Serious personal debt is a huge worry for many people. When the level of debt becomes unsustainable, the worry can lead to stress and to the effects of more serious health and relationship problems. The journey from being debt free, having money in the bank, being in rewarding employment, earning a good income, enjoying a decent standard of living and living a happy life with spouse and children to being unable to pay bills or to service debts can be a cruel one.When things go pear-shaped, the whole family suffers. Most ordinary people, even those who have managed to control their finances, have suffered from one or more of the consequences of the recession. Being unable to pay the mortgage or rent in full, getting into negative equity and being unable to pay anything more than the minimum amount on credit cards are anathema to most people, particularly if they have never encountered these issues before. Pay cuts, reduced working hours, loss of overtime opportunities or even loss of employment are the lot of many people.
It’s a bit of a shock when holidays have to be severely curtailed, postponed or even cancelled. It is quite galling to watch one’s vehicle deteriorating when in better times, one would change the car every two or three years or so and of course maintenance costs on older cars tend to be higher.
Hand in hand with financial problems go relationship problems. Constant money worries can lead to bickering and blaming and of course all this rubs off on children too. This is the story of thousands of couples all over the country. It is the story of people who really did little wrong other than to imitate what their neighbours, friends, work colleagues and society at large was doing. The question for them now is: what can we do about it? The answer is of course is to do something! And the best something to do is to get professional advice. See our next article which is entitled ‘Dealing with Personal Debt.’
Author : Paddy Byrne 29/08/2012