| This book is about money and the problems money can cause for individualsand families. As such, it is written to help therapists and counselors understandthe complex web of credit, debt, and money management. Because few therapists have formal training in personal financial planningand management, A Guide to Family Financial Counseling can be very usefulin building and maintaining a client relationship. Economic conditions, also,demand that more attention be paid to the stress money problems can have ona marriage and a family. In fact, it has been suggested that money matters arethe primary source of conflict in marriages. This book, therefore, is designed as a practical and factual guide to helptherapists help their clients. "Where has all the money gone?" 1 ask myself this question every time Ithink back to that time, in the not-so-distant past, when the electric bill washalf of what it is now. Could that have been only seven or eight years ago? Iremember when a "gas guzzler" wasn t a gas guzzler, and wonder how to ridmyself of such an albatross, when inflation throws into serious question therationale of adding the monthly car payments required for a new one. The Sundayride around the countryside and the frivolous trip here or there have gone bytile boards. If you can afford a newer, more efficient car, the payments alonemay preclude such impulsiveness, and certainly if you have an old clunker,those astronomical gas bills are enough to make you think twice. It seems as if wages and salaries have gone up, but can we actually buy or do more now than we did a few years ago? What is this phenomenon of "getting ahead?" Perhaps this dream, too, is a thing of the past. It is not the price of automobiles and energy alone that have increased, but the price of almost every other commodity and service has o~ttstripped pay increases. More and more people find themselves in the squeeze from paycheck to paycheck. Some have learned to manage more effectively; some find credit a handy extender that helps through lean times; some find that prior use of credit has overburdened them as inflation has narrowed their discretionary income; and some have deliberately abused their credit privileges. Many desperate individuals seek bankruptcy as their last resort. |
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