If you are having debt and money management troubles, check out a book called ‘The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. The author has a radio show on XM and Sirius and many public stations across the USA. Check his site out online.

Anyway, he teaches a “new” way to get out of debt. It is not really new. It involves tackling your debts smallest to largest. I won’t ruin the book. If you are serious about getting out of debt – this is the book for you.

Write down all your debts – list the total amt due, the payment amount, and whether the debt is overdue. Separate the overdue debts from the ones that are current. Sort both lists by the amount due.

Now pay the minimum on each one, except for the overdue loan with the lowest balance. Put every single spare nickel towards that one. Skip lunches out with your friends, get only small christmas presents for each other, skip big expensive vacations, even get a 2nd job if you can. Everything you can goes towards that loan.

When that one is paid off, put all the money you paid on that towards the next larger loan until it’s paid off. Do this for the entire list of overdue loans, then run through the ones that are current the same way. When you pay off each one, ask the lendor in writing to be sure to contact the 3 big credit bureaus to show that the loans are paid. Buy a copy of your credit report every 6 months or a year to be sure that they did this.

This method will get rid of the smallest ones first, and you’ll see progress faster than most other methods. This will help you stay on track because you’re seeing progress.

Once you’re done, think hard about investing some of the money you’ve been used to spending on paying off loans. You’ve gone without it for maybe several years by this point, so you know you can live without it. The key to getting rich is to spend less than you bring in, and to invest the difference. Good luck!

If you’re not in trouble with the companies (meaning you’re up to date and stay up to date on all of your payments) the thing to do is to start a debt snowball. List your debts in the order you want to pay them off. Usually it’s best to pay off the smallest debt first. Then you send everyone minimum payments every month except the first debt to be paid off. You send them every cent you can above and beyond the minimum payment. Then when that is paid off you take the money you were spending on the payment to them and apply ALL of it to the next debt, in addition to the minimum payment you’re making on the next debt. When that one is paid off, apply all of the payment you were making to that one to the next one. Your amount of money going to debt doesn’t change but you keep getting more money to put towards other debts and it gets you out of debt quickly.

You’re right not to want to deal with a debt counselor. If you do that kind of thing it looks like bankruptcy on your credit report. Just pay it off yourself, little by little, and you will get it gone.

Asking to be able to pay less than you owe is irresponsible. If you incurred the debts, you should pay them.

Try. He knows what he’s talking about.