Originally Posted by
BJ1
Beacon, there is so much of what I have learnt over a lifetime in money that it is hard to impart, either in this forum or by PM. However, I will add that the majority of families need to allocate above 25% of pretax income to accommodation, be that rent or mortgage (majority, not all by any means) and so the theoretical maximum available for other finance costs should be 10%. I hardly ever lend if the repayment to after tax income exceeds 10% as it is quite likely that, no matter what the applicant says about debt consolidation, there will also be a credit card on drip feed in the background.