For the last few days newspapers and TV reports have been declaring this week to be the most depressing week of the year, with today in particular being the one most likely to discourage you from crawling out of your warm bed in the early hours of the morn. The notable absence of shiny happy people (holding hands or otherwise) is being blamed on those institutions that prey upon the naive and vulnerable; the shylocks, the vile lenders of money. While the major finance houses are not entirely innocent of the "crimes" they are accused of, it must be pointed out that they are only supplying a product to meet a demand. In short, if people didn't want the money the finance houses wouldn't offer it. The real perpertrator of the crime is the very same media which is pointing their accusing fingers towards the defenceless shylocks. It's the media which plant the seeds of desire in peoples minds; they show us sports stars and talentless "C" list celebs wearing the latest fashions, using the latest gadgets and holidaying on the sun-kissed beaches of a far-away private island. They should take more responsibility for the irresponsible manner in which they encourage the general public to buy more and more socially desirable "life enhancing" products. The general public can be forgiven for being confused by these money pimps; they tell us what to buy then chastise us for borrowing what we can't afford. Even the advert breaks between programmes offer to sell us solutions to our newly made money problems by throwing yet more money towards us -- for a price, of course. And to whom are these advertisements carefully targetted towards you ask? Not suprisingly its those same naive and vulnerable people that the media claim are being taken advantage of by the finance industry in the first place. To those poor souls who have been ass-fettled by the big corporations the only advice I can give is this; In the case of credit cards, phone your creditors, tell them you are having difficulties making payments and try to work out a hardship plan with them -- in most cases they will be able to offer some help, often by removing the interest charges if you keep up with an agreed minimum payment scheme. Make an appointment with your local Citizens Advice Bureau, the volunteers who work for the organisation are there to help. Be wary of the "all in one place" loans which are currently quite popular and generally targetted to those naive and vulnerable. Take a look at the small print at the bottom of the advertisements. That quick 20,000 loan may end up costing you over 52,000, thats over 200% of your original debt. If you're interested in working out how much of your actual debt you're paying off with each payment take a look at this generic loan calculator. Above all, don't do what the money pimps want you to do. Your survival on this planet is not dependant upon you owning the latest Nokia, iPod or Nike -- however, products from DEViNE Studios may just save your life (Damn, I'm whoring myself out again ! :-)