How to get rid of debt
By Lucy Duchesne

The first thing you need to do to get rid of debt is to acknowledge that debt is not good for you. When you have debt you are a slave to the lender. You need to realize that paying part of your income as interest for something that you bought long time ago is not a wise investment on your part. Luckily, you don't have to stay there. There is hope for you. It requires a little sacrifice on your part but it is doable.

Secondly you need to get on a budget. You can learn how to create a budget with my article "A guide on how-to create a budget". Creating a budget is very important because it will help you to stop spending more than what you are bringing in. It will also help you to stop getting more into debt.

Thirdly you need to list all your debt. You need to know exactly how much you owe, to whom you owe it to and how much interest you are paying. List your debt from least to most. You also need to list it from the most interest to the least interest.

Start paying the smallest debt first. It is important to do this so that you get some success early on. You will come to see this proccess as a positive one.

One of the biggest things you need to keep in mind is that once you pay off a loan you need to keep the same amount of money and start paying the second targeted loan. Do this in addition to the amount you are already paying on this second loan. This process will create a snowball effect therefore helping you pay off your debt faster.

After you pay your smallest debt you also need to start paying the loan that has the largest interest so that money gets freed up therefore paying your debts even sooner.

You also need to close all your credit card accounts and your lines of credit. You don't need them. If you feel that you need a credit card for emergencies put aside an emergency fund. It is important that you learn to only use this emergency fund for emergercies. An emergency is being in a crisis where there is danger close by. Most people don't understand what an emergency is. Making yourself feel good by buying something is not an emergency.

If you really need to keep a credit card you have to make sure that you learn to keep the balance at zero. It is very important to learn this principle. You don't want to give your money away to a credit card company. You have better things to do with your money.