By now you have probably heard about the problems with the country of Greece (stated for our New York readers since there’s a Greece about 90 minutes away from Syracuse). In essence, they’re close to defaulting on debt they can’t pay because of years of spending money they didn’t have and never adopting any austerity principles to help the country take care of itself.
Greece might end up lucky in some way. It’s looking like, after a lot of chest thumping, they’re about to accept a deal they were actually offered months ago. This will include having to set up ways to generate more money (increase taxes) and reduce spending (budget) drastically.
Does this sound familiar? Every day, people spend more money than they make. They don’t know it because they ignore it, the “I’d rather not know” syndrome. That’s understandable because it’s scary. Unfortunately, one can’t hide from the eventual realization that all isn’t rosy.
Accountants can’t help anyone who doesn’t ask for it. Sometimes, if things are critical enough, even an accountant might not be able to get you out of trouble. In those cases you might have to do some things you don’t want to do.
Maybe it’s Consumer Credit Counseling, which many communities around the country have. They’re wonderful at what they do, but they’re not the answer for everyone.
Maybe you can get a consolidation loan of some kind, pulling all your bills together and getting them paid off so you only have to pay the bank. That might work… unless you don’t start controlling your spending, putting together a budget so you can pay down your debt and still live your life comfortably.
Then again, you might not qualify for that either, in which case you might have to do the ultimate sacrifice – bankruptcy. The problems with that are many, including having a negative action on your credit report for 7 years. However, what’s even worse is that there are debts that aren’t excluded just because you filed bankruptcy. If you owe on a college loan or back taxes… you still have to figure out how to deal with those things.
Our position has always been that it’s better to know where you stand so you can address it. If you’re not in deep trouble, we can help. If you’re in minor trouble we might be able to help. If you’re in major trouble, we can offer you guidance.
Addressing potential financial issues might be scary, but the truth is that the sooner you know, the sooner you’ll gain peace and perspective and can be on the road to serenity.
