You can't do without your sleep

Trudy is 28, single, and working in an office. She's earning a good salary, and she loves beautiful things. Over the past couple of years she has built up quite a bit of debt, and she's got absolutely no savings. Her credit card balance is $3,000 and she owes $1,200 on HP.

It's high interest debt so she's been making a concerted effort to pay it off. But with no savings Trudy is concerned about not having anything put aside for emergencies (like her car breaking down!). In fact she is worrying so much about her money situation that she isn't sleeping at night.

Trudy visits Sorted and realises that her biggest concern should be improving her net worth - the difference between what she owns and what she owes. So she decides to take a long-term view and stay focused on getting rid of her debt.

She sets a goal to pay off her credit card and HP balance in six months. After that, she will start saving for the emergency fund.