For many, the signs of an approaching Christmas are initially met with a sense of dread. What presents will we buy, have we got to buy Christmas presents for this person this year even though we never see them and so on. Somewhere in there is an underlying worry - money. Many tend to dread Christmas because the worry is that all those Christmas gifts cost money.

So there we have it - Christmas has successfully moved from a time of happiness, joy and abundance to a time of dread. We probably feel the only real gift we'll get this Christmas is debt and money worries. It's enough to give you an ulcer!

For many this is not a thought built on shaky foundations. It's true that, people spend massive amounts of cash at this time of year for a whole host of reasons. Most of it is funded by credit. It's either paid for by credit card or people take out loans the following month to cover the shortfall.

The reason for this is that many think about money and especially debt in the same way that they always have. Their thinking is that money can only be gathered from their existing resources, usually savings or credit. There are problems with this. So many of us live our daily lives to the edge of our existing means that times like Christmas push us beyond that point so we use more credit.

The problem we've seen this year is that worldwide there is a credit pinch if you like as people have reached the edge of their ability to service credit payments. The signs are already there that banks may not be so eager to loan out cash as they have been in the past. One thing will be for certain though. Even without the cash, the stores will still be pushing you hard to spend similar amounts to previous years - if not more!

If this way is no longer going to be available, it's going to be vital to find a new way to fund the Christmas period. How? Well for starters its time to look at money in a whole different light and change our attitude towards getting out of debt. Until we can grasp this first principle, times of increased spending are going to have the same effect. We have in effect got to turn our whole attitude on its head so we can see it from a different angle.

We have to look at the issue of money the way the wealthy tend to see it. For many people they see expense with a negative mindset that makes them wonder how are they ever going to afford something or get out debt. The wealthy don't see it in the same way. They tend to ask themselves what they can do to obtain the money. It's a subtle difference in the words they use but the effect within the mind is very different. As a result, the wealthy tend to be much more effective in resolving problems like this.

If the average person can change their thinking about money to this more positive way, the opportunities that open themselves up can make for a potentially much brighter picture. Done quickly it could be a much brighter picture in time for this Christmas. The good news is it's not beyond the average person to make this change. In part two we're going to explore this a little further and show that the wealthy see money everywhere and why you don't need to be already wealthy to get more - you just need to get your head straight.