A single mother with an eight-year-old son, Sandra* says her problems started about 10 years ago. She admits that she was proud then and naive, and wanted to show off, especially to her family, that she made a good living.
 
She spent her money on almost anything, clothing, shoes, good and expensive food and lived like she was earning a good income. Of course, part of this was caused by her unhappy marriage. In 2005, with her marriage breaking down, Sandra resigned from her job as a personal assistant to a managing director of a public listed company to engage full time in multi-level marketing, thinking that she would fulfill her dream of achieving great wealth. But she was still spending like there was no tomorrow. She kept on spending without any control until she started receiving legal letters from the banks that had offered her credit cards. At that time, she was holding credit cards from five different banks with a credit limit of over RM70, 000 – and she was 70k in debt.
 
Finding herself trapped in a financial crisis, Sandra tried to take the easy way out. She did not want to face the problem and tried to run away from all the issues. In fact, she tried to kill herself once, and ended up in hospital.
 
Sandra didn’t know about AKPK (Agensi Kaunseling dan Pengurusan Kredit, or Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency), until her younger sister told her to check us out, but at that time she had almost given up her life.
 
With our help, Suzie has been paying her monthly repayments promptly for almost two years now. She has learnt to budget her spending, and even begun to save some money.
 
She admits that she has struggled to build back her confidence and just keep going. Suzie’s advice for those who find themselves sinking under the weight of their debts; Face up to the problem and seek help from AKPK instead of going to loan sharks.
 
Nowadays, Sandra only spends what she can afford and she does not buy unnecessary things any more. Currently, she is in the sales and marketing line and therefore tries to save her commissions for rainy days. Though it’s not a lot, at least she has some savings, and she also invests part of her Employees Provident Fund in unit trusts.
 
Her advice to others; try to balance your life: exercise every day, eat right, and get yourself into a job that takes up most of your time so you do not have any chance to hang out and spend money needlessly.
 
She also believes that if you’re happy, it’s easier to control your spending, so try not to feel unhappy.

**Note: For purposes of confidentiality, the real identity of the people involved in these success stories are not disclosed.