Money Management There are times when individuals feel that all of their money goes to paying off debts. We have credit card payments, car payments, and mortgage payments. Having too many debts can sometimes be overwhelming. While some bills are unavoidable, such as mortgage payments, most bills can be avoided by utilizing better money management skills. Poor money management is the third leading cause of debt (Bucci, 2005). Developing a monthly spending plan is one of the most important steps a person can take when managing his or her money. A monthly spending plan can be useful to track what our expenses are on a monthly basis. In order to track our expenses, we need to write down everything that needs to be paid making sure that we do not forget anything. We then need to evaluate the importance of each expense to see if it is a necessary expense or one we can eliminate. One way to do this is to list those expenses in the order of their importance. One example would be the mortgage on your home. This should be the most important expense on your list. When making your list you need to make sure to write down how much money is needed for each of the expenses. Your monthly expenses should not exceed your monthly income. An example; if your mortgage payment is more than half of your monthly salary, you would not want the remaining expenses to equal more than the remaining 50% of your salary. People whose expenses are greater than their income can become extremely stressed due to not being able to make ends meet. These same people can also experience anxiety and a sense of hopelessness due to their inability to pay those bills (Scott, 2008). This is an example of how poor money management can affect people’s lives. Poor money management is also a major cause for people to be constantly late when paying their bills. People who constantly pay their bills late could