MAYBE you’ve experienced this before: You’re driving down the road one cold, chilly day and before you know it, you find yourself surrounded by a thick white wall of dense fog. How did you react to the situation?  If you’re like most people, perhaps you felt momentarily lost and confused or perhaps even panicked, not knowing what was in front of you or the direction you were going. 

People who are facing serious debt problems can feel the same way as in the situation above.  They feel lost in a “money fog”.  What exactly is a “money fog”?  Money fog means that you’re in a state of being disconnected from your money.  Here are some of the symptoms: (a) Having no idea about your real bank balance (2) Always broke at the end of the month no matter how hard you work (3) You’ve lost track of how much you owe (4) Chronic debt that just cannot be paid off, and (5) Zero savings- and yet, having a lot of expenses that cannot be accounted for or explained. 

IF YOU are delinquent on your debts, you may be able to avoid dealing with the bill collectors for a few months but sooner or later, you will still need to face the reality of your debt problems and do something in order to protect yourself.  For example, creditors will probably wait until you are 60 days late before they hand over your account to their internal collections department. If you’ve had a loss of income, your creditors may even tell you about their hardship program that will allow you to make lower payments at a significantly reduced interest rate.  Others will close your account which means that you can no longer use your credit card until the debt is paid in full.  No matter what you are offered by the creditor at this point, however, it is only temporary and will not help you if your hardship continues for longer than a few months.