Financial counseling is performed by financial counseling professionals, often employees of a nonprofit organization organized to assist clients in financial difficulty on a one-to-one basis. Clients are helped to resolve problems that impact their financial well-being, to make decisions that have financial implications for life now and in the future, to improve their financial management, to handle difficult transitions, and to improve functioning in the consumer market and/or legal systems by handling financial or consumer collections and other dilemmas. Financial counseling utilizes information and skills to assist clients in changing behaviors in resource management, consumption, lifestyle, and communication in order to obtain and maintain increased financial security. (more…)

Personal Financial Management is a skill that really an important skill, and therefore can be learned like any other skill in life. No body is born with this ability. Even the best financial managers who control the budgets of the largest companies in the world can be bad at managing their personal finances, they have not been trained. Did you know, for example, that most of those who consider themselves experts in managing personal finances, including the humble author, have suffered greatly from the financial crisis in his life that might not even be able to imagine?! (more…)

Does anyone in the world who has not affected the current financial crisis? Everyone agrees that something should be done. Many retired couples have seen vanish their life savings in the stock market. Families of young adults remain in the street when they are evicted from their homes. Consumer confidence in America is at its lowest level since the rating system was created in 1967. (more…)

We live in a troubling time regarding consumer debt. For years (or perhaps for decades), Americans have become accustomed to spending more than they earn. Through the miracle (or curse) of a credit card and all its charging privileges, more and more people have come to join the financial club for those drowning in debt with no end in sight.

Bankruptcy may seem like a frightening scenario, but there are other scenarios that are more frightening, and they may already be part of your everyday experience. (more…)