Six Warning Signs You May Have a Financial Problem

1. You're working overtime or have a second job just to cover your monthly expenses.
2. You are borrowing more money just to make your monthly debt payments.
3. You are able to budget only the required MINIMUM monthly payments on your credit cards.
4. Over 20% of your total mnthly income goes to payments on credit cards, loans and debts other than your mortgage.
5. You constantly are at the limit for your credit cards.
6. You may be paying bills late or using the "grace period" after the due dates on your debts.

We need to plan and to save. That involves buying what you "need" and discerning "needs" from "wants". In the final analysis, it is up to each of us to manage our finances ourselves or collect more information on how to do that. No one is going to do that for us.

Just like the mortgage mess we are in, true there were less than scrupulous mortgage brokers and bank lenders who saw the uninformed coming but if we are in an ARM with a balloon or an interest only loan (both equally undesirable) then we have only ourselves to blame. If one can't afford a loan that is payable and constant over time then perhaps buying a house is not within our immediate means.

Its time each if us attempts to understand our own financial situation, seek more information to manage it and become responsible for all the times we've said yes when we might have restrained ourselves and known that when something is too good to be true, it normally is.