Financial Advice on Getting Out of Debt

Living in a state of chronic debt can cause severe stress and have a detrimental effect on family relationships and physical health. If the debt is the result of unsustainable spending patterns, you won't solve the problem until you change the spending patterns and learn to spend less than you earn.

Write Down Everything

The first step in understanding your debt issues is to have all the information. The best way to do this is to write down every penny that you spend and what you spent it on. After a few months, this simple act, which takes some discipline but isn't difficult to do, will provide you with a insight into your spending habits, and may surprise you. You might discover that you've been spending far more than you thought on small items that don't cost much and that you forget about as soon as you buy them. Over time, these things can add up to a substantial amount of money. Eliminate them, and that's money in your pocket.

Visualize Being Debt-Free

The discipline that is required to go from being in debt to being debt-free requires some motivation. To gain this motivation, spend some time seriously imagining and visualizing what it will feel like to not owe a penny to anyone. For someone who has been in debt for years, this can be a difficult thing to imagine. If you can bring up the sense of joy and liberation that you will feel in an intense way, it can help you to resist the urge to spend all your money and more today, in favor of financial solvency in the future.

Start a Garden

Starting a garden can assist you in your flight from debt in several ways. First, it will provide you with a lot of fresh produce that you can use to feed yourself and your family, rather than buying it at the grocery store. This alone probably isn't sufficient reason to do it, given the amount of work involved. More importantly, gardening can start to change your attitude about how you gain fulfillment. Rather than shopping and consuming during your spare time, you can work the earth and create healthy food. Get some friends involved and make it into a social time. By emotionally divorcing yourself from money-centered activities, you can begin to gain more control over your relationship to money.

Socialize at Home

Many people who are in debt find it difficult to stop spending a lot of money on bars, drinks, restaurants and travels. This is how many people associate with their friends, and they understandably don't want to give up on their friends. You can keep your friends and your money by socializing at home with potlucks, game nights, and shared projects such as your vegetable gardens. If you can separate your social life from the act of spending money, you will find that money freed up to go toward paying off your debts.