Credit counselling will teach you various budgeting and money management skills. These basic skills are necessary if you want to properly manage your finances and avoid getting into financial problems.

Through credit counselling, you learn the following:

1. Create a balanced home budget;
2. Get your spending under control and correct bad spending habits; Set financial goals and priorities;
4. Learn about different types of debts such as credit cards, mortgages, lines of credit, secured versus unsecured debts, good debts, bad debts;
5. Identify various causes of financial problems and warning signs;
6. Learn about the risks involved in co-signing or guaranteeing a debt for someone else;
7. Learn about credit bureaus, credit rating and scores and how they impact your borrowing ability.

Applying the above skills will go a long way in helping you achieve financial success.

Credit counselling plays an important role in helping people fix their debt problems. Depending on the amount of debt your have, it may become part of an overall plan to settle your debt.

Good money management is the key to a bright financial future. A basic plan starts with a budget and a set of financial goals. Proper money management is about making the right choices.

List your monthly net take home income from all sources. Then list and deduct all of your household living expenses. Ideally, you are spending less than what you earn and you have a surplus.

Decide what you want to do with your monthly surplus. Do you want to pay down debt? Put money aside for retirement? Save for your kids’ education, a trip or a major purchase? Paying high interest debts should be a priority.

Proper money management requires constant monitoring. Keep track of your progress and make adjustments to your budget on a regular basis.

• You spend more than what you earn;
• You use credit to cover your monthly shortfall;
• You miss monthly debt payments;
• You are unable to reduce your debts, or worse, it is going up;
• You have no money left for any savings.