The process of repair and rebuilding will also take some time. According to the Federal Reserve, consumers are still spending and using credit to do it. It's a growing problem, made worse by the aggressive marketing of credit cards. If you find yourself struggling to pay your bills each month, you might want to take some counsel from Personal Finance Adviser Ray Martin on The Saturday Early Show . A certain amount of debt is not bad overall.
Some debt is necessary to reach goals.
More than that could spell trouble. If you can only afford the minimum payments each month, you're on the edge. If you have to hope and pray that your deposit gets to the bank to cover your checks, and especially if you're using the cash advance on a credit card to pay other cards or for routine living expenses, you could be headed for trouble. Stop using the cards, or use only one card and attack the others with higher interest rates. Look at interest rate.