In February, Tom Hufford will no longer spend his time with how other people spend their money.

Hufford, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northeast Indiana president since 1974, is retiring. Nearly 35 years on the job has given him insight into human nature and what makes clients spend beyond their means, but Hufford said he can never tell if he'll be able to instill financial discipline in them.

“Some people have a natural instinct for controlling their spending and others don't have those psychological breaks,” Hufford said.

“I see people in here every day that make a commitment to solve the problem that they're in, so I'm not as interested in what happened to them to get them here; I'm more interested in what they're going to do about it.”

Many clients got into debt due to a job loss, illness or divorce, Hufford said. Some simply overspend. For others, it's a combination of bad choices and bad luck.

Hufford, a 70-year-old husband and father of two grown children, got into the field after 12 years as an economics teacher at New Haven High School. “I was ready for a change,” he recalled.

Hufford said he's empathetic with clients recognizing that corporations spend billions on sophisticated advertising to get people to buy even if it's beyond their means, while others engage in predatory lending. Easy credit - Hufford calls it the “democratization of credit” - makes it easier to overspend.

“It used to be that when you wanted to get a loan, you met somebody in person and they looked at you and scrutinized your situation and it was kind of onerous,” Hufford said. “It's tragic to see people get in over their means, whatever their reason.”

While corporations share much of the blame for consumer debt, Hufford said many people get in trouble because they disregard basic financial principles: control spending and build up savings.

“You have to distinguish between wants and needs,” he said. “People are making needs out of what used to be wants.”

Hufford's commitment to clients - he said the service had about 8,000 last year - was recognized by the 2,750-member National Foundation for Credit Counseling on Sept. 9. Hufford won the annual Making the Difference Member Award.

Hufford was one of four candidates from the foundation's 109 agencies nationally. Criteria for the award included character, leadership and vision.

“Our winner has demonstrated true leadership skills on a day to day basis,” Bob Ensinger, foundation vice president, wrote in announcing that Hufford had won the award. “You can find our winner speaking in front of the agency's board of directors, counseling a distraught client about finances, or even answering the telephones if needed.”

Consumer Credit Counseling Service is a nonprofit group funded by creditors hoping to get at least some of their money back from people in debt. Hufford said last year it returned about $4 million to creditors.

The free service provides counseling on budgeting, bankruptcy, debt management and housing.

Tougher bankruptcy laws that favor corporations over consumers, predatory lending and the bursting of the housing bubble have all made it more difficult to get out of debt in recent years. Hufford said many clients are insolvent, and the economic slide is making credit dry up for everyone.

“People who have never missed a payment are going to be told your limits are being cut back,” Hufford said. “It's happening right now.”

Despite the misery he regularly encounters, Hufford stays upbeat. He said he learned a long time ago that clients who fail to get out of debt sometimes turn into financial success stories.

“You just don't know how long it's going to take,” Hufford said. “I guess I'm an idealist.”