Before we go any further – let's just pace ourselves here, I think we need to acknowledge that this topic, ‘How to Reduce Debt', might not inspire a whole lot of excitement, wouldn't you agree? Part of the reason could be that it sounds like work, and god forbid we should have to do any more of that!!



But sometimes we just have to bite the bullet and get on with it. But again, before we do that, let's take a sneak preview at your life without those ‘Sword Of Damocles' debts hanging over your head. Just for a moment imagine a life where you didn't have anything to pay for except your food, clothes, petrol, power and phone. And on top of that, you CHOOSE where you spend the rest of your money. How do you do that, well you need to kick these into touch for a start…

• Credit Card Debt

• Store Card Debt

• Car Payment Debt

• Personal Loan Debt

• Mortgage/Equity Loan Debt

• Revolving Credit Debt

• Boat or Motorbike Payment Debt

Yes, get rid of them all. But tragically, we're all so accustomed to having debts like this that it never occurs to us that there's another option. Or we don't see how we can get these debts paid off, or manage without our credit cards. So with that in mind you may be asking yourself, how do I reduce debt? Well it can be done, but it's not going to happen over night. The first thing you need to do is start, and the first place to start is with you. You need to know exactly where you stand as the clock's ticking on your financial fitness, the longer you leave it the worse it'll be. So with that said - is this you?

You're buying clothes and entertainment, or things for you or the children that you just don't need, and you're buying them with money you don't have. In other words you're using a credit card or a store card. Those cards fool you into thinking you've got more money than you really do, and they lure you into spending money you don't have, and money you aren't going to get. So at the end of the month you simply can't afford to pay the entire balance off. So what do you do? You stress to the max… “how the heck can I reduce my debt…” , then you roll the balance over to the next month and pay the minimum. But you pay the maximum in interest and fees, yes, we all try and ignore that bit. Those credit card purchases are going to cost you big time. SO STOP DOING IT!

But that's not the only injury to your financial fitness, are you driving a car that you're paying off over time, or are you filling your house with things you don't have the cash for. Just realise this. If you stop making payments on those things you ‘own', you'll find out who really owns them – and it isn't you. If you don't believe me just stop making payments on your car, the same goes for your house or anything else you have on time payments, hallooo…you don't own any of those things, you're renting them. You are renting your lifestyle. Lecture over. But there's no point in crying over spilt milk, let's just take some action to get this cleaned up.

Task One:Stop buying things you don't have the cash for.

Task Two:Pay off the debts you have now, start with the smallest debt first.

Task Three:Create extra income with the free time you have now that you aren't going out spending money you don't have. (Sorry bad grammar.)

Yes that is definitely the ‘bite the bullet' part, but what a great start in ‘How To Reduce Debt'. If you just do Task One you'll be ahead of the game, and Task Three will help you with Task Two. But it's not OK to just implement Task Two, you must stop the injuries with Task One, and Task Three can speed you to Olympic financial fitness. Get to it.