Being in debt is simply no way to live. You feel stress every day, knowing you won’t be able to pay all of your bills at the end of the month. If you are thinking about bankruptcy wait! You may be able to get yourself out of this hole with a change in lifestyle, a strict budget and possibly debt consolidation.

Often times as people fall deeper and deeper into debt they stop looking at their credit card statements. If you are ready to get yourself out of debt the first thing you must do is to know how bad it is. Look at all of your statements. Make a list of all of your credit cards and loans. Write down how much you owe and how much your monthly payments are.

The next step is to check your interest rates. You need to know the interest rates on all of your credit cards and loans. This includes your car loans, mortgage and student loans. You need to know your interest rates in order to know which line of debt is hurting you the most.

Now that you know where you stand you need to sell the things you do not NEED and pay down your most detrimental debt. If you bought a big screen TV on a credit card with 20% interest, sell the TV and pay off some of that card. No item is worth that kind of interest. If you have a very high car payment with a high interest loan, sell the car and get a more affordable car that you can buy outright or pay off quickly.

After you have sold off some of your unnecessary purchases it is the time to think about debt consolidation. You must calculate the time it will take to pay off your debts, the interest you are charged each month and your monthly payments. You must then look into debt consolidation. You do not want to simply save yourself money each month; you want to pay off your debt as quickly as possible.

If consolidating your debt will help you pay off your debt more quickly by lowering interest rates then it might be a good idea. If consolidation will lower monthly payments but cause you to take longer to pay off the debt then it is not the best choice. Working out all of these calculations can be very time consuming and difficult. If you need help go to a website like www.personalfinanceissues.com. They offer online calculators that will help you make well informed decisions about your personal finance.

Now is the time to change your life. Set a goal for each month and put in the effort it takes to get there. You will be able to watch your debt shrink until you finally can say, “I am Debt Free!” You can do it. The hardest part is getting started.