Comments on: The really obvious thing we all forget when borrowing money

By: Your Standard of Living may take a hit, your Quality of Life doesn’t have to « Simple Living in Suffolk

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:04:10 +0000

[...] of living, slowly surrendering disposable income to buy my future income, a reverse of the ‘borrowing from my future self‘ by saving to my future [...]

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:34:45 +0000

I guess its a ‘debt for leveraged investment’ vs ‘debt for jam today’ argument – they’re two different beasts

By: The Investor

The Investor — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:15:17 +0000

Indeed — see method (7) in my ‘10 ways to fight inflation‘ post, which is basically to get a socking big mortgage.

That said, inflation seems to be coming back down. Also, it doesn’t change *who* you’re borrowing money from, it just makes the terms more attractive.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:40:03 +0000

its a fair point – if RPI is running at ~5% and you’ve got an enormous tracker mortgage costing ~0% (I know mates who have dropped lucky and actually are in this situation) it puts a different spin on things altogether.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:13:38 +0000

Fantastic post.
Great followup comment Pete. – “Inflationary economy savers are punished and debtors are rewarded by having their debt inflated away”

This is surely worth a post on its own?

By: Cameron says Britons should pay down debt, then flubs it « Simple Living in Suffolk

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:54:11 +0000

[...] aren’t worth it and you can’t have it all now without shafting your future self, because that’s who you’re borrowing from, not the [...]

By: Doom and Depression Death Spiral Deliberations « Simple Living in Suffolk

Doom and Depression Death Spiral Deliberations « Simple Living in Suffolk — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:45:50 +0000

[...] the suckout from paying down debt. In the end you don’t borrow money from someone else, you borrow it from your future self. We are now that future self and it’s pay back [...]

By: Founder of Immortalist Society Dies « Simple Living in Suffolk

Founder of Immortalist Society Dies « Simple Living in Suffolk — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:19:35 +0000

[...] have to start paying down their debts. We don’t seem to mind borrowing from our children, but making our future selves poorer may seem a worse [...]

By: The Worst Person to Borrow From

The Worst Person to Borrow From — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:59:29 +0000

[...] post, The Really Obvious Thing We All Forget When Borrowing Money says it just different enough that might help flip that switch for [...]

By: A Public Service Announcement for the Middle Class in the Public Sector who are about to lose their job « Simple Living in Suffolk

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 11:00:23 +0000

[...] the key to an awful lot in personal finance. Living on debt is living above your means, and you are borrowing from your future self to make your present self richer. Not everybody can live on less than their salary, but the middle [...]

By: Pete

Pete — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:06:37 +0000

That is pretty clever. The only problem with this is that in an inflationary economy savers are punished and debtors are rewarded by having their debt inflated away. With that being said your thinking is still valid.

By: The Gold Conundrum « Simple Living in Suffolk

The Gold Conundrum « Simple Living in Suffolk — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:09:47 +0000

[...] Much in life is an inherent polarity, and just like you can’t get rid of the South pole of a magnet without destroying the North pole so too you can often not KO the undesirable without kissing goodbye to the desirable that it keeps in balance. Want to eradicate child poverty? You can do that, but you will end up sponsoring the feckless instead. Want to live beyond your means? You can do that too, but it may mean you’re skint later on. [...]