You may or may not be in the midst of a debt crisis but no matter what your situation is, it is critical that you know the right way to manage your debts. Let's say that you are in a deep debt situation. What do you need to do to start managing your debts today? First of all - and this is most important - stop incurring any further debt. Now this can strike a panic attack in some of us who are use to reaching for our weapon of choice, the credit card, each time we have an emergency. This battle plan of using your credit card for every emergency is losing your personal debt war. You must stop now.

You must look at what money is coming in and rank your obligations. Sorry credit card companies. You go at the bottom of the list. Why? Because you are unsecured debt and because we can usually negotiate with you a little. Don't pay your gas and electric utility bill and see what happens. They will immediately pull the plug on you.

Here is what we do though. We take the cash we have as income and pay the credit cards first. Then we have to use the credit cards to pay for gas, groceries, and utilities and the cycle continues and we get deeper in debt.

Look, everyone wants their money. And when you are in a bad debt situation they credit card companies will not hesitate to let you know. But you have to eat and you have to put gas in your auto to get to work or the credit card companies won't get a dime if you lose your job or starve. So be tough and let things run their course but prioritize your debt into the necessities for life first and then at the very end pay the unsecured debts.

Don't underestimate your ability to handle debt matters yourself. Look, you can pay a debt counselor or the fees to a debt consolidation agency but you are throwing away money that quite frankly would be better off getting put into an emergency savings fund. When you are going through a debt crisis there will be all kinds of hounds out there who try to convince you that you are doomed with them. Ignore them. They won't go away at first but you have to be tougher than them. And it is highly inadvisable that you take unsecured debt you can't pay and move it to secured debt by means of a home equity loan that you won't be able to pay either except then you can lose your house. It doesn't make sense does it?

This is the information age. There is not much you cannot find out on the internet or at your local library. You can find out how to file your taxes, how to start a business, and how to manage your debt. You do not need waste your money on "expert" advice when most of debt management is really simple when you take an objective look at it.

Carefully come up with a plan to change your spending habits and cut out the useless expenditures. Take the money you save by doing this and split it between paying of your debt and saving. Remember, it was the spending that got you in trouble so by cutting the spending you are well on your way to an effective debt management program.