The school boys ten thousand pound overdraft
4.3 million people in the UK have revolving overdraft debt
Written by the Debt Freedom team 2 min read
You will understand the feeling of despair that can come with it. The feeling of being out of control.
If you are or have ever been trapped in overdraft debt like 4.3 million people (like we once were) in the UK. You will understand the feeling of despair that can come with it. The feeling of being out of control.
Quite often an overdraft it is a symptom of something. Debt can become your identify and if can be difficult to reinvent yourself. Reinvent yourself as one of the minority (about 16%) of people in the UK who are debt free.
When I was a child, we were poor and so we had poor people’s debt, small but unmanageable. However, at school some kids were from quite wealthy families. This disparity is there for all of us. So one day a boy said to me that they were struggling with money and his father had a £10,000 overdraft. This was in the late 1970s. I was a bit too young to really understand what that meant but in my mind that made them rich. Just imagine being wealthy enough to be able to owe so much money.
We see it all the time, people aspiring to borrowing more money. The old idea that if you were well off you could get a gold or even a platinum credit card, a mortgage on house near a good primary school, a bigger overdraft or second mortgage for that kitchen extension.
The obvious problem with this aspirational life fuelled by debt is that for many it is the road to long term ruin. Trying to keep up with people with generational wealth or just good fortune is hard. They often seem to be doing all the wrong things but still seem fine but when we make a mistake it really hurts. That one month when you think I’m going to treat myself and don’t worry about the consequences. That emotional purchase or peer pressured holiday abroad because we deserve it.
I have no idea what happened to the boy or his father but my hope is that it all worked out for them. My hope would be that people could open their eyes to the problem debt and overdraft is and be able to take control and clear it for good.