I'm a right good Samaritan me.grenfell wrote:Not being an economist it can be hard to get one's head around the world of finance. I've always taken a similar line to jansman in that I've tried to stay out of debt. I use a debit card but not a credit card , I saved the money plus a bit from my parents to buy my first house and when we brought our second we only had a small mortgage for around six months which we paid off when we sold the first house. We also put a substantial chunk into my SIL's house without a mortgage and now also own my parents house outright. All well and good one might think , 2 1/2 houses paid for , everything else paid for , vehicles belongings everything , no debts at all. However , an economist might see it differently. Debt is seen as an asset , debt backs up our monetary system in just the same way as gold used to and I've done precious little to increase that asset (on a system basis not personal ) whereas Deeps with his thousand debt on his card has in effect created wealth , albeit not for himself but for the system so very altruistic of him .
A lot of people have had to go into debt in one way or another, its not like borrowing money is a new thing although the process has got a lot easier and slicker. Depending on where you want to draw the line I owe thousands on mortgages and all to the evil banks and large financial institutions. People borrow money to set up businesses etc, we'll all have our own take on what's good for us.