I think I’d be correct in saying there’s a book or numerous books with the title “Get Out of Debt Now,” read by numerous people, but how many of those people who read these books can honestly say that they’re debt free? It’s not so much that these types of self-help books are useless, but rather that these are mainly only for motivation and for getting readers in the right frame of mind to want to get out of debt so badly or implement whatever it is they’re reading about that they take active steps to make it happen, beyond reading the book.
In fact, if something like a get-out-of debt guide was to detail every single step readers can physically implement to get out of debt, it would need to be an entire set of encyclopaedias as opposed to just one book. The information contained would perhaps even need to be stored in a whole a server farm, with dynamically growing storage space for all the new info which would need to be constantly added and updated. So we really can’t be too hard on that one book you bought about getting out of debt.
All of that said however, there are some active steps you can take to get out of debt as soon as possible — steps which train you to make the best financial decision at every turn of your life so that you can eventually happily proclaim to be completely debt-free.
Taking Stock
The first thing you need to do to set you along the path of ridding yourself of your debt is to take stock of your finances. We all know what a budget is, but how many of us actually make use of one? How many of us have ever made use of a budget, for that matter? Taking stock of your finances simply means tracking and tracing every single last penny you spend — every last one. This is often more than enough to come to the realisation that you can perhaps work your way right out of debt by simply making wiser spending decisions. You’ll be surprised by just how much money goes to waste as a result of people not having a plan with the way in which they spend their money. Some of the ways through which you’ll save money in this way will really surprise you, appearing to be obvious. They’re just not that obvious right now because you have no way of really tracking your money trail.
Consolidate Your Financial Services
By consolidate I don’t mean it in the way that the financial services sector refers to as consolidation, rather ironically I suppose. What I mean by consolidating your financial services is that you have to look at all of them as little puzzle pieces which fit into the bigger picture. Taking a closer look at what you get out of your packaged bank account for instance could reveal more than the fact that you perhaps don’t really need such an account. It could perhaps reveal that you might even be eligible for a claim on the fees you’ve been paying for this service all along. This in addition to taking stock of your finances is perhaps how to get of debt in the quickest way possible, because this is how a lot of money which is essentially “lost to the system” can get reclaimed.