t lend itself to flexibility. I heard a pastor once say that him and his wife decided to write down for one month exactly what they were spending their money on. Each one carried a small 59 cent notepad anWell, you woke up today and after drinking your coffee you realized you're in a heap of debt. How did you get there you wonder? Millions of Americans are finding themselves more and more in debt. The average balance per family household is now just over $9000. Some are considerably higher. Having a significantly high amount of credit card debt doesn't necessarily result from going on lots of shopping sprees. It usually occurs from a life changing situation such as a medical problem, loss of a spouse, or loss of job. The latter happened to me.

So how do you get out of this?

The first thing to do is to take control of your money. Develop a spending plan. What's a spending plan? It's essentially a budget. I don't like to call it a budget because the term budget seems to be very stringent and doesn't lend itself to flexibility. I heard a pastor once say that him and his wife decided to write down for one month exactly what they were spending their money on. Each one carried a small 59 cent notepad and

age balance per family household is now just over $9000. Some are considerably higher. Having a significantly high amount of credit card debt doesn't necessarily result from going on lots of shopping sprees. It usually occurs from a life changing situation such as a medical problem, loss of a spouse, or loss of job. The latter happened to me.

So how do you get out of this?

The first thing to do is to take control of your money. Develop a spending plan. What's a spending plan? It's essentially a budget. I don't like to call it a budget because the term budget seems to be very stringent and doesn't lend itself to flexibility. I heard a pastor once say that him and his wife decided to write down for one month exactly what they were spending their money on. Each one carried a small 59 cent notepad an

s. It usually occurs from a life changing situation such as a medical problem, loss of a spouse, or loss of job. The latter happened to me.

So how do you get out of this?

The first thing to do is to take control of your money. Develop a spending plan. What's a spending plan? It's essentially a budget. I don't like to call it a budget because the term budget seems to be very stringent and doesn't lend itself to flexibility. I heard a pastor once say that him and his wife decided to write down for one month exactly what they were spending their money on. Each one carried a small 59 cent notepad an

s to take control of your money. Develop a spending plan. What's a spending plan? It's essentially a budget. I don't like to call it a budget because the term budget seems to be very stringent and doesn't lend itself to flexibility. I heard a pastor once say that him and his wife decided to write down for one month exactly what they were spending their money on. Each one carried a small 59 cent notepad ant lend itself to flexibility. I heard a pastor once say that him and his wife decided to write down for one month exactly what they were spending their money on. Each one carried a small 59 cent notepad and wrote down every time they spent money on something. Their result? They came to the conclusion asking themselves, "We spent money on what?!"

Make life changes.

This usually results from the first step - developing a spending plan. You begin to see areas that you may have been spending frivolously or areas that you know you can cut back in or just plain eliminate. If you are in a large amount of debt, you may need to consider the eliminate things route. The only thing that I can eliminate is my spending money for lunch at work. I did eliminate this and started to pack my lunch. I heard one debt counselor say, "If people start to tease you about the way you're doing things like, 'packing again?', then you're doing the right thing." It does make a difference. I actually see money in my pocket now.