Imagine this scenario. You know your co-workers can hear every word of your phone conversation, so in a whisper, you agree to pay the entire past due amount on your credit card. You promise anything just to get off the phone even though you know you can't possibly pay it. Soon after, the bank threatens to repossess your car and you have no idea how you'll get to work once it's gone. But most upsetting to you is the house payment that's almost 30 days past due. Even on pay day, there won't be enough to make up two months of house payments and you don't know how long until the mortgage company will foreclose. You can't concentrate on your work for the rest of the day because all you can think about are your bills.

A financial situation can turn very quickly from good to bad. What starts with a few late payments can snowball into a desperate state of repossession and foreclosure. Because a drastic change may only take a few months, it's important to know some of the warning signs that you're teetering on the brink of financial trouble.

Here are eight signs you are on unstable ground:

1. You pay only the minimum payment due on credit cards.
2. You are near your credit limit.
3. You have taken out a cash advance from one credit card to make a payment on another card.
4. Creditors call you about payments.
5. You have no idea the total of your debt.
6. You have had more than one check returned recently for insufficient funds.
7. You don't want to open your mail because you feel overwhelmed.
8. Your debts make your home life unhappy.

Tom Fragala is the Founder and CEO of Truston which provides online identity theft protection.

The seed for the idea behind Truston was planted in 2002, when Tom experienced identity theft first hand. Thieves broke into his previous company's offices and stole a number of laptops, bags and identities, including his own. What inspired Tom most, however, was his work after this as a volunteer helping victims of ID theft. He became frustrated by vast size of the problem and lack of tools available to help people. The alternatives were either ineffective, expensive or required handing over sensitive information-a further ID theft risk. So, Tom decided to build something better. The result is myTruston.

Since 2004, Tom has been a volunteer victim counselor with the ID Theft Resource Center, a non-profit group. He also served as a volunteer for the Santa Barbara DA, helping victims of fraud. Tom started the first identity theft blog, ScamSafe.com, in February 2004. He has donated over 1,000 hours of pro bono victim aid since 2004.