This article will attempt to give you some guidelines to help you get started no matter what your situation. The steps are fairly simple. Access Situation, Damage Control, Find a Way and Get on Track are just 4 steps that you will need to take quickly.

Access Situation

Sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and find out where you are now. No I'm not talking about a budget yet. Many people never take time to get a picture of what they have coming in compared to what they have going out. On left side of paper put down any income you have. Only consider take home money because this is all that matters to you right now. On right side of paper write down all of bills that you have coming out this month. At bottom of paper, put down any bills that are past due with dollar amount needed to bring them up to date. Now total everything. Then subtract your bills from your income. If there is anything left over after bills, deduct what it will cost you for food and other necessities for month.

Damage Control

If you are behind on your bills or just don't have enough money left after bills to buy what you need, something has to be done. This is where you have to set priorities. The first step is to eliminate anything you don't absolutely need. Some good examples of this are things like call waiting and other extras on your phone bill, selling that second car unless it is needed to earn income or stop eating out.

Here is a priority list of how you need to spend your money if you are behind:

1. Groceries and necessary health items 2. Mortgage or rent 3. Utilities 4. Other bills such as installment loans or credit cards

Notice that above list adressess your basic needs, food, water and shelter, first.

I've decided to start this series of articles with information about amount and type of taxes you pay. I won't be able to cover all of types of taxes that are paid by Americans because that would turn this article into a book. I'm just going to list a few of most common taxes that most of us have to pay.

How much do you pay in taxes every year? I can bet many of you don't have any idea. You may think you can just look at your tax forms for last year and have answer. I guarantee that would be just beginning.

Just take a look at below list of various taxes and do math yourself:

Federal Income Taxes - Uncle Sam is currently taking between 15% and 39% of our Adjusted Gross Income to pay for what ever it is that they spend money on in Washington. The main point I want to make here is that many people feel that because they received a refund, they didn't pay any taxes. For some people, this is true. However, vast majority of people that receive a refund are just getting back money they already paid in through withholding, minus taxes they owed. HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY LAST YEAR?

Income Tax Preparation - Yes, I consider cost of having our taxes prepared by a professional as a tax. If federal tax code was published in english, maybe more of us could prepare our own taxes.

Social Security - 15.3% of your income goes directly to federal government for social security and medicare and is conveniently deducted from your paycheck. The myth about your employer paying half is just that. If you weren't required to pay social security, that is another 7.65% that your employer could pay you.

Sales Taxes - Unless you live in a state that doesn't have a state sales tax, this costs you around 6% to 7% of every penny you spend. Wouldn't it be nice to buy something for $99.95, hand clerk a $100 bill and get a nickle back.