If you have two or more of these signs, you’re in over your head.
- You use credit cards to make ends meet. You can’t make it through the month without charging on your credit cards. You tell yourself that you’ll pay off the credit but you never quite make it. You repeatedly use the cards for food, gas, medical bills and car repairs. Because you spend your money to make the credit card payments, you don’t have the funds to buy the necessities like food.
- You have no savings and no cash cushion. You don’t even try to put money away each month because it seems impossible. When the unexpected happens, you start charging on those credit cards. (Over withholding does not count as putting money away. If you rely on the IRS to save money for you, chances are you spend it as soon as you receive it). You deserve to save some money and have a rainy-day reserve.
- You bounce checks because you have no reserve. You are so close to the wire that even a small error with your bank balance causes you to have insufficient funds. While the bank may cover the balance for you, you’ll be incurring bank charges that you can’t afford. You may even end up without a bank account.
- You live on payday loans. It starts with just one that you may have even paid off. Then the second one it takes longer and costs more. These can cost you hundreds of dollars and this type of creditor gets very aggressive if you miss a payment. In fact most are automatically withdrawn from your bank account and can cause bank problems when there isn’t sufficient funds to cover the payment and your expenses.
- Creditors are calling you with threats to take legal action. You get frequent creditor calls at home or at work so you pay that creditor some money. Then you get behind on another bill until they call you.
- You feel stressed about money and frequently worry about it. It is always on your mind and you worry about how to pay the rent and other regular bills.
- You always carry a balance on your credit cards and never pay them down to zero. Even if you sometimes pay them down, you immediately charge them up again.
If you have two or more of these signs, you’re in over your head. A knowledgeable professional can help you sort things through and come up with a plan for your financial freedom.
Contact Cate today, using the contact form on the right or
call 415-504-2006 and schedule an appointment today.