Practical Money Skills - For Consumers

This is natural. Debt can be painful and confronting a situation that reveals poor planning or judgment on your part can be very uncomfortable. Here are some signs that might indicate that you're headed for trouble:

Next month's bills arrive before you've paid the ones from last month.

You don't know how much you owe.

You get a new loan to pay old loans.

You only pay the minimum balance due each month.

You spend more than 20% of your net income (after paying rent or mortgage) on debt maintenance.

You're using your savings to pay for day-to-day expenses.

There are more bills than you thought.

You know what past-due notices look like.

You get an overdue balance on a credit-card statement.

You avoid opening letters.

You rarely keep a running balance in your chequebook.