Notes

Canceling Holidays and PAYING DOWN Debts - Good Sign Or Bad Sign?
If you're in a hole, stop digging - it's true of most things, and it's certainly true of debt. So maybe The Times brought us very good news when it announced that 58% of Britons were planning to scale back on their summer holidays, and 19% cancelling their summer holiday plans altogether. Maybe check here encouraging to see people re-prioritising, keeping their money for essential things like rent, food and petrol.

Alternatively, it's worrying to see so many reducing on the holidays. Holidays is probably not 'essential', but most of us see them as an important annual tradition: an incentive for per year of effort and ways to relax and 'recharge the batteries' before returning to the realities of bills, debts and work. It's hard not to wonder how many people aren't choosing to economise, but reducing because they simply have no choice.

Nevertheless, you view the statistics, debt isn't the only real reason for these cutbacks. There's also the market meltdown, the rising cost of living and the weakness of the Pound contrary to the Euro.

Cumulatively, these factors are only bad news for people in the tourism industry. And because the travel and tourism industry employs over 120,000 people (according to the Institute of Travel & Tourism), this could well result in bad news for economy. Following the recent massive job losses among home-builders and estate agents, any threat to the travel and tourism industry could easily damage consumer confidence further and reduce the average consumer's spending power.

On an individual level, needless to say, the impact could be much more immediate. Just how many of these 120,000 folks are deep in debt - absolutely reliant on the next paycheque just to stay on top of their debt repayments?

It is a serious problem: many financial specialists advise people to reserve at the very least 3 months' salary for a rainy day, but just how many are capable of doing that? With read more of personal debt and escalating cost of living, millions of people are struggling to afford their essential living costs and debt repayments, so saving is merely out of the question.

The 'silver lining', the optimists say, is that hardship reminds people of why that back-up is so important. Next time the tough times come around, we promise ourselves, we'll be equipped for them, with our debts paid off and our 3 months' salary safely in the bank.

Saving, however, is rarely a good idea when there are debts to be paid off. Whatever interest a savings account might accrue, it's unlikely to be around the interest charged on the debts. So for anybody in debt, the first step has to be getting away from debt, and the simplest way to do that varies from person to person.

Debt management plans, debt consolidation loans / mortgages, Trust Deeds, Individual Voluntary Arrangements, even bankruptcy... Each debt solution includes its own unique advantages and disadvantages, but they do have a very important factor in common: each of them tend to are better when people speak to a debt adviser as soon as they realise they're in financial trouble. In general, the longer someone leaves it before they look into debt solutions, the harder it will likely be.

Read more about these debt solutions & get free debt advice at http://www.ThinkMoney.com
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