Tales from a Recovering Spender ...

I spent the last two days at an interesting financial literacy conference and left the conference even more convinced that financial literacy has an important place in our education system and no kid is too young to learn! It's good to see that schools are integrating financial literacy into their curriculum and even the Primary Schools are coming on board! Good on them!

When I was in school many yonks ago, we didn't have such lessons about financial literacy. In Primary School, I vaguely remember buying stamps as part of POSB scheme to get us to save. Yeah, I am revealing my age huh *laughs* We were told frequently told to save money, don't spend unnecessarily .... hmmm, and that's pretty much it. And these days, savings alone is not enough especially when the inflation rate being what it is now. So it's good to see that Secondary School kids are learning about other ways to grow their money and more importantly, the kids are learning that there's no short cuts to making big money. Key is to start as early so that the nest will be nice and full (and even better if growing) when it's time to retire.

At the conference, Mr Kuo How Nam from Credit Counselling Singapore (CSS) shared some figures (even for somebody like me who has no head for figures found the numbers rather alarming). There are about 6.1 million credit cards in circulation in Singapore and about 1.06 million cardholders. Yeah, do the maths and that means on the average, it's about 5.7 credit cards per individual. Amount of rollover balance (this refers to debts that gets rolled over and not paid in full) is about S$3.3b, which has increased in the last twelve months (a year ago it was S$840m). Number of revolvers (cardholders who do not pay in full) is about 38% and average debt per individual is about S$4000 plus.

So what is the Distressed Debtor Profile like? It's pretty much the average Joe (and Jane) out there. There then to be more males (ratio of males to females is 3:1), they are usually married with kids (68%), educated with A' levels and above, average age is about 39 years old, average number of creditors is about 6.5 with an average outstanding debt of $69,000 (his/her average monthly take home pay is about S$2,600).

Mr Kuo also shared that there are four types of people who get into trouble and if you're like me, you tend to find yourself gravitating to one of the four. If you don't fit into any of the four, CONGRATULATIONS you *grins*

The four are: Hard Luck (e.g. person who probably had to settle debts of parents, didn't do well in business etc), Muddle Head (e.g. person who really is clueless about investing but goes ahead and invests his/her money, lends money to people but ends up losing the money etc), Punter (i.e. one who gambles his money away) and the last one is the Spender. Let me go on a little bit about the Spender and I am not shy to say that I am a Recovering Spender *laughs*

A spender is one who is a lifestyle seeker who enjoys going for exotic holidays and indulging in branded goods. I am so guilty for wanting to go away for a holiday at any opportunity available and yes, I do have a couple of branded items. I don't think I am obsessive about the latter but I think it's nice to have one or two quality items.

A spender is one who spends on frivolous things. Yeah, I have things I bought that's still in their plastic bags all sealed still. Guilty!

A spender is one who is unable to control spending and pretty much does impulsive buying. *laughs* Yeah, I can see somebody who is nodding his head in agreement here that this statement fits me perfectly. I can be pretty dangerous especially when I am shopping alone!

A spender is one who uses spending as a relief for depression. In our world it's called Retail Therapy! *grins*

A spender is one who treats credit card as an additional source of income *laughs* This one is funny. How I wish this was true but unfortunately, I have not met any banks who are willing to pay for my spending!

A spender is one who spends until the credit line hits the limit. This is very dangerous especially if the number shows that a debtor has up to 6 credit cards!

I definitely enjoy shopping and especially so when I am feeling down or stressed and shopping puts me in a very good mood. But usually that good feeling is not long-lasting (especially when you get the bill from the shopping spree *laughs*) and it's not really dealing with the cause of feeling down or stressed but rather avoiding it totally. So I still enjoy my shopping trips but I tend to think carefully about what I buy (plus I have no more space at home to store my stuff) and track my spending a lot more carefully (which is a good thing because I got a shock when I realised how much I used to spend on cabs!). Of course I do slip on occasions and buy STUFF that I don't need but I don't kill myself over it but rather think about why it happened and try and get to the root of the problem. So yeah, I am a recovering spender! *grins*

You may know people who are in debt. What are some of the signs for a person who is undergoing debt distress? Here's the list below as a guide:

• unable to settle monthly outstanding in full
• use one credit card to pay for another
• use credit to pay for necessities
• an expert in balance transfer
• calls from creditors and lawyers demanding about unpaid amounts
• makes empty promises about making payments
• unable to focus on work because constantly worried about outstanding debts
• constant worry about creditors taking legal actions
• spend more money trying to strike it rich through lotteries
• stressed, have suicidal thoughts, tension or frequent quarrels with family

You can help your loved one through this, not by nagging the person to death because s/he is already in a mess and all the nagging in the world is not going to help. I personally don't think it's a good idea to pay off the debt for the person because s/he will probably chalk it all up again. Get help for the person. Bring the person for credit card counselling where they will help the person consolidate his/her debts (don't be fooled into using those you see in the papers cuz they may not all be legit and I know of friends who had bad experiences with these people) and work out a debt repayment plan while helping the person to deal with underlying issues that could be the cause of the person getting into debt. And be supportive to that person, provide the emotional support that the person will need during this road to recovery.

For more information, you can head to Credit Counselling Singapore's website and if you would like their help, you will need to make an appointment and ask what documents you need to bring along so that they can help. Don't hide anything from them. If you're in a financial mess, the last thing you wanna do is try and 'save face' by not giving the full truth. They are there to help and yes the truth may hurt but that's the first step to things getting better....