Borrowing happens.  If you are truly debt free, then either you have just been born or you are one the very few that is not under the spell of being in debt.  In fact, it is beginning to feel like everyone owes everyone so where is all this money really going?

There are many good systems and ways to get out of debt.  You can google these and come up with many good ideas to being your journey to freedom.  Unfortunately, it is easier said than done when it comes to getting out of debt.  Why?   Because psychologically we do not have much respect or put value to money.  That sounds weird doesn't it?  First of all, our minds are trained that way.  Cash is mostly made out of paper and cheap metal.  Intrinsically, it does not have value at all.  Our belief that it does is the only thing that gives value to cash.  Credit cards/debit cards use money that we can't even see or touch.  It is simply a set of numbers transferred back and forth between accounts.  These attributes train our mind subconsciously to put very little value to money itself.  The result is crazy spending habits.   We simply have to trade this thing called money that is either made of paper or numbers and trade it for something we can see, enjoy, and experience.  Pretty good deal huh?  Until you no longer have enough of it or access to it.  The bottom line is maxed out credit cards and empty bank accounts.   The road out of bondage begins with the mind so here is what you need to do to begin to begin your journey of getting out of debt.

1).  Make a list of all your debts.  You don't have to even write the balances of these down.  Just make a list.  

2).  Access your statements and write down the interest you paid on these accounts for the past year.  An easy way to do it is to go to your January statement and most of them will tell  you how much interest you paid on them the previous year.  Add all of these up and get a total.  Just the interest....not the balances

3).  Now go to your paystubs and/or income.  Write down the total number of hours you worked last year.  

4).  Add up all of your NET pay.  This is what you cleared or what you actually received after taxes and other deductions.  This is also known as your spendable or discretionary income.  

5).  Take your total hours worked and divide into your NET income.  This will give you your true hourly rate in which you trade an hour of your life for.  

6)  Divide the true hourly rate into the total interest you paid last year.  The result will be the number of hours of your life you traded to just pay the interest on your debt.  You should now see a tangible example of how slavery has not really ended has it?  If you are not pissed off after this, you either aren't in debt or you like being a slave.

Now, if you are fairly normal, an hour of your life is much more valuable than paper or numbers right?  The very first step in getting out of debt is NOT paying down your debt first, but stopping what caused you to get there in the first place.  Go one month without accumulating any additional debt.  Pay your bills as normal, but do not acquire any more debt.  I didn't say stop spending.  Just spend what you have.   As time goes by and you are paying your bills, your balances will come down and the interest amounts will decrease.  This will free up more hours of your life to actually earn money to use for yourself and not your slave master.  

Apply the hours of your life formula into everything you spend.  For example, you want that new big screen TV and it costs $500.  Oh..that's easy.  Just swipe the card and walk out with it.  OR.....let's say your net hour pay is $20.  The cost of the TV is now 25 hours of your life in cash.  More if you use debt.  If you borrow to pay for the TV, you are literally being a slave to the thing hanging on the wall.  

Use these examples to mentally prepare yourself to get out of debt.....you will be one of the very few.