It seemed like the only option at the time!
Pregnant, with your third baby on the way, the two bedroom starter home that you and your husband had long outgrown (even before the twins came along) just had to be upgraded, so you took an unsecured bank loan of £10k to fund the costs of moving.
By the time the solicitors, estate agents, removers had been paid and you had gone on a trip to B&Q to buy some paint for the new nursery, there was none of that £10k left! Still, with 6 months left on your maternity leave, you had no immediate worries as you had that secure job in a legal firm. Even in times of trouble there was always a need for bankers, accountants and lawyers.
- Wasn’t there?
You decided to extend your maternity leave for a few extra months. Extra time with baby was more important than the job! which quite frankly, would be there when you were ready, and used to the idea of placing young Emily into nursery. This time round though felt different, with a baby girl to go with your twin boys it had restored balance in the family. She would be your last and so making the new house a true home became the priority.
- The spending, therefore, continued!
Nice outfits for baby (nicer ones for mum!) expense after expense on the new house including a rather unpleasant row with the neighbours over replacing their fence! Meant that further unsecured borrowing followed on credit cards, together with an extension to that initial bank loan. In fact, by the time that you were ready to return to work almost a full year after Emily was born, you found that rather than economising like you had with the twins, you had burnt through some £40k!
Still it wouldn’t matter, as you were bound to get a decent bonus on your first year back and that would start to set you straight! Except you returned in the spring of 2009, there had been no pay-rise whilst you had been away and the firm had lost some significant clients as they quite inconsiderately went bankrupt during the credit crunch – that you had vaguely paid attention to on working lunch!
No bonuses or pay-rises in either 2009 and 2010 together with those astronomical nursery fees meant that your £40k unsecured debt mountain was not shrinking in any way shape or form! The kitchen still needed replacing (and probably the bathroom too) and you were fed up sleeping on that lumpy, dumpy old mattress!
- It all starts to feel a bit much!
Despite the family having a household income of nearly £60k a year, you seemed to be struggling under the weight of paying back your unsecured debt!
- Surely there are others in your situation?
- How do you start getting back on an even keel?
Well, the first step of any difficulty is admitting that you have a problem and by getting this far through our blog post you have probably admitted to yourself that this is indeed you!
Still, don’t panic as the debt management specialists at Lewis Alexander can help you to clear personal debt problems whilst also making that unsecured debt mountain less of a daily problem in your life.
We start by taking some important details about you, your finances, your current priority and non priority debt commitments and get some more information about your personal circumstances before starting to tailor a debt management plan that is best suited to you.
At Lewis Alexander we don’t force IVAs onto our clients as we respect that this isn’t always the answer – particularly for respected professional people who have had a bit of bad luck or made a small error of judgement along the way.
Call our debt helpline free from a landline using 0800 018 6868 and we can start to talk through the specifics of your situation. We treat all our communications in the strictest of confidence and we understand that you may need some time to consider the financial options or debt solutions that are available to you.
At Lewis Alexander we give you this time and would like to help you when you are ready to commit to a best suited debt solution.
- All we ask it that you have a commitment to reducing your unsecured debts and a regular source of income.
- Our free phone number again is 0800 018 6868.
Get in touch today and see if we can make a difference to yoru daily financial life!
Sympathy tends to run thin from your friends and family when you have been used to earning an excellent salary and benefits package once your ‘dream job’ no longer exists.
They tend to just see the headline figures – forgetting that a fair chunk of this salary disappears to the taxman.
Recent rounds of redundancies have hit higher earners just as much as lower earners – and there is the age old adage that one tends to spend all of what one earns!
So when redundancies kick in, there isn’t always the large pot of reserves that others might imagine.
It’s quite easy to do, that headline rate of £100k is reduced to somewhere closer to £60k after taxes and National Insurance is paid. This still leaves a healthy £5k per month to spend, but by the time that the mortgage and bills are paid on the £ ½ million house there isn’t really a lot left… particularly after the wife has been out shopping as well!
When you initially broke the news about the job, whilst you had expected a rough ride from friends, there was the hope that your beloved might be a little more understanding, but sadly this was the latest in a long line of ‘mistakes’ that you had been responsible for (shouldn’t you have guessed?), so now the pressure is on to find a replacement job to keep the family in the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.
Now unlike families who live on a more ‘modest’ budget, when your outgoings total £4,000 each month, the savings pot you had been building up disappears at an alarming rate. Sure, you had intended to save more but what with the cost of private school and extra curricular activities it just did not happen.
Looking for a £100k job can take a little while as, unsurprisingly, they tend not to grow on trees. In times of recession there also tends to be less movement in the senior management sector so you are looking into a difficult market.
Three months after your initial redundancy, you decide that the time has come to look for some slightly less senior roles, but soon realise that you are seen to be over-qualified and are looked over for interviews. With six months passing you decide to get involved with a friends business on a self-employed basis, simply to help cash-flow as the debts are starting to rack up!
- Before you know it, there is little headroom left on the credit cards and you are starting to get some difficult phone calls from creditors regarding unpaid bills. It really shouldn’t have come to this, but there now seems no way out…
- Help, however, is at hand.
At Lewis Alexander, our dedicated debt management specialists are uniquely placed to provide professional advice, guidance and ultimately provide solutions to your debt problems. Our advisors deal with your situation in the strictest of confidence and work out what options may be available to you.
- You can call us free 24 hours a day using 0800 018 6868.
With asset-rich customers there are often more options than you may think, and a couple of well-placed sales of valuable items (that antique painting you never really liked) and potentially a secured loan or debt management plan can help set you on the road to financial recovery. We can talk through your situation, listen to the concerns you have and start working on a solution with your creditors that takes the stress and pressure away from you, meaning you can focus on developing your income and spending time with your family.
As long as you have a regular source of income and the thought of putting in some hard work to turn your situation is something that you are prepared for then we can help!
- Call 0800 018 6868, our advisors usually help people find a route to a more stable financial life.
- Remember our advisors are trained and will deal with your situation in the strictest of confidence.
Call free today!
Having carefully saved during your working life you had enough put by to bail you out of the first redundancy in late 2008. Nine months without work was difficult and it meant quite a few cutbacks in the household budget, but with some careful management and the help of the credit card in the final few months, you just about got through it before starting the new job.
18 months later and that horrible brown envelope hit your desk again, not only is the timing terrible – having really gone to town for Christmas 2010 – but this time round you’ve not got that financial cushion of rainy day savings.
The start of 2011 is going to be important for many job seekers and if the offers don’t start raining in quick, it won’t take long for those credit card and store card bills to mount up.
- So what can you do to stop you getting further into a mountain of debt?
A full and frank family discussion might be a good starting point to understand where your money is currently being spent. By creating a list of all of the household outgoings you can then start to identify what costs take priority (for example rent/mortgage, gas, water and electricity), those which are preferable (the internet for job searches) and those that are sadly luxuries (such as the all-singing all-dancing satellite TV package, subscriptions to 5 different magazines and an unhealthy habit of purchasing over-priced American coffee)
Once those initial cuts have been made, it is worth going through your bank accounts, credit cards and any small savings you do have to work out a clear picture of your overall financial situation. Having done this you are now in a position to explain your income and expenditure position to your creditors whilst also knowing how much you owe in total.
During what can be a difficult time, it is also worth taking a good look around the house to see if there are any unwanted or unused items that could be put to good use to bring in some household income. In the days of eBay, and other online sales tools, this can be a real money spinner.
Finally, look at what part time work you might be able to take on whilst you are looking for full time employment. With the best will in the world, it is hard to ‘work’ for 45 hours per week to find a job, so there are likely to be spare hours in the day to stuff envelopes, deliver local parcels or help out a local school or sports club. Any income that you can establish will help your situation and increase your options for repaying debts.
After completing your own financial review and having sold all the items you can bear to part with, you find that you still aren’t able to repay your creditors, then don’t worry, help is at hand! One free call to Lewis Alexander on 0800 018 6868 could be the start of financial recovery. One of our personal debt consultants will assess your individual circumstances before advising the best debt solution for you.
Rather than try and sell a particular debt product, our specialists will take time to consider the most appropriate solution for your circumstance, whether it be a secured loan, an IVA or entering into a debt management plan where Lewis Alexander will enter into negotiations with creditors on your behalf to try and reach a solution that is affordable for you. Many of our debt management clients find that they benefit from affordable monthly repayments.
- Remember, a personal debt consultants is only one free call away!
Contact Lewis Alexander on 0800 018 6868 to start your plan of action today! Our lines are open 24 hours a day and we will treat your call in the strictest of confidence.
