A Licensed Insolvency Trustee in Kamloops and a partner with MNP says the number of British Columbians within close to financial insolvency every month is growing.

The latest wave of the MNP Debt Index shows the overall attitudes of people in BC towards their personal financial situation have declined significantly since March. The number of people in the province who say they are $200 or less away from financial insolvency at month-end jumped five points to 44%, the largest increase compared to the other provinces.

Dean Prentice says the surprising thing is many people don’t understand how close they are to having a financial difficulty until some event happens. “People feel that they’re going to be able to manage through, but they’re actually not really planning on some sort of unexpected event or something causing their income to decrease.”

Prentice says you can’t find a way to put 500 dollars aside for an emergency fund, that’s a warning sign that you could have a financial difficulty. “Did they find they can’t afford to put that money aside for an emergency fund, that’s actually a warning sign that they could have a financial difficulty.”

Prentice says it is surprising how many people are unaware of how close they are to having serious money problems. “I think if people can realize the situation they’re in and talk to a professional early, there’s many things that we can help people out with that they won’t need to file a bankruptcy or proposal, because we can actually guide them to do some budgeting or debt reduction techniques.”

Prentice suggests meeting with a solvency professional if you have any concerns and adds that it is easy to find a debt calculator online if you want to take a closer look at your financial situation.