to persuade them to get rid of me , I took my pension and my redundancy and was able to buy a small flat. my credit was zero so a mortgage was out of the question and I couldn’t see the point of going to work to buy someone else a property. 31/2 yrs later I drive for a living , the wages are total crap (nmw) the hours are crap, but I am now debt free own my own home , drive a decent car, and have a social life . I have thought about getting back into engineering but I actually enjoy what I do. and I have also learnt there is more to life than a bank balance . though I must admit although I have managed to get back into shooting I still miss my bikes but I have nowhere to keep or potter with one . so debt free and luvvin it
My second wife was a true Yorkshire lass (so tight she squeaked when she walked) but she helped to get me debt free after we had been together for a while (when we applied for a mortgage). She taught me the error of my ways regarding buying just for the sake of it, helped in all ways in running my small light haulage outfit and as she was very very presentable was a great asset when it came to talking to prospective clients. We built up a nice little nest egg and was doing very well and for once I thought ‘this is the life, like it’ … THEN THE ■■■■■ REALISED SHE LOVED THE BANK BALANCE MORE THAN ME AND ■■■■■■ OFF WITH THE LOT !!
So back to how I was, I shall take away from this life the same amount as what I entered it with, but I only have one debt for a couple of grand or so that I know of.