“January Wages Spent on debt”

This was a fascinating read today. Over in the UK, the good folks at www.unbiased.co.uk have declared February 1 “Debt Freedom Day”. They’ve calculated the average “debt freedom day.” (I guess it’s conceptually similar to the “Tax Freedom Day” that we declare over in the US.) It says that in Britain, the entire month of January was spent to pay down the interest on their debt.
According to the article,

“This week the Financial Services Authority said that personal debt levels were among the biggest risks to financial stability in the UK over the coming year. It said that while the evidence was that most people were managing, there was a risk that a sudden deterioration in employment levels or further sharp rises in interest rates could tip many households over the edge.”

It got me to thinking…how much do I have to work during the year to pay down just the interest on my loans. If I don’t include the interest on my house, I’m paying over $3,500 a year in interest, which would take me about half the month of January to pay down. If I include my house, my interest load is $19,127, which takes me nearly 3 months to pay down. That’s JUST INTEREST!

powered by performancing firefox