It’s easy to get in debt

Being judgmental about finances won’t help – only careful actions ease pain

you have done it for me. You are absolutely correct when you say that the readers whose question I answered last week had a combined income of £45,000 or so and a relatively small mortgage.

So it does beg the question of why they were only managing to make minimum payments on their credit cards every month.

It might not be about expensive holidays or eating out every night. It’s very easy to spend more than you earn if you don’t keep a close eye on what you are actually spending.

There could be family circumstances that we are unaware of that made it difficult to avoid debt building up in the first place and it’s really important that we don’t pass judgment on people who have built up debt. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to turn the clock back and undo spending that has already taken place.

But hopefully people can learn from past behaviour to help ensure the same situation doesn’t arise again.

And if last week’s readers do actually take notice of my tips then they will have to address their spending in the future to ensure that they don’t just end up in debt again.

The best way to do this is to ensure that they budget effectively.

A budget, at its simplest level, is about knowing how you spend money. And knowledge, as they say, is power especially when it comes to dealing with your money.

At the risk of teaching your granny