Zen Habits Tips on Getting Out of Debt

Tales of people who’ve successfully dug their way out of credit card debt can be pretty useful for finding your own strategy for saving money and reducing debts. Zen Habits blogger Leo Babuta summarized his six steps for avoiding credit problems and while many of them are stuff we’ve heard before, there were a few new slants:

• The need to cut spending is clear, but look at lots of different areas in your life where you could do this. Not just the expensive coffees, but also think about things like clothing and furniture which might be non-essential
• Leo talks a lot about scaling back your lifestyle, which basically means avoiding a materialist and consumerist approach. For example, trade in a fuel-guzzling car for a smaller one, don’t upgrade your cell phone or TV or other gadgets just because something slightly better is available, and he even suggests moving to a smaller home where you’ll have less space and therefore need less belongings.
• Use cash. This might involve paying by credit card (if you’re buying online or if your credit card offers some useful reward system) but only buy something when you have the cash to back it up. You can nearly always wait for what you want until you have actually saved up the cash.

photo credit: Joel Bedford