Ask These Guys

The easiest answer is to find enough money to pay off your debt. This could be winning the lottery or sweepstakes or getting an inheritance, etc. But this is not practical.

The simplest answer is to educate yourself on wise spending habits and follow simple steps to get out of debt and stay that way. While this is the simplest answer, it is not easy.

First, determine if you are making more than you are spending.

If not, you need to figure out where you can stop spending and also consider getting additional sources of income for awhile.

You may have to make some hard decisions. Do not eat out, go to movies, have cable TV, cell phones, etc. Swallow some pride and start eating more macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and peanut butter. If you have a car payment, consider selling the car and buying a $1000 car for now. Every time you want to buy something, ask yourself, Do I NEED this, or do I just WANT it?

If you find any of this hard to do, you must really ask yourself, Do I want to be out of debt more than changing my lifestyle? If you can live meagerly now, you can live a lot eagerly later.

Once you get your spending under control, save $1000 for an emergency fund.
Do NOT touch this money unless it is an emergency. Put it in a money market account.

Second

make a budget every month accounting for every penny you plan to spend.
Stick with it!!!!

It will probably take several months before you start making a budget that will really work, but try to stick to it as close as possible. Do NOT add any more balance to your credit cards. Plan to pay cash for everything!!

Next, order all your debts (excluding mortgage) from highest to lowest balance. Pay the minimum due on each of them. Then take any extra money in your budget and put it towards the smallest balance debt you have left. Keep doing this every month until every debt is paid (excluding mortgage). You might find that within a couple of years you’ll have most of your debts paid off.

If you have an emergency and have to dip into the emergency fund, go back and pay minimums on your debt until you build the emergency fund back up to $1000.

Once all debts except mortgage are paid off, use what you use to pay for your debts and put that money into a money market account until you have saved up 3 to 6 months of your expenses (as outlined in your monthly budget) as an emergency fund.

After you have that emergency fund built, put away 15% of your income into tax-sheltered retirement savings.

Put any extra money you have towards your mortgage and get it paid off early.

Once you are debt free, learn to save this money and invest it wisely for the long term (more than 5 years out).
Be willing to give money to worthy causes.
Teach others how to get out of debt.
Never borrow money again.