Hi, it's Paddy here from Marketplace. So if you find yourself in a hole of debt like this poor fellow here, there are a couple of things you need to do. Firstly, reduce your expenses.
Secondly, increase your income either by selling some stuff or maybe by getting another job. But if you've cut your expenses to the bone, if you're working Work on all the R's that God sends, then maybe what you need to do is go to the bank and ask for a restructuring. So here's how a restructuring works.
Imagine a large family living in a big house in the country. This house is so big it's got two wings on it, alright? Now, mum and dad say to themselves one day, look, we can't afford to rent this house.
to be running this house like this. All right, there's the expense of the electricity, there's the heating, there's all the maintenance. We just can't handle it. So what they decide to do is restructure by closing the two wings and moving everybody who lives in there into the main building. That's a bit of a squeeze in there now, but at least they can afford to run the house.
The same thing goes with your debt. If you go to the bank and you say, look, I'm having problems running my finances, they may say, well, look, maybe we can restructure your debt by consolidating some of the loans. Maybe we'll reduce some of the interest on these loans.
Maybe we'll... will give you more time to pay by pushing out the maturity. They may even reduce some of your principal.
And this isn't pie in the sky. Consumers do this all the time, and so do corporations. So if you're having trouble with your money, go to the bank, behave like a company, and say, look, could you help me with the restructuring?
Because it's in the bank's interest to listen to you and to help you, right? Because if you fail to make those payments, if you go into default, if you fail to pay the loan back, well, it's going to leave you and maybe the bank very badly needing a drink.