{"id":5088,"date":"2021-09-02T16:08:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T14:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&#038;p=5088"},"modified":"2021-09-02T16:11:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T14:11:04","slug":"taf-xinhu-l-livell-tieghek-ta-dejn-li-tista-tiflah","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/taf-xinhu-l-livell-tieghek-ta-dejn-li-tista-tiflah\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you know what your level of affordable debt?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/iStock-1194395178-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5090\" srcset=\"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/iStock-1194395178-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/iStock-1194395178-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/iStock-1194395178-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/iStock-1194395178-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/iStock-1194395178-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/iStock-1194395178-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To be financially healthy it is very important that you keep your debts to a level that you can afford.&nbsp; Life, unfortunately, is not a straight line.&nbsp; There will be moments when your financials are suffering \u2013 and you must make sure that when these moments occur you can manage your debts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For your debt to be affordable it must not exceed 35% of your income.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is your debt affordable?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technically your level of debt affordability is known as the \u2018debt to income ratio\u2019.&nbsp; To determine your level of debt affordability you are to list all of your disposable income (that is your income after deducting the income tax and social security contributions payments) and all of your debts.&nbsp; Examples are shown in the table below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Disposable Income<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Outstanding Debt Payment<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Wage\/Salary<\/td><td>Home Loan<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Allowance<\/td><td>Car Loan<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Overtime<\/td><td>Personal Loan<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Performance<\/td><td>Credit Card<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Fringe benefit<\/td><td>Hire Purchase<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The following are not to be considered in determining your level of debt affordability<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Living expenses, such as your grocery bills.<\/li><li>Utilities, such as water and electricity.<\/li><li>Monthly service bills, like your mobile, TV packages and internet.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Calculate your level of debt affordability on a monthly or income on a monthly basis.&nbsp; To do so use this formula:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Monthly Disposable Income\/Debt = (Annual Net Salary after deducting tax and social security contributions or Annual Debt) <\/em><em>\u00f7 12<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your level of debt affordability is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>21% to 35%&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You are exposed<\/li><li>36% or higher&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You are in trouble.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If your level of debt affordability is 36% or higher \u0120EMMA recommends you take the following steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol type=\"1\"><li>Avoid taking on more debt.<\/li><li>Make sure you first pay the debt on your essentials \u2013 the mortgage on your home \u2013 first.<\/li><li>Thereafter make sure you pay the debt with the highest interest rate and Annual Percentage Rate (APR).<\/li><li>See whether you can increase your income so that you can pay off more of your debt.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To be financially healthy it is very important that you keep your debts to a level that you can afford.&nbsp; Life, unfortunately, is not a straight line.&nbsp; There will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5090,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[235],"issuem_issue_categories":[222],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/5088"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5088"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/5088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5093,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/5088\/revisions\/5093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=5088"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=5088"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=5088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}