{"id":232542,"date":"2026-01-07T16:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232542\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:01:15","slug":"if-you-cant-afford-to-buy-it-twice-you-cant-afford-to-buy-it-getting-to-grips-with-debt-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232542\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If you can\u2019t afford to buy it twice, you can\u2019t afford to buy it\u2019: Getting to grips with debt in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next big problem we\u2019re going to have when it comes to debt is \u2018buy now, pay later\u2019. We can see it across the board, across the water in the UK and in the US. We have troubles coming down the track unless we really start to get informed about what they are and accept that they are a loan.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the stark financial forecast from Irish Independent money columnist Eoin McGee on the latest episode of the Money Talks podcast.<\/p>\n

As the new year gets underway, how do we get our heads together and manage our money, particularly if we find ourselves in a state of difficult debt?<\/p>\n

Not to mention all the natural anxieties that accompany it.<\/p>\n

This episode takes a look at one person\u2019s tricky experience with debt and examines how it speaks to universal issues and learning curves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdentify the problem, then stop it getting worse,\u201d says McGee. \u201cGet rid of your ability to borrow \u2013 whether that\u2019s credit cards, if it\u2019s an overdraft you need to treat it like a loan. If you owe \u20ac500 in an overdraft, you need to say, \u2018Right, for the next 10 months, I\u2019m going to put \u20ac50 a month off that and I\u2019m going to create a new zero\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a lot of people, an overdraft is an interesting one because they go to minus 500, they get paid, they get through the month, they go back to minus 500. That\u2019s your zero.<\/p>\n

“You need to make your zero plus 500 over time, so that when you get to the end of the month you still have \u20ac500 or \u20ac1,000 in your account, or whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the argument that if you can\u2019t afford to buy it twice, you simply can\u2019t afford to buy it at all?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor certain things, I totally agree with it,\u201d says McGee. \u201cThere\u2019s another way of looking at that, and it comes back to an emotional attachment to savings; if you have to use more than half of your savings for it, you shouldn\u2019t be buying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the full conversation, check out the latest episode of Money Talks wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

The content of this podcast is for information purposes and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation of any investment product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe next big problem we\u2019re going to have when it comes to debt is \u2018buy now, pay later\u2019.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60,11783],"class_list":["post-232542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-money-talks-podcast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}