Peaches Geldof had debts of £450,000 when she died

Peaches Geldof's children and husband will inherit just half of her £884,274 fortune, because at the time of her death last April, the model and presenter had £450,000 of debts.

Peaches didn't leave a will when she died at the age of 25, but the details of her estate were reported by the Mirror, which added that under intestacy laws (which kick in when someone dies without a will) her husband Thomas Cohen will receive the first £250,000, while the rest will be split between her two sons. The Daily Mail confirmed that there were no details of the nature of the debts.

Living with debt

Her estate demonstrates the enormous success she had during her short life, including as a journalist, TV presenter and model. However, it also demonstrates just how much debt we all are living with.

According to PwC, the average household owes £9,000 in non-mortgage debt - including credit cards and loans - and that sum is growing around 5% each year. Including mortgage debt, The Money Charity says that the average person owes £28,826.

And while many of us will have the luxury of a longer life in order to pay our borrowing off, this should act as a timely reminder that any money we borrow will eventually need to be paid off - either during our lifetime or after our death.

Act now

It can be hard to feel the urgency of this, because the record low interest rates that contributed to the boom in borrowing, also help take our focus off the pain of holding debt at a time of higher interest rates.

But while the experts disagree over exactly when the period of low interest rates will end, they are all agreed that it will eventually have to. At that point, variable rate debts will instantly become more expensive while even fixed rate debts will eventually expire and have to be replaced with something much pricier.

Now is the time for us all to address our debts. We need to consider carefully how much we are borrowing, and how we will pay them down and repay them in full, while we still have time.