Do You Spend Emotionally?

You may have heard the term "retail therapy" - it's used for people who spend money emotionally, usually as a way to deal with stress or anxiety.

It's usually a bit of a joke but the truth is that it's a legitimate problem for some people. Emotional spending is one of the major causes of credit card debt.

If you find yourself heading to the mall or surfing to your favorite shopping website whenever you're faced with some kind of stress or anxiety, it can be tough to get a handle on your debt.

In some cases, it might be as simple as recognizing the problem so you can stop yourself before you spend. In other cases, it could be more serious and you might even consider counseling or joining a program like Debtors Anonymous (www.debtorsanonymous.org) which is based on the same principles as Alcoholics Anonymous.

However you deal with an emotional spending problem, the most important step is to recognize it and decide to fix it.