My eldest daughter's boyfriend asked me for a chat this week. He said that he couldn’t really talk to his mum or dad and all his mates his own age didn’t really understand what he was going through.

He said that he had got himself horribly in debt and owned an awful lot of money to a lot of people. He was really worried about it and after a little coaching he told me that he owed money for a guitar he purchased, he was behind in his rent, he owed a very large mobile phone bill. In addition, he had student loans coming out of his ears, not a penny in his pocket and was considerably behind on money he owed his friends.

He asked me for some debt management help. He wasn’t asking for a handout, but some decent advice to get himself out of debt.

As I had been in the same boat a number of years earlier, I gave him lots of ideas how to get himself out of debt and, more importantly to, stay out of debt. I'll keep you posted on how my debt counselling efforts have turned out!