Imagine waking up without having to worry about the next knock on the door and sleeping at night without the present anxiety over tomorrow. Yes, agreed it is not easy to get out of debt but it is better to start acting towards it rather than waiting and getting more entangled in debt.

Here are 3 action steps to help you get out of debt:

1. Be Honest With The Present Situation

The bad thing about debt is that most people in debt don’t realise it until when it is way, way too deep. The first thing you should do is to analyse your present situation and know how much in debt you are at the moment, then accept the fact that you are in debt. Once this is done, you immediately switch your consciousness to recognise the fact that habits, lifestyles and any such thing that will get your further into debt has to stop and this is one of the major leaps towards recovery.

The worse situation ever is to be in debt and still accumulate more either consciously or otherwise. If this goes on, when will you get free?

2. Take Stock & Create A List

Who and who do you owe and how much? Draw out your pen and paper and create a list of everything you owe and who your creditors are, then re-arrange the list to show the most urgent of these and go down to the least urgent.

Next, list how much you have as cash or asset and this means everything you can quickly turn to cash. For example, you might have a skill that is in high demand like ability to design websites, do programming, offer consulting etc

3. Create a Repayment Plan

Take a look at your earnings, consider what you can offer for quick cash using your skills and assets and start a repayment plan. One way to ensure peace of mind is to speak with your creditors and let them know there is a problem and that you are willing to pay. Negotiate more time where possible and start working to do the repayments as agreed. Most creditors will accept to get paid in bits if you speak to them.

4. Make Money Money if Possible

This may mean extra work, but hey, you are working for your freedom and you should do everything possible and legitimate to work out of the situation as fast as possible. One great way to make more money quickly is to offer your skills & knowledge for sale. If you can write, find freelance sites and take writing jobs. If you can design, do the same. If you feel you do not have any skill, go around your neighbourhood and offer to baby sit, clean for your neighbours, walk the dogs – just do something extra to get you out of debt.

5. Stay Out of Debt

Getting out of debt is great but it is extremely easy to get back in as fast as you never thought possible, so once you get out or as you work your way through getting out, make sure you watch it and do everything possible not to get back in.

Why do people who make a decent earning go broke? Why do people work so hard and yet come down to nothing just a few days after the months pay? Here are a few reasons and how to reverse this trend for yourself starting today.

1. Inability to Differentiate between Needs & Wants

Yes, you’ve got to live a good life but the ability to differentiate per time what is need and want will keep you from carrying an empty pocket and ending in desperation and debt. Needs are those things you cannot do without. For instance because the nature of my work, I cannot do without power and have to spend money on generating power when there is an outage. That is a need.

Wants are those things you’d love to have but do not make any significant difference in your life. For instance if you have 2 pairs of shoes, getting an extra pair because you have a weekend ball is a want.

Surprisingly, a lot of people focus on their wants and look for means to satisfy the desire for these wants and end up over spending every single month. The result is a dry pocket. Differentiate between your needs and your wants and work hard not to satisfy your needs unless you genuinely have extra left to cater for it.

2. Lack of Investment

One of the reasons why we invest is to prevent a dry pocket. The problem however is trying to invest with the overview of a quick turnover. Work at investing a certain percentage of your income every month on a long term asset or a long term investment programme that can work for your over time. For instance, investing in real estate every month, little by little is one great investment idea I love personally.

3. Ignoring Savings

It is very difficult to pull money together and takes a great deal of discipline to achieve. It is however very easy to blow it all off in just one moment of spending “madness”

First, work at your savings. Cut your expenses starting from now to allow you save at least 10% of your income every month. Just put it aside and forget it. If you save $100 per month, you will have $6000 in 5years (60months). The good news about having a careful savings culture is that after just 6months of doing it, you will begin to feel more confident, have more peace and less anxiety about tomorrow and you will know you have something to fall back on.

Another great advantage is that each time you save some more, you will watch your account grow a little more and this gets you ready for bigger opportunities. For instance, you can decide to buy a house after 5years, become a landlord, earn rent from your property while you still continue to work, save and make more money from property rentals.

Practice these 3 steps on a continual basis and you will gradually discover that you will stop getting broke, live a happier, less stressful life and in time move from a dry pocket to a fat bank account.