Texas Tops List for Financial Distress, New Report Finds

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Texas is at the top of a list that you do not want to be on.

My Personal Money Journey

I would imagine that most of us have experienced financial distress at some point in our lives. For many people, learning how to manage their money is a process with a lot of growing pains along the way. That’s how it was for me, anyway.

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When I was younger, I would get my paycheck and go have fun with it first and then look at what bills were due. Yeah, I had it backward for several years. However, I finally got my act together when our first child was born.

Budgeting Is a Lifeline, Not a Luxury

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be bumps in the road on a person’s financial journey. Even if you keep a budget like I do, you can count on unexpected expenses hitting you in your wallet at the worst possible moment. 

But the best advice I was ever given was to never ignore creditors. My experience is that if you’re having trouble making payments on time or in full, talk to them. Most will work with you if you at least make an attempt to pay off your debt.

The Realities of Debt in Texas

Apparently, that’s a big problem in Texas. The financial website WalletHub looked at data from all 50 states and found Texas to be the state with the highest percentage of people in financial distress, which it defines as “having a credit account that is in forbearance or has its payments deferred, meaning the account holder is temporarily allowed to not make payments due to financial difficulty.”

Hope for Texans in Financial Trouble

If that’s where you’re at, just know that you can get out of it. The first step is to start with a simple budget and stick with it.