Overwhelmed

That's how I have felt about money almost from the beginning--overwhelmed. I got into trouble with my first credit card, from a department store, that my parents gave me when I turned sixteen. It had a $50 limit and I immediately maxed it out. Of course, my parents didn't bail me out--I was expected to learn how to manage money on my own. What I learned was that money burns a hole in my pocket--get rid of it as soon as possible. And being in debt guarantees that it's gone before it even reaches my pocket.

Fast forward forty years: I've lost a house, a car, a career, and gone through bankruptcy twice--although the second one had to be dismissed because I couldn't keep up the payments. I'm up to my eyeballs in defaulted student loans, IRS bills, and I don't even want to know what else. I'm on welfare waiting out a disability claim. There just doesn't seem to be any way out at this point.

Yeah, I'm overwhelmed.