Influx of Calgarians seeking money management help

A lot of Calgarians are finding themselves in a pinch as a struggling economy leads to job cuts.

There’s been a 32 per cent increase in delinquency rates in the city and a 48 per cent boost in employment insurance numbers in the province, over this time last year.

Angela Locke, Licensed Insolvency Trustee with Grant Thornton, has seen a major influx of people seeking help with money management.

“Experiencing a reduction in incomes, salary decreases, no more bonuses,” she said.

Many come in with debt they expected they could pay off with future income they’ll no longer be getting. “Even in times when our economy is booming, we see that lots, so, often people are carrying that debtload for long periods of time. They’ve been keeping up with those minimum payments,” she said.

It’s the same situation at the Money Mentors office.

Counselor Brian Betz says obviously many people have lost jobs in oil and gas.

“We’re seeing a lot of people that are looking at, I’ll call it, re-inventing themselves, either going back to school and re-training for new careers and moving out of the province,” he said. “I just talked to one fellow (Wednesday) – they’re moving back to Ontario, they don’t think oil and gas will be coming back in the near future.”

Others are making smaller sacrifices to get by.

“When people come in, one of the first things that we do with them is to work out their spending plan, their budget for instance, and help them understand where their money actually goes, and for many people that’s a real shock.” Betz said. “Once you know where it goes, then you can make some adjustments to your budget, to allow for more money on the debt re-payment side.”

Locke says we need to change our mindset before worse comes to worst.

“You need to set money aside for the what ifs, and you can’t rely on having that bonus to pay for your vacation, or pay for your major car repairs,” she said.

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