Dealing with money troubles can feel like trying to find your way out of quicksand.
Something that started with a slow shift all of a sudden becomes greater movement under your feet and you can’t move quick enough to get out of it.
Knowing you have an issue around your financial situation is overwhelming, but at the same time, you may feel absolutely unable to deal with these problems head-on.
They seem so much larger than you are, and you become paralysed, stuck between the problem and the fear, not able to do anything.
Sadly, we have experience in dealing with people struggling with money troubles and we’ve seen time and time again how the ‘bury your head’ approach can have such a worsening effect on the situation.
We’re not here to say you can solve all your problems in four easy steps, however, we do find that breaking things down into short and straight forward little tasks has been the most productive approach.
The first thing to do is to stop, spend some time to calm yourself, breathe, and commit to dealing with one thing at a time over the next few days.
Set yourself a goal of just HALF AN HOUR a day to deal with your money struggles.
PLEASE NOTE: This is our advice based on our experience with people in unfortunate money situations. It does not constitute financial advice and if you are in serious money troubles, you must speak with an expert. Either of these is a good place to start:
If you feel that you won’t be able to pay your mortgage at any point, please make sure you call your bank as the first point of call.
Get your finances in order
Day one
Grab a piece of paper or a laptop, whatever suits you best, and write down all of your essential bills each month.
Do this by running through statements or your online/mobile banking app.
This budget planner is really good to prompt you to remember all of the things you pay each month.
Day two
Your next task is to spend another half an hour to understand:
1. What money you have coming in each month (think wages, child benefit, UC or any other things that go IN to your bank each month)
2. What debts you have; how much do you owe on your credit card, how much arrears are on your water bill?
If you don’t on get with the digital planner we suggested, you may find that getting this information down onto paper helps to clear your mental load. We found this A5 budget planner really helpful.
Day three
Is there anything that you’re ‘behind’ on paying?
Our next suggestion is to spend half an hour to identify what your arrears are.
Any arrears on mortgages or rent should be addressed first.
Then, council tax, gas, electricity and water bills should all be dealt with.
Work out how much you can afford towards the arrears and contact the lenders to tell them of your situation.
Make sure the amount you decide to pay back is achievable and something you can commit to being able to do every month.
Citizens advice has a wealth of information to help.
Day four
You may have had a change of circumstances, or simply not realise that you’re not claiming something that you’re entitled to.
There are lots of simple benefit calculators available online, or you can make an appointment at your local citizens advice bureau (however the wait time for these can run into weeks).
There’s no better day than today to get started on getting control of your finances.
Dealing with money troubles can feel like trying to find your way out of quicksand.
Something that started with a slow shift all of a sudden becomes greater movement under your feet and you can’t move quick enough to get out of it.
Knowing you have an issue around your financial situation is overwhelming, but at the same time, you may feel absolutely unable to deal with these problems head-on.
They seem so much larger than you are, and you become paralysed, stuck between the problem and the fear, not able to do anything.
Sadly, we have experience in dealing with people struggling with money troubles and we’ve seen time and time again how the ‘bury your head’ approach can have such a worsening effect on the situation.
We’re not here to say you can solve all your problems in four easy steps, however, we do find that breaking things down into short and straight forward little tasks has been the most productive approach.
The first thing to do is to stop, spend some time to calm yourself, breathe, and commit to dealing with one thing at a time over the next few days.
Set yourself a goal of just HALF AN HOUR a day to deal with your money struggles.
PLEASE NOTE: This is our advice based on our experience with people in unfortunate money situations. It does not constitute financial advice and if you are in serious money troubles, you must speak with an expert. Either of these is a good place to start:
If you feel that you won’t be able to pay your mortgage at any point, please make sure you call your bank as the first point of call.
Get your finances in order
Day one
Grab a piece of paper or a laptop, whatever suits you best, and write down all of your essential bills each month.
Do this by running through statements or your online/mobile banking app.
This budget planner is really good to prompt you to remember all of the things you pay each month.
Day two
Your next task is to spend another half an hour to understand:
1. What money you have coming in each month (think wages, child benefit, UC or any other things that go IN to your bank each month)
2. What debts you have; how much do you owe on your credit card, how much arrears are on your water bill?
If you don’t on get with the digital planner we suggested, you may find that getting this information down onto paper helps to clear your mental load. We found this A5 budget planner really helpful.
Day three
Is there anything that you’re ‘behind’ on paying?
Our next suggestion is to spend half an hour to identify what your arrears are.
Any arrears on mortgages or rent should be addressed first.
Then, council tax, gas, electricity and water bills should all be dealt with.
Work out how much you can afford towards the arrears and contact the lenders to tell them of your situation.
Make sure the amount you decide to pay back is achievable and something you can commit to being able to do every month.
Citizens advice has a wealth of information to help.
Day four
You may have had a change of circumstances, or simply not realise that you’re not claiming something that you’re entitled to.
There are lots of simple benefit calculators available online, or you can make an appointment at your local citizens advice bureau (however the wait time for these can run into weeks).