The most recent survey carried out by Serasa shows that at least 73.10 million people were in debt in the country. The data is from October and records the second highest mark of the year, behind only the volume recorded in April. For the entity, this number is an indication that default is growing.
According to the research, Brazilians aged between 41 and 60 represent the largest share of the population with restricted names, at 35.1%. Next are the age groups from 26 to 40 years old (34.0%), over 60 years old (19.2%) and young people between 18 and 25 years old (11.8%).
According to the administration and finance professor at FEA-USP, Liliam Carrete, it will be difficult to start the year 2025 without debt, mainly because this is the worst time to take on debt due to the interest rate reaching its peak in recent years. .
“So getting into debt means that I will have to pay high interest and this will consume my future income. The ideal is to try to reduce consumption as much as possible and pay off as much of my debts as possible, to enter 2025 with as little debt as possible”, he explained.
According to Lílian, even though it is extremely necessary to reduce consumption, the fact is that this is very difficult because there are many incentives at the end of the year for people to buy, in addition to the individual desire to be rewarded for an entire year’s effort. “But it’s better for us to think about making a sacrifice now than paying very high interest rates throughout 2025”, he advises.
Renegotiation
The second necessary action is to try to renegotiate the debt at the beginning of 2025, because when it reaches a very high value compared to income and which compromises more than 30% of the salary, a warning signal goes off. “If I reach this level, it’s a good idea to start negotiating, always starting with the most expensive ones, usually credit cards.”
Lílian highlighted that debts often reach their limit, leaving the person with no option. In this case, it is necessary to assess which debts are the most important and essential to pay. “I need to maintain my ability to feed my family, I need to have a house to live in, so I choose to pay the mortgage, for example. From then on, if you have a car loan, you can stop paying, even if you lose that asset, or sell the car.”
Loans can be an option, but even using a loan, which has the lowest interest rate on the market, you start paying 15% interest because that is the basic market rate. “And the bank will ask for more than that, so the cost will also be very expensive. So even with the consignment it will be very high. My suggestion is to avoid debt.”
