The very word “debt” is enough to bring fear to a great number of people, suggesting as it does a range of worries from being unable to make mortgage payments, keep a car on the road, take holidays and even, for some people, to eat three good meals daily.

There are of course several different kinds of debt, and it is not necessarily a given that debt will always lead to financial meltdown. The key thing to remember is that debt should always be manageable.

There are many of us who have a certain amount of debt, but make sure that it is covered. Taking out debt to pay for something you want and assuming that “something will come along” to pay for it is not a plan that will work.

Managed debt can be a life saver, and people who know how to manage their debt give themselves a lot more options than those who do not.

There are ways and means of making sure that your financial position is protected, but being able to count on those ways and means demands that you will be ready to pay close attention to your incomings and outgoings at all times.

If you are assured of money being available to make payments on a credit arrangement – for the duration of that arrangement and not just for the foreseeable future – then you are not doing yourself any harm by borrowing. It is just a way of spreading the cost.

But for too many people, the issue of debt is that it is unmanageable, or manageable up to a point. But what if you lose your job or your hours are cut back? What is you or a family member falls ill? Then it stops being manageable, and you need an alternative.