Remember high school? You worked for a few hours a week and rarely saw more than a couple of hundred dollars at a time. It didn’t matter because you did what you wanted most the time anyway.

Money was a only problem for your parents.

At the age of 15 or 16, you fantasize about the freedom of moving out…. doing what you want, when you want, without parental nagging.

Years later, you get your first job and bigger chunks of money. It seems like heaps…. more than you have ever had before. You’re inclined to go nuts and think you’re rich when you’re not.

You move out, start dating, paying rent and discover the cost of keeping your car on the road.

You're filling out forms, tax returns, car insurance, bills.

What ever happened to the freedom that you dreamt of years ago?

Throw in to the mix a holiday to Bali that you couldn’t afford but slapped on your credit card ... and suddenly that feeling of being ‘rich’, is replaced with scarcity and loss of control.

It happens to the best of us.

I resisted facing up to the reality of life more than most.

I had a credit card company hounding me and my Mum was still doing my tax return when I was 25…pretty embarrassing hey.

Finally I knuckled down, worked harder, sacrificed a few things and before I knew it, things started to turn around.

It meant diarising when payments were due, filling in forms and keeping a closer eye on living within my pay range… all things I’d been told before.

It only took a few months to turn it around. It wasn’t like I had to live like a monk either.

Luckily, most people identify when it’s time to get the hang of the real world. It’s not an easy task and I’ve seen good mates fall victim to innocent financial mismanagement…

Skip ahead a few more years ...

You’re on double the pay, but now you have two cars, a spouse, kids and an interest rate rise for your mortgage, meaning an extra $120 a month on top of the $3000 you already pay.

Sobering stuff isn’t it? But it is real. And it’s vital that you find your way through it.

You need to reach a point, regardless of how old you are, where you start to have increasing spare cash around so that you can start to explore wealth creation options.

But first you need to get out of debt and back on terms…. take responsibility, understand credit and get on with life.

It’s about achieving a balance and gaining control … enjoying yourself, your partner, and your friends and using your talents in a satisfying, rewarding way.