I can see you rolling your eyes now, ‘How To Reduce Debt By Being Smarter With What You Have', you've heard it all before, it's a real no brainer, who doesn't know that? But the trouble is most people aren't actually doing it. And here's the kicker, debt can be your very unpleasant companion no matter what your income, so it's not just about what you earn, it's about how you manage what you earn.



One of the best ways to reduce debt is to repair the money leak that's caused by your spending habits. Let's take a moment and check them out. For instance, do you buy on impulse, do you buy things you don't really need, or buy to keep up with fashion, your friends or even to keep up with the neighbors. Are you digging yourself into a financial hole as you wander around the mall buying whatever takes your fancy. Do you take yourself off to the stores when you're feeling a little down, or in need of a treat, or do you cruise the infomercial channels and e-bay from the comfort of your lazy-boy buying, buying, buying?

But you're not off the reduce debt hook yet. Check out your book shelves, wardrobe, kitchen cupboards and garage for those ‘things' you just had to have, those ‘things' you just couldn't live without. How many books have you bought, maybe on how to reduce debt, and never read, clothes that looked great in the shop but you've never worn, gadgets you've used once and now live in the back of the cupboard, electric tools that gather dust in the garage, and the favorite of every e-bay or infomercial shopper, fitness equipment. Come on, I know you must have at least one piece of fitness equipment lurking around covered in dust, you could reduce your debt by selling these things on e-bay to someone just like you!!

But back to what I was saying, if any of this rings true for you then it's time to do whatever it takes to put things right. You know that continuing down the slippery slope of spend, spend, spend, is only going to make your financial dominoes fall even faster. Do you follow me so far? Quite simply if you don't make some changes to your spending habits, nothing will change, your debts will stick to you like glue, and what's more they will grow. Now I'll concede that change isn't always easy, and squeezing those ‘'reduce debt strategies'' into your time table may not sound very appealing. But here's a suggestion to get you started on reducing your debt that only required one thing, inaction.

Here's how easy it is. If there's something you want to buy, no matter the cost or who it's for, just wait, yes that's right, don't do anything, just wait. And wait for at least 4 entire days. While you're waiting calculate how long you'll have to work in order to pay for this thing. Let's say your ‘thing' is going to cost $60, and you're paid $20 an hour, you'd need to work 3hrs to buy that ‘thing'. But hold on a moment, the $20 is your pre-tax hourly rate, and let's say you pay 25% tax, that means you'll need to work 4hrs to buy that thing, is it worth that to you? And this might be hard to swallow, but do you have other debts you need to pay off before you buy any more things?

Let that sink in for a minute. Well OK, the 4 days have passed by and you still want this thing. If you still believe you must buy this thing, consider this before you go get it. Can you get it for a better price somewhere else, can you rent it, borrow it or modify something you already have. Can you get someone to buy it for you as a birthday gift (why not?) hey you're here to reduce debt not to add to it so I'm pulling out all the stops. Now only you know what your budget can stand, so if you still want to get this thing after all of that, and your budget can stand it, then go get it. But remember you came here to reduce debt not to add to it. A few last words of encouragement, read this again and then read this again. Good Luck.