I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: You don’t need to pay to get out of debt. Do it yourself. Granted, you might have to pay a bankruptcy lawyer or bankruptcy trustee if you go that way but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about getting out of debt on your own. You can do it. You need to start today.

Ask yourself a few questions: Do you have stuff you could get rid of or downsize? I do. I’m seriously temted to sell it all and start again. If the selling weren’t such a pain then  I’d do it. I might still. sorry, this is about you, not me -sell some of your stuff. you don’t need half of it.

Can you be more frugal? There’s two camps here: One that saves on everything and one that’s more centered on big wins. If you could move for example, and live in a cheaper town, that might be one way to improve your cash flow seriously. And with increased cash flow comes more and more money you can put towards your debt.

Take my  little grocery challenge as a real world example. I cut my grocery costs by half by shopping smarter and buying when on sale as opposed to when I need it (bacon on sale today!!). I still get to eat the same and with a few small changes it won’t be hard for me to cut my grocery bill in half . So I take the ‘savings’ and put it towards the debt.

Here’s an extra bonus point: if you spend the savings on a new xbox or tickets to the ballet, then you haven’t saved. If you put the money in a savings account or reduced your debts – that’s savings.

What I like about doing the debt freedom plan by yourself is control: I’m working on a debt snowstorm and soon enough I’ll just carve a cheque for the entire amount of one debt, and it’ll be gone. completely. That debt is done.

Then I do the same for the next biggest debt. You rarely need to buy a book even to get out of debt. Spend half an hour browsing a few titles and they all offer the same advice as I have here: spend less and make more. reams and reams of books say pretty much that.

I sure wouldn’t pay for debt freedom – even if  I could. I could take the easy way out now and walk down the  street to a bankruptcy trustee and  let the fun begin,  but that’s not a challenge. That’s the easy way out. The hard way and the best way to get out of debt is to do it yourself. It’s worth the effort to get out debt on your own without any help needed and I sure wouldn’t pay any debt consolidation firm for the trouble.

I would, and will get out of debt by my own devices. No payment required.

Related posts:

1. Debt Freedom Plan. Day 60, 61, 62
2. Debt Freedom: Where to start with Debt Freedom Relief
3. Managing Your Own Debt = Freedom

It’s usually one of the biggest worries or stressors in most people’s lives and faster you can settle your debt, the more money you will have to do other things with. Things that you actually enjoy doing rather than paying interest rates on stuff you probably didn’t need and even worse, can remember.

How to settle debt

Getting out of debt is really a simple solution: stop spending more and start making more. If you can accomplish these two things you can get out of debt slowly using the debt snowball that comes so highly recommended from get out of debt gurus such as dave ramsey.

How can you spend less? Cancel a bunch of subscriptions you don’t really really need. Maybe it’s your  country club membership or maybe your 500 channels  on cable need to go. Do you really need that newspaper subscription? I pruned a few subscriptions just this past week that save me almost $100 per month that I can put towards my own debt freedom plan.

The other half of this equation is earning more money. At one point, I would work online all day and then start my ‘day job’ at five pm until midnight. I would still get 8 hours or close to it of sleep at night and I have to tell you, it was one of the happiest times I had.  Weekends tasted better as after working 16+ hours a day, a day off was a welcome treat. It was also one of the most profitable times in my life to date. In short, hard work pays off.  It’s a pain at the time, and there’s lots of days I thought my day would never end but I managed, and you can too

The main goal is to have a positive cash flow. Once this happens, it doesn’t matter how you go about creating this, then you’ll start saving and the money saved can go towards your debts.

I have changed my current debt freedom strategy. I’m currently working on a a debt snowstorm. Rather than throw everything  I can at my debt, I’m making minimum payments on my current debt and saving any extra cash flow into a nice big comfortable emergency fund. After the fund has reached a level I’m comfortable with I am going to pay off my credit cards, possibly with one payment.

It really doesn’t matter how you settle your debts, what matters is you make the effort and get the positive cash flow in your life. Once that happens it’s just a matter of time until you’re debt free once again.

Related posts:

1. Would You Pay For Debt Freedom?
2. Three Easy Steps to Erase Debt
3. How To Clear Debt From Your Life

When you’re free from debt, the relief it brings from being completely out of debt is frankly the best thing ever . Think of the best time you’ve ever had in your life. Got it?

That’s what debt freedom feels like. Pretty good feeling, eh? So let’s start your debt freedom financial picture today. It can be done, and all you need is a lot of guts – and a pen. Oddly, the same two things that got you in debt can also start to get you out of debt too.

Some of your friends and family might say to themselves: “Don’t worry – it’s just numbers on paper”  and in a way it’s true. Everybody needs somewhere to live and depending on your lifestyle and the rent vs own debate – there’s a good chance you’ll have a mortgage in your lifetime, and here in Canada – Canadian Mortgages are 25 years which seems to be the standard amortization period. You can’t worry for 25 years about your mortgage and you shouldn’t, so let’s leave mortgages as a topic for another day.

Debt Freedom Relief I want to talk about today is from consumer debt, such as car loans, or credit card debt. This kindof debt is the killer. I doubt that any item you bought with your credit card  goes up in value. The clothes, stereos, dinners out  that you bought on credit all came with a very high cost: depreciation.  Add  to the fact the high interest rate you’re paying  and there’s a good chance at the end of the day the item you had to have on credit ends up costing you twice the price you paid for it.

Where to Start Your Journey Towards Debt Freedom

1. Get a pen and paper.  Yup, the same tools you used to get into debt. Or, use a spreadsheet or notepad on your computer. It doesn’t really matter what you use. What matters is that you realize that your road to debt freedom and financial independence starts today. It’s a long road, but if you follow these few steps you will see the light at the end of the tunnel and the sign that reads: Welcome to debt freedom.

2. Got your number? Yowza – right?  Are you current on all your debts? I hope that when you read this, you are and it’s just a matter of moving forward – one day at a time. If you’re not, you need get the collection agencies to stop calling. Most times these collection agencies have bought the debt from the credit card companies and the banks. The banks have already written you off, and you can’t deal with the banks any more. But the collection agencies – although they won’t  say this, are pretty happy to get  anything at this point. So work it out and make a new payment offer that suits you both.

3. Let’s assume you’re current with your minimum payments. This means at very least you are making minimum payments on credit cards and are ready to move forward and start plunking away some extra income towards your debt.

4. This one is important: STOP using the credit cards. Cancel all the subscriptions you ‘need’ and start living the life you can afford, not the life you think you can afford. You don’t need TV or satellite radio. You need to be debt free so you can start living your life, and sleep at night. Which would you rather have? commercial free radio – or a good nights sleep?

5.  Start selling the extra crap you have around that you don’t need. Toothpaste is a need. Food is a need. That harry met sally dvd you bought and have watched twice in 2 years, if that? That’s not  a financial need. That’ something you can sell. and make money. I sold some tennis string and other crap that I was paying money to store (how dumb is that?) and ended up with $1000 dollars towards my own debt. I’m no financial expert. I’m sharing what works for me along the way to debt freedom. I’m in Canada so your situation might be different. But bottom line, start the purge. You’ll feel better  for it. The goal is to have less stuff, and you own the stuff that is important to you and need. For some, it might be a bicycle you get  on every day for exercise. For me, it’s music. I’ve come to learn that it’s the music that’s most important and the amplifiers/speakers  are just secondary, and just tools for playing back the music.

That’s five tips to get started. Do this, and you’re already ahead of the game towards total debt freedom.

Related posts:

1. Debt Freedom Methods: Debt Relief Agencies
2. Managing Your Own Debt = Freedom
3. What’s The Deal With Christian Debt Relief?

I’m closing in on 90 days of my debt freedom plan, which means I’m about 1/11th of my way
to the end if my math is right and I’m writing today about how hard it is to not give up with
the debt and to keep at it when you feel like you’re not moving anywhere.

I’m an impatient one and sometimes my expectations don’t like it when things don’t
turn out as planned and I’m still in debt. I feel like I’m stuck some days and the
needle hasn’t moved whatsoever.

I guess I shouldn’t get discouraged, and I’m a persistant little fella if nothing else. I will
beat this. It might take me ten years or more, but I will be debt free, mark my words.

And, really it’s just a number. In fact, I have to remind myself of that. I am making headway.
My only credit card use has been for work related stuff. I haven’t used a credit card for buying
crap or even a dinner out in so long… it’s not the expenses. It’s the fact that I’m not earning
as much as I could, or want. I need a bigger shovel to dig out with.

What’s enough money to get out of debt? Well, when I started this didn’t it work out to about
40/day? I’ve knocked off ten grand so I’m sitting at about 27k behind the eight ball, so that
must mean about a grand a month ot debt reduction would do. I can make the mininums, and toss a tad
towards it, but $30 a day when you think about it isn’t that bad.

So, how could I average $30/day?

1. A day job. A part time job even, would get me there. I hadn’t thought about part time until now
actually – or temporary, where I might work for a week then, not for a few. This might be another
idea.

2. Sell more stuff. I’ve fallen off the ebay wagon as it’s a bit of a pain to list all
my stuff and watch it go for pennies on the dollar. Mind you, I did make a grand on cables and tennis
string and in hindsight, a few trips to the post office wasn’t THAT bad. It would beat option
1 for the short term anyway. Nobody said this was going to be easy, dammit.

3. Make more websites. I still think this is a good idea. Get three hundred websites averaging a buck a
day every day and you’re six figures. goodbye debt. This takes time, but if I made a website each day, they can’t
ALL be losers. remember, you only need to average a buck a day for six figures with three hundred
websites.

I’ve got a post planned for a 90 day wrapup. Even if I’ve failed, or fell behind where I expected to
be I have to remember that life doesn’t move the needle every day. Some days it’s just spaghetti for
dinner, and then whammo, you’re moving or have a new job or find a new relationship, or renew
an old relationship or some other thing happens, good or bad. You never know what life will bring.
I like that.

Oh shucks, five minutes left on battery life so I better wrap this up.

See you soon.

Related posts:

1. Money and Relationships

Yesterday, as you recall – I wrote about my starbucks venti latte habit and it’s effect on my doward spiral into debt

And, if you’re one of my two readers, (hi everybody!!) you’ll also recall that, oh, about a week ago i changed the name from credit card prices to debt freedom plan, as this new name is much, much, more related to what I’m talking about here: my plan to be debt free in 1000days.

So, here’s the thing: I was checking google today, and low and behold – I rank on the second page of google for the search term ‘debt freedom plan’. I’m the 16th most popular site for that search term out of 1,100,000 possible results.

Have a boo:

I think the main reason why is that the term being searched for is in the domain name itself. A little light bulb went off today: Hey – lookie at that. All I have to do is create a website with the same name as the search term, or phrase I want to rank for and ta-da! I do. 2nd page of the search results out of over a million possiblities. Not bad, not bad at all…

This got me thinking: I don’t think this is a real competitive term. I bet with a bit of finessing I could get to the top page of google for debt freedom plan.

Hard Work Pays Off.
If there’s a moral to this story, other me getting to brag how lucky smart I am about getting to the second page of google it’s that it’s one thing to have an idea and it’s another to actually DO IT. It doesn’t matter what your idea is, whether it’s getting out of debt, losing weight or going to school and starting a new job (maybe one at starbucks.)

There’s been lots of days so far with this little project towards debt freedom that I haven’t wanted to post, or thought about it and blew it off, but for the most part I’ve stuck with this and now that I’ve got 60 or so entries, I’m starting to see the results of my efforts. Small, but somebody’s noticing.

I think I’ve bought every ebook and joined every club on how to make some money (which, for this site isn’t really about – it’d be nice though) but the real truth is like anything else – it just takes time. What’s that saying? You eat an elephant one bite at a time? ( I wonder if I’ll get search results for eat an elephant now?).

Where was I? SQUIRRELL! – Oh, right: Instead of buying every ebook, I’m going to write my own. Not today of course, but I want to be able to help you one day get out of debt too some day. Wouldnt’ that be kindof cool if one day I ended up being a get out of debt guru?

So paragraphs later, if you’re still with me: I’ve been reading and reading the past few days on search engine optimization and how it can effect your rankings in the google search engine. I want to specifically target the google search engines because that’s where a good percentage of the searches originate from, and I want a piece of the pie.

I can buy domain names for a buck a pop about products or services or anything really that’s popular and I might have have a chance at making my dollar back. Think about it. I can buy domain name for an .info domain name for under a dollar for the first year, and then come the second renewal the price goes up to eight bucks. That gives me TWO years to make nine dollars to break even. If I make even 1 dollar more, that’s a 5% interest, which is more than any savings account pays.

So, I’m going to give this a shot. I could use free blogger blogs to try this with (and might, as the the cost is absolutely zero, but I’m not familiar with how blogger works so I think I’ll start with using software I’m familiar with and hosting the domain name myself. I figure 100 sites would be a good number to start with. I’m planning on making tight little niche sites about specific topics I know lots about and think I can rank well for. Because these topics are very small, all the content on them will be relevant. These aren’t going to be just a page of links that I hope somebody clicks on, but rather real usable content about stuff I know. Heck, I’ve gotten visitors to this site searching for ‘great headphones’ due to my ebay sales earlier where I told you about the great headphones, so one example might be greatsonyheadphones.com, or greatjvcheadphones.com. And on each site I’d only write about the specific headphone brands. (actually, now that I think of it, this would be great topic – think of all the ipod users and headphones – been on a subway lately? you should see all the people with headphones) If you do this and it works for ya – do me a favor and let me know.

It costs me time to research, write and promote these sites, and the time is going to pass anyway and it would be a great story to tell that a year from now I’ve got hundreds of niche targeted websites all making me a few pennies or even dollars a day. It’s going to be hard work and there’s no auto program to help me, or ebook to show me but I can type fairly fast and I’ve got the time to dedicate to this project and see what happens. I’ll have to make an effort to get the word out about these sites as I can create them, but nobody will come.

If you’re still with me I’ve got another 1000 words under my belt.

See you tomorrow as I continue my plan towards debt freedom.

Related posts:

1. Debt Freedom Plan. Day 60, 61, 62
2. Bright Pink Kitty Litter Boxes
3. What a difference a day makes

So maybe the debt freedom plan needs a bit of a makeover. Not design-wise, because at this point – who cares? But what if instead of a diary I start actually making real posts and not just stuff that comes to mind. I know that this is personal and it’s my debt freedom we’re talking about – but chances are if you’re here, it’s because either you’re friends and family (hi everybody!) or you too are looking for a magic pill. I’m sorry to say at this point my friend, I don’t have one. If I do, I’ll be sure to whip up a $97 ebook with all my tips and tricks to make money and be debt free (actually, that’s not a bad idea).

So I’ve been thinking perhaps one method to visit would be to actually research and add some value to this site instead of just using it as a diary… or, maybe I could write about a bit of each.

To be honest, I’ve only been spending about twenty minutes a day or so on these posts, and sadly – it shows. I’d love for this to become a reference site, where over time you could actually learn something – or very least – learn with me. That’s a big problem, I think. Nobody teaches you this. You’re young, the lady at Sears or wherever offers you a free book/makeup/pen other swag and before you know it you’ve got a credit card. Then a bit later: A balance. Which is fine if you can pay it off every month but if you can’t: welcome to the slippery slope of debt and interest.

If you don’t wake up and start your own debt freedom plan, it’s really easy to get in debt. It’ a latte here and a car repair there. That’s what i hate about my debt. most of it was for impulse buys and crap..

News and Updates.

So. Hi. I’m here, still in debt but I’m still trying and still working on my debt freedom plan. I’ve been noodling around with google advertising for a few other projects, and I’m down about $200, so I’m going to stop while I’m ahead. I’m sure many make a good living advertising products and services, but I really don’t have the budget to test and learn fully. If I had a few thousand to play with, I might do OK but at this time I’m going to refocus on getting traffic from search engines and other free sources.

So for today, it’s more a state of the nation post than anything else at this point. See you tomorrow.

Related posts:

1. Debt Freedom Plan. Day 50
2. Debt Freedom Plan. 90 days down and 910 to go.
3. Debt Freedom: Where to start with Debt Freedom Relief