‘I’m 29 and I’m in £60k of credit card debt…’

I hoped that would be the end of my money worries but, looking back, that’s where they really started. I paid off some of my debts with my first pay cheque – enough so that I still had credit but never the full amount. Around then, my landlord decided to put up the rent on the flat I was sharing with two mates. They could both afford it, and I didn’t know what else to do, so we agreed to stay and fork out more. I considered moving home but my mum lived far from London, in the rural area I grew up in, and it would have meant giving up my career.