Many people in debt feel like there is nowhere to turn. However, help is at hand - and that help can often come in the form of debt advice.

This is available from many organisations, and is often offered for free. One example of debt advice is budgeting tips.

Budgeting

Budgeting simply means understanding and controlling your finances. It involves keeping track of your monthly income (everything your household receives/earns - salary, benefits, etc.) and your expenditure (everything your household spends/pays out - mortgage/rent payments, utility bills, essential living costs, etc.).

When you’re working out your ‘expenditure’, don’t include your payments to ‘non-priority’ debts - your unsecured debts, such as credit cards, store cards and unsecured loans. These debts are important, but staying on top of your priority debts, like your mortgage payments, is absolutely essential, as the consequences of not doing so can be so much more severe.

In order to work out a budget, you must first calculate your total income and your total expenditure (all your ‘priority’ debts, essential bills and living costs). After this, by subtracting your total expenditure from your total income, you will be left with your ‘disposable income’.

Your disposable income is the amount of money available on a monthly basis to put towards servicing (making the necessary payments to) your unsecured debts. If there is any money left after doing this, your disposable income can also be used for saving and purchasing ‘non-essential’/luxury items - or for ‘overpaying’ your debts, which will help you clear them more quickly and can save you a lot of money in interest payments.

Budgeting while in debt can help you make sure you have enough money set aside each month to cover all your financial commitments, including your unsecured debt repayments. If you find that your disposable income isn’t enough to cover those repayments, you should take immediate action - you could start by speaking to a professional debt adviser.

The ‘zero-sum’ mentality is the confrontationist’s attitude to a situation that might improve. People with ‘zero-sum’ mentality work behind the scenes, and look at improving relations between countries as a win or a defeat, thereby thriving in an unstable political situation. There are such people both in the US, and in Moscow. However, great things are in store at the Obama-Medvedev summit. President Obama is looking at establishing a multi-faceted relationship with Russia and while he is in talks with President Medvedev, there will be a business summit and a civil society summit taking place at the same time.

The talks will include reviews of the situation in Iran, the Mideast and North Korea. What is of interest is that there might also be discussions on climate change and energy efficiency. Typical to his style, Obama is not going to talk about various human rights issues that both countries face. The two countries are also going to announce the formation of a joint intergovernmental convention. President Obama is to meet with opposition politicians and will also give an interview to the Novaya Gazeta, which is an opposition newspaper. Murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya had worked for this paper. All-in-all, it does promise to be a summit with a difference.