How to get rid of debt?

If you want to get rid of debts you should follow simple principles.

1. Track down your debts.

Create a debt book. Actually one sheet of paper will be enough. Write down for each debt, the name of your creditor, actual debt, interest rate and current date. You might add the amount of minimal monthly payment and payment due date. There will be about dozen of items. You might add costs of services that are necessary for you. For example, rent and car payments might be necessary for you, and they might not appear on the list (technically it is not a debt, you are just paying the services)

2. Prioritize your debts

There are several ways to prioritize your debts.

- pay the one with the biggest interest rate,
- pay the one you are afraid of (if you don't pay mortgage you might lose your home),
- pay the smallest debt (this way you will reduce the number of debts, and clean your mind)

3. Make a plan

The idea is to have no debts. In order to achieve this you should eliminate the first one. Using the list of debts, mark a debt you should eliminate first. You would probably like to eliminate your mortgage, but that is probably impossible, unless you have $200k on your bank account. Rule of thumb is to payout debt with the biggest interest rate.

So the plan is: "Pay minimal monthly payments for all debts, and pay as much as you can for the one that is marked as eliminate first"
Your financial goal is to payout that debt as soon as possible. With that on your mind whenever you want to buy something ask your self should I buy this or should I save that money and pay the debt? You might choose to pay a certain amount each month until it is payed out.

4. Stick with the plan until the debt is payed off. When you do that choose one of the remaining debts.

I forgot to mention STOP ACQUIRING NEW DEBTS!