""Identify the problem, then stop it getting worse," says McGee. "Get rid of your ability to borrow - whether that's credit cards, if it's an overdraft you need to treat it like a loan. If you owe €500 in an overdraft, you need to say, 'Right, for the next 10 months, I'm going to put €50 a month off that and I'm going to create a new zero'.""
""For a lot of people, an overdraft is an interesting one because they go to minus 500, they get paid, they get through the month, they go back to minus 500. That's your zero. You need to make your zero plus 500 over time, so that when you get to the end of the month you still have €500 or €1,000 in your account, or whatever it is.""
""As for the argument that if you can't afford to buy it twice, you simply can't afford to buy it at all? 'For certain things, I totally agree with it,' says McGee. 'There's another way of looking at that, and it comes back to an emotional attachment to savings; if you have to use more than half of your savings for it, you shouldn't be buying it.'""
Identify the problem, then stop it getting worse. Remove the ability to borrow by cancelling credit cards or treating overdrafts as structured loans. Convert an overdraft deficit into a repayment plan—for example, paying €50 monthly on a €500 overdraft over ten months to create a new zero balance. Avoid allowing overdrafts to function as a recurring monthly zero; instead aim to turn that zero into a positive buffer so end-of-month balances are €500–€1,000. Use savings cautiously and avoid purchases that require more than half of savings. Prioritise stopping borrowing, steady repayment, and rebuilding cash reserves to reduce financial stress.
Read at Irish Independent
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