Aideen Finnegan

You have come to the right place if debt, big or small, is keeping you awake at night.

By the end of this episode, we hope you'll see a chink of light, know that there is a way out of that tunnel and have some tips on how to take the first steps.

I'm Aideen Finnegan and this is Better With Money from the Irish Times.

I'm joined today by Gwen Harris from the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, also known as MABS.

Hi, Gwen.

Hi, how are you?

You're the regional manager for North Dublin, is it?

North Dublin, yes.

Before we begin, I think it's important, I suppose, that I sound a bit like a radio ad here when I say that while this episode hopes to offer some guidance, it is just for information purposes and doesn't constitute financial advice.

You need to talk to someone who can assess your own circumstances.

Isn't that it?

It is, yeah.

And probably best to put in a bit more research than I just heard it on a podcast.

Excellent.

That's a really nice way of putting it.

I like being compared to a doctor.

Gwen, I have a ton of questions for you.

And I really want to get into the nitty gritty of how someone goes about clearing debt, because I've heard of a few different methods, the snowball method and all these catchy buzzwords.

But first, we should start with an explanation of what MABS is.

Like, what does it do?