Credit Crunch: Thinking About Debt

Have a "Debt Free" Attitude.

No one is asking you to join a cult; there is no need to forget your past (or especially forget that you have debt). Having a Debt Free attitude doesn't mean breaking away from your past or your life, but changing how you see and deal with your life. Small, mundane daily decisions can have a huge impact on your financial situation, and changing your attitude to constantly be mindful of your Debt Free goal can help see how each little decision's effects.

Dealing with the psychology behind your debt, thinking about what mindsets and decisions got you in debt, can help you reverse some of the bad habits of spending and borrowing while implementing new habits that pay off your debt more efficiently. Drastic problems call for drastic solutions. It isn't our goal to make the solutions less drastic. This is one of the few times in life where it is perfectly acceptable to shoot a fly with a cannon. Have a big fly? Get a bigger cannon. It doesn't mean changing your lifestyle forever. When you become free of debt, not only will returning to a "normal" lifestyle be possible, not only will it be worth the trouble, but by then you will have learned how to manage your finances and make debt stay in the past where it belongs.

Manage Your Finances to Eliminate Your Debts

If you don’t manage your finances, your finances will manage you. The bigger your debt fly, the bigger your debt cannon should be. Managing one's finances to pay off and avoid more debt is a big cannon that requires a big plan. The more comprehensive you can make your plan, even from the get-go, the easier the right financial decisions will be.

It can be difficult to see most of your incoming going to just paying off debt. But it's important to keep in mind that that’s only temporary. It can be difficult to only think about managing your debt, but it's easier if you think about it this way. You have a simple choice to make:

Either you can keep paying on your debts to manage your finances or you can manage your finances to finally pay off your debts. Which choice sounds like the better decision?