Here are some common financial “red flags” to look for in your busy life:

Your bank account is consistently overdrawn – If you keep getting those thin envelopes in the mail from your bank telling you that your checking account is overdrawn, it’s time to regroup and find out why you’re not keeping up. Tip: Ask your bank for overdraw protection against your checking account. For a few bucks each month, most banks will be happy to comply.

You are only able to make the minimum monthly payments on your credit cards -- A biggie.  If you can’t maintain a clean credit card bill each month then you’re staring at big trouble down the road. At 15 percent or so interest, card companies clean up when you only pay the bare minimum of your monthly bill. At those rates, that new jacket you bought for $80 three months ago can cost you $350 in a few months if you don’t pay your credit card bill in full. Tip: If you have multiple credit cards, cut all of them up save one. And only use that for emergencies.

You and your partner – if you have one -- are arguing about money – Money is an emotional issue; a power struggle sometimes between couples who usually have different ideas how cash should be handled. If you and your spouse or partners are haggling over bills more than usual, it’s probably because your bills are higher than usual. Tip: Agree on a budget and a spending allowance, if necessary. Then stick to it.

Your savings account is busted – Money experts agree that a savings reserve of six-months worth of your annual salary is mandatory to ride out rough economic times, like the loss of a job or a serious illness. If you don’t have any money at all in your savings account, it’s time to re-examine your budget and see where your money is going every month. Tip: When you get paid pay yourself first – meaning take 10 percent of your check out and stashing it in a savings or money market account.

You are juggling your monthly bill payments – If you’re applying selective reasoning to your monthly bill payments (“Hmmm – we’ll pay the phone bill this month, but not the dog walker”) then you’re in over your head financially. Tip: Lose the dog walker and any other luxury item on your “to pay” list. In tough times stick to the staples: home, heat, groceries, and electricity. You might not think about it, but 20 years ago, nobody had an Internet bill or a cell phone bill. But you probably do now.

If the first step in getting out of financial trouble is knowing that you’re in financial trouble, then the next step is to take action to get out of that trouble.

First item on the menu is to budget your expenses. We’ll talk about that extensively in this blog. Create a spending plan that allows you to reduce your debts. Itemize your necessary expenses (such as housing and health care) and optional expenses (such as entertainment and vacation travel). Again, make sure you stick to the plan.

Then try and cut out any unnecessary spending such as dining out too much and haunting Circuit City, E-Bay or Home Depot. Don’t be above clipping coupons or purchasing generic products at the supermarket. If you feel you can’t resist using your credit card switch to a bank debit card where money is immediately draw from your checking account to pay for a purchase.

If you have revolving credit card debt try using money from your savings account (normally they’re low-paying interest accounts) and use the cash to pay off your high-interest rate credit card bill.

Above all else, formulate a financial plan for the short and long term that includes a monthly budget and a savings account deposit goal of six months of your annual salary. Build a plan that will allow you to meet your basic life needs and one that will allow you to sleep at night. If you do create and maintain such a plan, you’ll be sleeping like a baby before you know it – and not a red flag in sight.

I believe the reason for people to get into serious debt situations is a lack of a real-world financial education. How to budget. How to live on a limited income. How to avoid credit troubles. Those kinds of things.

One solution to the problem – an easy one in my book – is to tally up your income and your outflows and see where you are, debt-wise. Another is to recognize how much debt is too much debt.

There are some other big, hard-to-miss red flags that tell you you’ve accumulated too much debt. Here are a few signs that you just might have too much debt:

If you haven’t got more than $10 in your savings account, and haven’t made a deposit to savings in months, you just might have too much debt.

If you’re in the habit of post-dating checks, you just might have too much debt.

If you habitually pay bills late, you just might have too much debt.

If you had to sell valuables, like a car, an old baseball card collection, or a family heirloom piece of jewelry, you just might have too much debt.

If you habitually pay the minimum on your credit card statement, you just might have too much debt.

If you’ve ever taken a cash advance on a credit card to pay off another bill, you just might have too much debt.

If you’re forever borrowing money off of family and friends, you just might have too much debt.

If it’s early in the calendar years and you already have a cash “crisis” you just might have too much debt.

If you’re surprised by the amount of money you owe on your credit card, or the low amount of money you have in your bank account, you just might have too much debt.

If you live from paycheck to paycheck, you just might have too much debt.

To figure out if you have too much debt, use one of the many online loan repayment and income estimation calculators available on the Web. They’ll help you calculate how much debt you have, how much you can afford to pay, and help you develop a budget or action plan to get out of debt.