Are you constantly walking around with a slight sick feeling, a knot in your stomach, irritable, your nerves are frayed, your relationships are suffering but you don’t know why you are so snappy.
Conversations about money make you feel uncomfortable. You feel unexplained frustration and resentment towards loved ones. Does any of this sound familiar? Something deeper could going on, and that something could be your financial situation.
With household debt in Australia approaching some of the highest in the world, debt distress is very real and something that many of us face. Believe it or not, debt distress is about so much more than just money.
Learning to recognise these early warning signs can be the best thing you can do; it can be the difference between a difficult situation and an impossible one. So, let’s take a look at some of the warning signs of debt distress.
1. LIVING FROM PAY DAY TO PAY DAY
You get to the end of each month completely run out of money. You can’t afford more than a can of baked beans until your next pay turns up.
2. YOU FEEL VULNERABLE ABOUT YOUR JOB
Without it you have NO financial security or buffer. Losing your job would take away income certainty, financial security and the only means you have to keep your head about water. Does this make you feel trapped, unfulfilled and unsatisfied, putting up with much more in the workplace than you should have, because in your mind, without your job, you’re financially screwed?
3. YOU ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY PAYING YOUR BILLS ON TIME
Is meeting your payment deadlines becoming harder and harder? Are beginning to miss payment dates? You know you get a discount if you pay things early, yet you still aren’t able to do so. Are you feeling stressed because you know that late payments can affect your credit rating?
4. YOU ARE PAYING OFF ONE DEBT WITH ANOTHER
Are you shuffling money around, paying off vast amounts of interest and having to turn to cash advancing on credit facilities? Do you feel that you are never actually reducing the amount you owe? Do you feel like you’re treading water and getting nowhere fast?
5. YOU ARE DECLINING OFFERS TO GO OUT
Are you isolating yourself, not being honest with friends and family, taking rain checks on going out, feeling that you can’t justify the cost?
6. DO CONVERSATIONS ABOUT MONEY MAKE YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE
You wish the subject would go away, you want to curl up into a ball whenever anyone talks about trips, gifts or high-ticket items.
7. YOU ARE HIDING SOME OF YOUR SPENDING FROM YOUR PARTNER
Do you feel ashamed about what you have spent because you simply don’t have the dollars?
8. YOU ARE FEELING RESENTMENT TOWARDS YOUR PARTNER AND YOUR RELATIONSHIP IS SUFFERING
You hate it when they ask you what you bought or where you have been? Do you resent them for asking and feel embarrassed when you are put on the spot.
9. YOU ARE FEELING DISEMPOWERED AND UNMOTIVATED? HAS YOUR SELF ESTEEM TAKEN A NOSE DIVE
Have you lost your spark? You don’t know where it’s gone or how to get it back?
10. YOU ARE SELF-MEDICATING
Drinking too much to try and make yourself feel better, a joint to try and dull that gnawing feeling, prescription medication to help you sleep, watching mind numbing TV and eating crap food. Self-medicating is a common way to mask a multitude of problems we don’t want to face, debt distress being one of them.
11. YOU ARE FEELING DEPRESSED
Lost, sad or angry? Are you feeling stressed and anxious, snapping at the smallest things? Do you feel unmotivated and uninspired and have no clue how to get back to you?
If any of the above feels familiar to you and you think it may be related to your financial situation, take heart. Recognising the early warning signs of debt distress is the first step on your road to financial recovery.
At Debt Angel Solutions we are passionate about showing people that there are options available to help them to reset and put them back on the path to a strong and successful financial future.
If you would like to talk through your situation then please feel free to contact us for a free no obligation chat, to learn more about our services and see if they are right for you.
