Are we in serious debt or not?

I know I'm going to sound insane, considering we now live in a world where everyone wants it all...

You can't actually afford to get married. You are heavily in debt. You should be sorting out your debt before doing something stupid like spending a fortune on an unnecessary want like a wedding.
 
Or do get married but adjust the budget to suit your means?
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Indeed. It's the party that costs the money, not the actual tying of the knot.
 
heretohelp said:
no i didnt recently borrow the credit union that loan is 3 years old , it was originally a 55k loan which i paid 24k off about 6 months ago.
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Soory, for assuming that but I was going on the basis that a CU will only usually give out a loan four times the amount of shares held (7,200)
 
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Hereto help

Clubman is correct about looking at the whole mortgage thing as generally this is where the lowest interest rates for loans are to be found. I understand that you do not want a mortgage but that does not necessarily make it the right decision. I believe it will reduce the interest payments on your debts and save you money in the long term. At least look at the numbers !!

PS. The very best weddings I have been at have been the smallest ones - no need to spend loads of money to create a special day - just make sure the right people are there and it will happen.
 
I originally had a credit union loan of 55k , with 11500 in savings, i then went in with 20k cash and then the loan was 35k so i withdrew 4000 from savings and put this off loan which reduced it to 31k, and its now 27 as ive increased some monthly payments on it.
 
Am I missing something - I don't think the OP is in a bad position. If someone else posted that they had no debts other than €55k left on their mortgage & no probs making the payments...people would probably be saying what a good position they're in.

I would agree that to re-mortgage might be a more cost effective way (due to lower interest rates), but I can also understand why someone may not want to risk using their property to secure the loan. They are making their payments & they seem to have some left over at the end of the month and they have a roof over their heads - a better position than many!


Loads of threads to do with keeping prices down for weddings - have a look (I think Wicklowlasses one recently covered it quiet well - seems to be similar set-up)
 
Flax said:
I know I'm going to sound insane, considering we now live in a world where everyone wants it all...

You can't actually afford to get married. You are heavily in debt. You should be sorting out your debt before doing something stupid like spending a fortune on an unnecessary want like a wedding.
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I couldn't disagree more with you. The OP owns her own home, which is more that can be said about a lot of other young couples who are cripppled up to their eyballs with 30 and 40 year mortgages. Fair enough they are 50 or 60 grand in debt, half of which is on a specially adapted car to cater for the little's one's special needs. They don't seem to have any problems meeting the monthly repayments and in fact able to save a grand every month.

i say Good luck to them and I hope they have a lovely wedding.
 
thanks guys,

i felt like i was in a relatively okay position before i posted here but wanted to get some opinions on what other people thought of our situation.

We do ok, we are able to treat our kids , go on holiday , and as soon as our wedding is over we will put the 1020 a month off our debts so will hopefully bring those down considerably.

Its just i know so many people around my area really up to their eyes in it , big house big car and jeep but really struggling to pay for those and i dont want to fall into that trap.
 
sam h said:
Am I missing something - I don't think the OP is in a bad position. If someone else posted that they had no debts other than €55k left on their mortgage & no probs making the payments...people would probably be saying what a good position they're in.
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Owing a year's net household income in unsecured and presumably high cost credit is serious in my opinion. Securing it on the property if it significantly reduces the overall cost of credit having accounted for any costs involved is a much better idea in my opinion. Also - I would be concerned about the spending habits that caused this situation to develop and the fact that the original poster is countenancing spending even more while burdened with this debt.
 
The debt accumulated from specially adapting our house to suit a wheelchair user. So i dont think i had an option but to let this debt accumulate from this.
 
Fair enough. It wasn't clear it if was (the usual?) lifestyle expenditure etc. Have you tried crunching the numbers to evaluate the potential benefits of going the mortgage route?
 
sam h said:
Am I missing something - I don't think the OP is in a bad position. If someone else posted that they had no debts other than €55k left on their mortgage & no probs making the payments...people would probably be saying what a good position they're in.
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A voice of reason finally 'appears' in the thread!

As a long time lurker on AAM I'm permanently amused by the often hysterical 'advice' given by prophets of doom to those who ask for an appraisal of their financial situation.

Quite often these situations are dire, so the doom-mongers might well be justified in suggesting there is no hope, matters are beyond repair, the only option being to sell the children, house and car and with the resulting e1,063.76 clear the money owed on one of the 26 credit cards owned.

But sometimes - as in this case - the financial situation detailed by the person seeking advice is much the same financial situation that the vast majority of the population find themselves dealing with: it's not entirely pretty, but it's called real life. And it's all perfectly manageable if the earnings are there and some responsibility is shown: this OP, evidently, fits both bills.

Those who reply hysterically, I can only assume, get their kicks out of trying to frighten such OPs, instead of opting to offer sound and solid advice. It's really quite pathetic.

Again, I can only assume these folk don't have children/mortgages/regular day-to-day living expenses to deal with, perhaps they are single and can lavish all disposable income on their good selves, or perhaps they were fortunate enough to have bought property before the prices rocketed heavenwards, or raised their children before children became a luxury most mere mortals can't afford?

This OP's hefty debts are hardly ideal, but hey, that's real life! I don't see too many signs of unnecessary expenditure in there, nor an extravagance that suggests he/she is attempting to live a life well beyond their means. Please bear that in mind before you try to convince the OP that he/she is in dire straits.....they're not, they're quite evidently doing just fine in repaying their loans and coping with day-to-day bills. Remember, it's real life.

Next time why not just offer some useful, coolheaded advice to the OP about how they can deal more efficiently with their debt, rather than trying to frighten them - eg is it really necessary to use ':eek:' in response to someone seeking help?

Yes, yes, of course you'll all claim that you're just being honest, being cruel-to-be-kind, etc, etc, but you're not, you're just taking immense pleasure from gasping in horror at the finances of someone a little less lucky than you - ie someone experiencing real life.

Allow me to embellish the old quote....if you have nothing constructive to say, say nothing.
 
Good_Grief said:
As a long time lurker on AAM I'm permanently amused by the often hysterical 'advice' given by prophets of doom to those who ask for an appraisal of their financial situation.
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Seems to me that this is actually the first hysterical post in this thread. For example:
the only option being to sell the children, house and car and with the resulting e1,063.76 clear the money owed on one of the 26 credit cards owned.
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Those who reply hysterically, I can only assume, get their kicks out of trying to frighten such OPs, instead of opting to offer sound and solid advice. It's really quite pathetic.
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Care to cite examples if such alleged hysteria from this specific thread to date?
Next time why not just offer some useful, coolheaded advice to the OP about how they can deal more efficiently with their debt, rather than trying to frighten them - eg is it really necessary to use ':eek:' in response to someone seeking help?
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Do you disagree that my suggestion of rolling the unsecured debts onto a similar term mortgage might not be one worth investigating for viability in terms of cost savings?
Allow me to embellish the old quote....if you have nothing constructive to say, say nothing.
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So - what is YOUR advice in this case. If any? Or are you just here to troll?
 
eileen alana said:
I couldn't disagree more with you.

...

i say Good luck to them and I hope they have a lovely wedding.
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They're obviously worried about debt if they're posting on this forum.

They have the ability to pay off the debt within a few years. Instead they're choosing to do something which is a totally unnecessary expense (have an expensive wedding) and continue being in debt.

If they don't plan on solving their problem, I don't see the point of posting here.
 
Flax said:
They're obviously worried about debt if they're posting on this forum.

They have the ability to pay off the debt within a few years. Instead they're choosing to do something which is a totally unnecessary expense (have an expensive wedding) and continue being in debt.

If they don't plan on solving their problem, I don't see the point of posting here.
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I didnt ask anyone to solve my problem, your right maybe there was no point in posting here , i do have the ability to pay it off and i definitely will , thats my problem not yours flax, and i will have my wedding but who said its going to be expensive?????
 
Flax said:
They're obviously worried about debt if they're posting on this forum.

They have the ability to pay off the debt within a few years. Instead they're choosing to do something which is a totally unnecessary expense (have an expensive wedding) and continue being in debt.

If they don't plan on solving their problem, I don't see the point of posting here.
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Thats a bit harsh. How can anyone say that a wedding is an unnecessary expense. Fair enough if the OP was planning the wedding of the year trying to out do the celebs but i think the OP is entitled to get married and is being sensible and saving in advance for it unlike quite alot of people who expect the wedding to pay for itself and then wonder why they are in debt afterwards. The OP is simply looking for advice as to the best way to manage her debt. It has already been pointed out to her that a mortgage may be the most cost efficient way of doing so and i agree. However i think the OP is getting a bit of a hard time on this thread. To many eddie hobbs wannabe's out there.
 
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