3 minutes - Article
Often before we know it, we’ve spent all our money and then some. Then, it gets harder to pay our bills and pay back what we owe. The good news is that there’s people trained to help you out.
Manraj Waraich works at the Credit Counselling Society and she teaches people how to be smart with money.
She says not to let your money problems lead to bad decisions. “We may jump on to the first life raft offered to us,” says Manraj, “and that’s not always going to be in our best interest.”
Don’t jump on these life rafts!
So there are these junky ‘life rafts’ we hear about. Like pay day loans, credit we can't afford, or borrowing from friends or family that you don’t really want to owe. But, really, these rafts only make us sink faster.
Or worse yet, because we need the money, we may put ourselves in risky situations or owing money to toxic people.
“Who’s born with amazing money management skills? Nobody! It’s not like we magically turn 18 and all of a sudden we are able to know all of these skills,” says Manraj. “We learn through trial and error, and to be able to actually admit that there's something wrong and that we are trying to fix it takes a lot of courage.”
You got this!
Manraj reminds us that the most important thing is not to get down on yourself.
“To go through things and to make mistakes doesn’t make us bad people. We’re human. We shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves. The best thing that we can do is to be kind and gentle with ourselves because we’re growing.”
Talking to someone you trust or calling someone like Manraj will help you deal with your money. They don’t judge and help people sort out their cash issues every day.
By facing your money problems, you can pay off your debt, bit by bit. Even if it’s only a small amount at a time, it’s still a big deal. You can feel proud of yourself for working to deal with your money problems, instead of just jumping on the first raft offered to you.
