Debt Problems - I Cant understand why so many of my friends have debt problems?

I Cant understand why so many of my friends have debt problems?

But yet they want to buy a new car every other year. They want to buy £90 pairs of shoes have 2 holidays a year etc etc. Then they wonder why there credit card is "Maxed out" Why do people try to live beyond there means????????

Public Comments

in one word greed. I know people who have taken out a loan for a mobile phone! Its often when they have been in an environment (perhaps parents) where borrowing money is the norm. That isn't always a bad thing but like you say when you "live beyond your means" it is a bad thing.
It happens more and more, and its stupid. As far as I'm concerned, if I haven't got the cash, I can't have it. But unfortunately, too many people these days want what they can't have yesterday.
well... i got into debt problems, partly because of a girlfriend. Trying to keep her happy, and taking moderate risks with money slowly grew larger. Although, it doesn't sound like i have the same extravagant issues as your friends.
Because they're victims of advertising that would like you to believe you're not worth anything unless you have all the "stuff". Sometimes they have been brought up all their lives by parents who believed that too.
It's something that puzzles me too. Surely they are not so stupid that they haven't worked out they'll have to pay for everything one day. And that they'll be paying tons of interest as well. The only things I have ever gone into debt for are my house and my car. Everything else - if I haven;t got the money, I just don't buy it. I couldn't sleep at night if I had "maxed out" credit cards.
Because LIFE IS SHORT and NOBODY DIES FROM the DEBT !!!!!!! It seems super-ethical minds mix debt with burglary or theft. Debt is not a shame. Debt is part of the system we live in. I am a poor man. Without debt, I cannot have house, car, family, child, holiday... With debt I have it all and happy. Am I an idiot not to have these in order not to make any debt? I am not living in an island. This is the economical system we are forced to live. We spend, we make debt and we pay life long and we work life long. Everybody has debt. Countries have debt. USA has trillion dollars in debt. Stop talking like very rich and bourgeois people... Of course hard working man deserve things and have debt! That's the fact.
Dude, some people feel like they are owed everything in life, the truth is you get form it what you put into it. allot of people just run up debits for quite some years, but don't be fooled, when it's gets seriously high, they will lose everything and get a bad credit history. They will go for a mortgage and when they look at the persons credit history they will be refused. But on the other hand, some people never aspire to own a home or be rich, so they take advantage of credit cards etc and move around allot so the debtors find it hard to keep up with them. It's a shame, because it's people like this who put our tax's up and charges on credit cards etc. Hope that helps
It's funny, the same could've said from people in the United States and people in Puerto Rico, so you guys in GB are not the only ones with the problem. It comes down to the following: Lack of financial education and the impulse to pretend to be rich or feel rich. There is also a bombardment of advertisement for people to get more in debt. Credit Cards are easy to come by and the image of "happiness" portrayed on TV is having a car, a big house, and holidays in exotic places. There is a TV ad in the US from the consumer credit council with this guy having "a new car" a "new home" and country club tee time. At the end he's smiling saying "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs, somebody help me please". Perhaps is the best way to describe how your mates really feel deep down. At least in the GB has a better social assistance than in the US. The average american has only saved 50K in their retirement funds. Now, that's scary.
It's because we live in a 'I want it and I want it now' society. Celebrities are forced down your throat at every way you turn. How many celebrity magazines and programmes are there? They all show the rich and glossy lifestyles and unfortunately a lot of people aspire to be like that. Look at an ameoba like Paris Hilton or Nicole Ritchie. What have they ever done exactly? Nothing. They are rich purely by accident of birth and have achieved celebrity status through doing very little and wearing even less. Yet people aspire to be like them and think that if they surround themselves in expensive things, something must rub off on them. What also doesn't help is the 5 billion adverts on TV daily advertising loans and then in the next one offering get out of debt solutions. Being sent pre-authorised credit card forms through the post is also not helping. I would rather have an old banger on the drive that's bought and paid for, sit on a 20-year old sofa and eat food from Aldi's and still be able to sleep at night than have everything and yet nothing at all. Until the credit is paid off, they don't own anything. As easily as it came, just as easily it can go.
That's people isn't it. Nobody seems to want to live within their means ,they need to have everything they want now and not save up for it first.I blame credit cards a lot for this . In days gone by if you found it necessary to buy something and did not have the cash,you bought it on terms or Hire Purchase.The tendency was to only have one,or perhaps two items at once on terms, and these were paid off before getting anything else.Credit cards have made it so much easier to borrow,borrow until the person is well over the limit they can afford.I think all credit cards should have a £1000 limit and it would be illegal to have more than one card.Every thing else would have to be saved up for first.Holidays especially. If you cant afford Majorca go to Cornwall instead. The money spent on foreign holidays is a complete and utter waste of money OK if you have the cash in the bank but not to borrow it.There are far better things to spend money on.I have never had a credit card. I have bought things on terms many years ago but never got into difficulties. Times were hard when the kids were little and the wife couldn't work but we managed. We adjusted our lifestyle accordingly and did without the things we couldn't afford.. How many people do that now?
People aren't content with what they have. They want a new car every couple of years and new clothes and holidays and nice houses. They see other people having these things and they want them. They don't realize that living like that will never get them contentment. It's only going to get them farther in debt. Sometimes you have to have bad debt problems to realize what you are doing. I've been there and now I'm more content with my 7 year old car and wearing the same clothes.
Their not good with money