We're going to be talking about how to pay off your credit cards so you can finally be out of debt for good. I'll go over 8 steps to reduce your credit card debt.

1. Stop Spending Money On Your Credit Cards

Cut your card up if you have to or freeze it in a block of ice. Whatever you do just get it out of your reach, out of your wallet so you aren't tempted to spend on it when you're in a store. Keep in mind, that there is also online shopping, and cards are often saved in those online shopping carts. So make sure you go into the ones that are most tempting to you perhaps it's Amazon or Target or another online store and delete your credit card number from the shopping cart in that online shopping portal. This will ensure that you aren't adding to any balances and you can freeze your spending right here, right now.

2. Switch To An All-cash Budget

You can actually go to the ATM and take out the cash that you need to spend this week, or you can just use your debit card and you'll be seeing the money withdrawn from your bank account as you spend it. This again, will ensure that you're no longer adding to the balances on your credit cards, and those balances will stay the same, you can focus on paying those off and then your lifestyle and the expenses that you incur on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis, are going to have to fit into what money you actually have in your bank account

3. Call Up Your Credit Card Companies And Try To Negotiate A Lower Interest Rate

Oftentimes it works for you to call the company and threaten that you're going to close down the card. Most credit card companies don't want you to do that so they will try to negotiate with you. They can often reduce the annual fee that you're paying on the card which would be excellent, they can also possibly lower the interest rate. Now you're not actually going to close card because that can have a big impact on your credit score in a negative way, so don't do that, but try to negotiate and get that interest rate down because that means the lower amount of interest rate you pay, the lower amount of the money you're going to be paying in order to pay off your debt long-run. You can also use an honest approach and just tell them you're trying to get your debt under control, and it would be really helpful for you to get a lower rate and see if that will work too. But just use these different negotiation tactics to get that interest rate as low as possible on each of your cards

4. Get A Piece Of Paper Or A Spreadsheet And Write Down All Of Your Debts On Order Of Priority, And Priority Meaning, When You Want To Pay Them Off.

So the first set you have on the paper will be the first one you want to pay off. You can use different methods and debt payoff strategies to tackle your debt and that will determine which order you place them in. What you want to do is get your debts down in front of you so you get a full picture of what your debt looks like

You're going to write down the name of the people or the creditor that you owe money to, the amount of money you owe so that would be the balance. The interest rate tied to that debt, and then the minimum payment that you're required to make on that debt. You can also write down next to the minimum payment what the actual amount of money you're paying is, but make sure that you have minimum down because that is the number that you absolutely have to be paying towards each one of your credit cards in order to make sure you're ready to pay off your debt as soon as possible. Paying more is obviously a good thing, so go ahead and keep paying more if you can afford it. But, you need to make sure that you're making your minimum payments on all of your credit cards so you don't encounter any sort of fees or additional interests that could add to the amount of money that you owe.

5. Review Your Expenses And Try To Find Room In Your Budget To Make Additional Payments Towards Your Debt

Once you have your debts all written down then you're going to review your expenses and try to find room in your budget to make additional payments towards your debt. When you review your expenses you're going to look at a month or a couple months' worth of spending. So maybe you pull your credit cards or your bank account statements to see what money is going out, into what. You may have to make some temporary reductions in your spending, but this is only temporary while you work on paying off your debt. You can also make permanent reductions if you find ways that you can live on less without spending money and that is awesome too.

Sometimes debt reduction requires us to make some drastic changes, like moving from one place to a new one to have more affordable rent or driving a more affordable car. These are things that are lifestyle choices that you make, but if you can reduce the cost, you can free up a lot of money to pay down your debt even faster, so definitely consider some of these bigger changes as well.

6. Get Yourself On A Budget

Not only do you need to know how much money you have to put towards your debt, and how much of your expenses you can reduce, but you also need to know how much you're spending each and every day or week or month, and where you can find some savings in your budget so that you can put even more money towards your debt to significantly reduce It. 

7. Build Up Your Other Accounts During Months That Are A Little Bit More Affordable

Throughout your entire process of paying off your debt, some months you're going to have more expensive things that come up in your life, and you're not gonna have what's left over to go towards debt or even to go into savings, but some months will be a little bit cheaper and you'll be able to put more money towards your debt and even more money towards your savings. We don't want to neglect to save for our, oshit moments, and putting money into our emergency savings, and we do know that with the holidays coming up once a year and wedding season coming up once a year, there are those more expensive months that come into play. So why not pre-save for it, so that the next time you have an expensive month you already have money in your savings that could cover some of these items that would otherwise drain your budget.

8. Put Extra Cash Flow Towards The Principal Your Debt

When you do find extra money in your budget, and you've already saved some money so you have extra money left over. Put that extra cash flow towards the principal of your debt. And you want to put it towards the principal on the first priority of your debt and then work from there. Once that first priority debt is gone, because you've been putting a ton of money into the principal balance and reducing that balance, you just move on to the next step. Now you're still making the minimum payments on all of your debts, but that first step gets all of the extra money and then you move on to the next

This will ensure you that you'll get some momentum under your belt, you'll see debts becoming eliminated off of your list, and it'll just feel good and you'll be motivated to continue to pay off your debt until you're finally debt-free

Bonus Tips 

Find Some Extra Money

There are definitely many many ways to find additional sources of income, you can sell some of your things, you can freelance, you can turn one of your hobbies into a money-making activity and sell your services or your crafts, and with this additional income, you should be putting it directly towards the principle on all your debt. You're essentially making a second income and using that income to completely pay off your debt and if you can do this, and really focus, your debt will be gone before you know it.

Consolidate Or Refinance Your Debt, And Whether You Should Or Should Not Do Not That

I'm just going to touch on credit cards in this article, and that would be most people wonder if they should do a balance transfer of all of their credit cards to a 0% interest credit card. And I typically say, no. Reason being that my experience with my clients is that when they do once transferred to a 0% interest credit card, they are not forced to change their habits. Typically they transfer that balance, it sits on that credit card because they're not accumulating any interest and they go back to spending money on other credit cards and racking up the debt. Also, they're not motivated or have any pressure to pay off that balance because it's a 0% interest card

The downfall of these cards is that there's usually only a period of time where you get 0% interest, and then once that period comes to an end, that 0% can turn into over 20% interest. So now you have this balance on your card and suddenly it's accumulating at 20% interest because we didn't get to tackle it and pay off that debt. I typically like to keep debt separate as well because if you can see yourself conquering one with a smaller balance then you can move on to the next one, and it just helps you from a psychological perspective, see yourself gaining momentum, building these habits of not spending on any additional credit cards and really paying off that debt, and it's just a much better method and approach from us as human beings who are very emotional and emotionally attached to our money and need to see ourselves making progress.

In this article, I'm gonna be sharing with you all the things you need to do to pay off credit card debt especially if you don't have a lot of money to apply to your balances. So let's go ahead and get into it 

Understand Your Interest Charges 

You need to understand how much interest is being charged to your account. Interest is the silent killer because it can literally make or break your ability to pay off debt especially when you've taken to consideration, your APR which is your annual percentage rate, and the number of your balances and interest, is how credit card companies make money, they make money off of interest charges and fees. So if you're getting a balance to sit there then they are basically making free money off of you every single month. 

Gather your monthly statements and look at the interest charges, then compare the interest charges to your payment to see exactly how much of your payment actually applied to your balance and how much went to interest. A good thing to do is to compare the interest charges to the minimum payment that the credit card company came up with, just so you can see if you made only the minimum payment, how much would actually be applied to your balance.

Create & Stick To A Budget 

I know you are probably sick of hearing but you need to hear it every single time. Create a budget that aligns with your goal, and your goal is to pay off credit card debt. Don't create this budget and just forget about it. Creating the budget is the fine and easy part, but sticking to it is a whole other story. And I made this mistake in the beginning when I created my budget I was like, cool, everything's gonna be peaches and cream from here on out because my money now knows what to do, newsflash, your money doesn't know what to do, you have to make it do what you pay in that spending plan, aka, your budget. So be intentional and set your intentions on spending the money in the way that you plan for it. Buckle down and follow the spending plan that you created and just remember that this is only temporary. If you want to go out and get your hair done but you really can't afford it because you are drowning in credit card debt so you had to cut it out of your budget, remember that this is only temporary, do what you need to do now so that you can get back to living the life that you want.

Set A "Minimum" Payment And Stick To It

No, this is not the regular minimum payment that your credit card company has calculated. This is going to be an amount that you commit to sending to your credit card balances each month. And so when you've been playing around with your numbers, whenever you were creating your budget this should make this part really easy because now you see how much extra money you have to apply to your credit cards. Whatever amount that you set, make sure it is over the actual minimum payment because going back to the interest charges that we were talking about before, even if it's just $5 or $10 anything over that amount will really help to cut back on those interest charges. This allowing you to pay off that balance a lot faster. Be realistic whenever you are setting this minimum payment amount because you will need to commit to sending this amount to your credit card balances every single month. 

If you send more that's great, but this is the absolute minimum that you can send to your credit cards, and doing this allows you to have a lot more control over your debt payoff date, and it makes you a lot more intentional with your spending. So now you know how much you need to apply to your credit cards every single month, so next time when you're at the store and you see something and you really want it, you are more prone to ask yourself do I really need this? And is this going to cut into that minimum payment that I'm supposed to be sent to my credit card balances?

Stop Seeing Your Credit Line As Money That Is Available For You To Spend

To get out of credit card debt you need to have a massive mindset shift. This is all a mindset game, and not just with credit card debt, but for any debt for that matter. You created your budgets, so you know you have enough money to pay for your expenses including your debt payments. Do you find yourself paying off a balance on your credit card and then running it right back up again? I've got a solution for you

Set Up A Rainy Day fund

Something that is really really difficult and was really difficult for me was to stop being stuck in this "yo-yo effect". And that is when you pay off a certain amount on your credit cards and then you run it back up again. And then you pay it off and then you run it back up again. And so you are stuck in this up-and-down motion so your balance is going up and down, up and down, up and down, and basically, your balance is staying the same. Now this is different from an emergency fund, so I like to separate the two terms

Emergency funds and rainy days funds are different. An emergency fund is for emergencies. A meteor has crashed through your home, someone has totaled your car, now I know that some people don't really see car repairs as an emergency, I see car repairs as an emergency because how am I gonna get to work, are you gonna pay my bills? Therefore, yes, that is an emergency to me.

Rainy day funds that are for those little O's, you went over your grocery budget or you forgot it was picture day so now you need to have just a little bit of money to pay for those expenses. And I believe that whenever you are paying off credit card debt on a low income, a rainy day fund is absolutely vital. It does not have to be a large amount that you keep in there, I like to keep at least $50 in my rainy day fund, so whenever you need some money you can just use the money out of that fund, versus swiping your card and running that balance back up.

Transfer To A 0% Intro APR Card

Yes, I know it seems a little stupid, a little counterintuitive, but hear me out. You may have seen credit card companies promoting this and never really knew what it was. Basically, an APR or annual percentage rate is the amount of interest that you are charged over a year, and a lot of times credit card companies will promote 0% APRs which means that you are not charged any interest. If you are low on income and trying to get out of credit card debt and you're not able to really increase your debt payment, this is something that is very very worthwhile, at least looking into it because all of your payments is going to be going to your balance, that's helping you knock it out a lot faster, versus, your payment going to interest first, and then your balance

This intro' period typically lasts 12 to 18 months, maybe longer, maybe shorter just depends on the credit card company, but you want to make sure that during that time you are paying off as much debt as you possibly can because once that intro period is over, then you will start growing interest again.

This tip may not work for everyone especially if you don't have good credit at least a credit score of 650 and above, or you are someone that has absolutely no self-control because you are getting another credit line which means that you have more money available to you to use. But if you are someone who is very disciplined and you have decent credit then this is something that I recommend looking into because it was a complete game-changer for me as I said because I did not have a lot of money to put on my credit cards, but during these intro periods, I was able to knock out a lot more debt.

Increase Your Income 

This can include picking up flexible side hustles, so you just decided to monetize the skill of yours, whether that is writing, doing hair, etc... If you can increase your debt payments, then you are knocking out those credit card balances a lot faster 

We are done being broke. It's a wrap, it's done, put it in the trash, it's not even going to make it to our vocabulary this year. We're done, we're parting ways with it, the relationship is over. In this article, I'm going to give you seven things that you are doing that are making you broke and you don't even realize it. I wanted this list to not be super obvious, like the no-brainer things, but things that you are doing that you don't even realize that you are doing that's pulling from your money, or eating up your money.

Let's go ahead and get into it

1. Not Saying "No!"

The first thing that is making you broke is your inability to say no. So if you are anything like me you hate confrontation. I hate confrontation. I hate feeling like I'm letting someone down if I don't go out and do something, I hate feeling like I made somebody mad. So to avoid the discomfort, you go out and you spend money that you know you did not have just to avoid saying "no". 

Instead of you just flat out saying no, you can dress it up and make it sound good so you're like, well, I don't know, I have to check my calendar and see if I can make it, or I don't know if I'm going to be able to get a babysitter. So you're trying to say no but you're not really being specific, and when you do this, when you try to dress it up, instead of just saying what it is that you want to say, you are letting those other people have control of the situation. I don't know if anyone has told you this, but no, is a complete sentence

2. Not Investing For The Future

Just in case you did not know inflation is the devil and this is the gradual decrease of your dollars buying power due to rising prices. Even as we speak, your dollar is losing its value and for example, once upon a time I know that you could fill your gas tank up for $10, I don't know about you, but I'm always hearing about how gas used to be so super-cheap it's like $2. So even though that $10 used to put you on if, now your gas tank would probably laugh at that $10 bill. It's gonna be like, dude, what are you trying to do with this?

That is what happens to the dollar over a period of time, it just decreases. So when your money is sitting in a regular singular bank account, you are losing money because your money is losing its value. But when your money is invested, it is in a 401k, it's in index funds, individual stocks, or even a high yield savings account, your money is earning money. So you are earning on your initial deposit or investment, and the money that you have earned is also earning money which is what compound interest is. So when your money is invested and you're investing, this allows you to keep up with the rising prices

3. Not Having A Budget 

If you don't know what's coming in and what is going out then there is a very high chance that more money is going out, versus what's coming in. And budget a lot of times people think that it's just going to be something that causes you to have to sacrifice and give up. But a budget actually gives. It allows you to give to those areas of your life that light you up the most because you are controlling your expenses so the expenses that you include in your budget should align with your values, and because you are controlling your expenses, it maximizes your income. No matter what your income is whether you're a high earner or a low earner, a middle class, whatever, you maximize your income because now you have control over your expenses, as in, where your money is going, so you can redirect those dollars to places that actually benefit you so if you are someone that's like I don't know where my money is going, and you always feel broke, instead of you going out and spending money and you're putting your money in someone else's pockets when you make a budget, and you make a budget that aligns with your financial goals, you get to keep your money or you're basically putting yourself in a better position because you're applying those funds to areas that actually benefit you and not someone else.

4. Social Media

Social media is like the ultimate recipe for FOMO, because now we have this ability to create our own lives online, and we can post whatever we want people to see, we keep behind closed doors what we don't want people to see. And it's so weird because based on what we post we can create this life that we really want in our heads but it may not actually be a reality. And when you are on social media you have to remember that this is just the perception of that person. This is not reality. We don't know what's real and what's not anymore, because you can basically make your life look like whatever. So whenever you are online remember that not everyone is sharing their failures, no one is going to post a picture consistently back to back and be like, oh, I fail today, oh, I have $5,000 in my bank account. They're going to be posting pictures of their new homes, of their vacations, of their new car, whatever. And then when we see this, not knowing that this may not be the reality of their bank account, we want to go out and get the same things because as long as we look financially secure then that is all that matters. 

Sometimes that's how we think. We can deal with the negative balances and all the debt behind closed doors because it's not public, but to the public, we want to appear to be financially stable. So we'll go out and we'll get new cars, new clothes, whatever, just to keep up with people online. And I know it sounds kind of lame saying it out loud, but we do this and we do it unconsciously, and even people that's not famous, people that are in your day-to-day lives sometimes we just don't want those people to one-up us, and we want to have it too, but when you do this, you are, of course, putting yourself in a lot of debt, or you are ruining your chances of building wealth and actually having the life that you are creating for yourself online.

5. Fear

This is a big one because not a lot of people realize the role fear plays when it comes to their finances. But when you are dealing with fear, you are more likely to keep yourself small and things are going to remain stagnant because you are not doing much of anything to elevate yourself because it scares you. So you don't set these goals that you really want to set for yourself and you don't go after the things that you really want to go after because you feel like maybe you're not good enough, or the idea of failure puts more fear in you and you're lacking that confidence, and also, when you are fearful especially when it comes to your money, you are more prone to self sued. So you go out and you are paying for things that you really don't need but you feel like you need at the time because it makes you feel better, it makes you feel more secure, but obviously, you are just chasing your money away, and you may give yourself more excuses as to why you can't do certain things, which of course, is going to keep you stuck in the same spot that you're already in.

So obviously, when you want to pay off debt, you want to start saving more money and investing, it's going to take a certain level of confidence because you have this positive expectation of the future. You cannot expect to get to where you want to go if you're currently being crippled by fear. So much so that you are just unwilling to leave your comfort zone and you're dismissing these opportunities that can really help you get there. So it is going to require just a little bit of confidence, it doesn't have to be you going out with your chest poked out and you're pounding on your chest or whatever, but just a little bit of confidence, that way, you are able to get out of your own way.

6. Your Entitlement

I wish somebody was preaching this to me about five, six years back because I would go out and I would be like, I work hard, I would do something for like four hours, I work hard so I deserve it, I deserve it, I work hard, treat yourself. While it is good to do for yourself, of course, in moderation. That certain type of treat yourself mentality is going to get you into a lot of trouble because you know you don't need to be making those purchases, but you justify them with I work hard so I deserve it lime, and you're probably racking up a lot of credit card debt when you're doing this. You are probably swiping a credit card and you're putting yourself in debt and you're justifying it because you feel entitled to making these purchases

Yes, you deserve certain things but you also deserve to be in a healthy place financially and we all know that credit card debt is not what we mean when we say that we deserve something. You have to practice delayed gratification and realize that there's something bigger beyond those new pair of shoes and that you're not really doing yourself justice whenever you're feeling entitled to making certain purchases that you know you cannot afford

7. Not Being Introspective 

Not interrogating yourself. Whenever you are trying to manage your money properly, you have to be introspective, you have to have the ability to dig deep and understand why you spend the way you spend. So you're spending triggers, why you have this certain relationship with money? Any outside stimuli that affect your spending behavior and things like that. Because if you don't, then your emotions are going to be in the driver's seat. They're going to have complete control over your money and when I'm working with clients a lot of the time I find that their emotions have so much control over how they spend their money. They are completely out of control because it's their emotions that are driving everything. So even though you know you can't afford to make these purchases, you make them anyway, because they are based on your emotions, versus logic. So you're not asking yourself, okay, do I really need to make this purchase? And I want to make this purchase because x y z when in reality I should really do x y z because you are not taking the time to figure out what your spending triggers are, or what outside stimuli are actually affecting how you manage your money. 

And you have to remember that money management is basically the bulk of it is made up of your behavior, based on how you are feeling, based on how you are thinking, based on the people you are around, you are going to manage your money according to your environmental factors and what you are thinking. But when you take the time to really dig deep inside yourself and figure out what is triggering you? By asking those tough questions and kind of thinking back through your experiences and trying to see what went wrong or what made you feel this type of way, and what makes you think this type of way, then you take back control of the narrative and you can actually redirect or reroute those thoughts to those that align with your actual financial goals.

The choice you make here could mean the difference between retiring a millionaire and retiring broke. We're going to cover the important topic of selecting the right financial advisor. This person is going to be like a trusted partner for you as you go through life, helping you make important financial decisions along the way. Choosing the wrong financial advisor could handicap you financially in the future, but don't worry, in a few minutes, you'll have all the information you need to make an excellent selection.

What Is A Financial Advisor?

I would argue that you could answer that question by taking a closer look at the name itself. A financial advisor is someone who provides clients with advice about money-related or financial decisions. Simple as that. There are a number of different types of financial advisors and they can help you with a variety of money-related subjects including managing your investments, creating a plan to reduce your tax liabilities, and purchasing stocks funds or various types of insurance on your behalf. I'm sure you've heard of some other similar job titles like a financial planner, and wealth manager.

• Financial Planner

Type of financial advisor whose work is focused more on long-term planning and less on transactions. 

• Wealth Manager

A wealth manager is another type of financial advisor who primarily works with high net worth individuals (aka) people with a net worth of over 1 million dollars.

I wanted to know when it was the right time for someone to start working with a financial advisor. So I asked a partner at gen financial advisors in Orlando Florida

• He said;

We make financial decisions every day no matter where we are in life. So I think when you're ready to actually take proactive steps and create a plan and do the due diligence and discipline and actually be open to advice that may go against the grain as far as what you're hearing in media, that's when you're at least personally ready to hire a financial advisor. Now, there are some things you can do beforehand to get yourself ready. Honestly, I tell people you should try to be out of debt before hiring a financial advisor. That should be your number one goal because the advice that a financial advisor will give you at that point, you can activate it a lot quicker, and start earning the value that you're going to pay for from the advice.

What Will The Advice From A Financial Advisor Cost You

The answer to that question involves the type of financial advisor you select and how they earn their salary. There are two primary ways financial advisors can get paid

• Commission Based Pay Structure

This financial advisor will get paid by an insurance company or a mutual fund for selling specific financial products, like investments or insurance policies

• Fee-Based Pay Structure

This financial advisor will be paid by you directly for the advice they provide. It could be something like a one-time payment for creating a comprehensive financial plan, or a monthly retainer for advising on a regular basis. 

It's essential to understand how your financial advisor will be compensated. So when you're interviewing potential options, ask about it. It's also a good idea to ask how long a financial advisor has been in business. Financial advisors have to quote-unquote find clients especially when they start this business. So there's a high turnover rate of financial advisors who start but don't make it past the 2 to 3-year mark because they don't make it in the business. So you want to make sure that that's not your person. So I would always ask how long have you been in the business? A good rule of thumb is have you been in this in at least 3 to 5 years? you know you're probably going to be around for the long term at that point.

Are Financial Advisors Bound By A Fiduciary Standard Or A Suitability Standard?

Another important distinction between different types of financial advisors is whether they're bound by a fiduciary standard or a suitability standard? Many financial advisors who are fee-based are bound by a fiduciary standard

• Fiduciary Standard

This means that any advice they provide or products they sell to you must be in your best interest as a client. With a financial advisor who is bound by a fiduciary standard, there are no conflicts of interest. Things like commissions and external business relationships cannot influence the advice they provide you. 

• Suitability Standard

On the flip side, many commission-based financial advisors are bound only by a suitability standard. These financial advisors are allowed to provide financial advice based on what's in it for them. As long as it's reasonable and suitable for you. For example, if you need life insurance they can recommend a high-priced life insurance policy that includes a big commission for them. Even if they know about lower-priced policies that provide the same coverage. 

When you're dealing with money, it's important to have the level of trust that the fiduciary standard provides. When you're interviewing financial advisors make sure you ask what standard they're bound by. Different people call themselves financial advisors and some of them are mortgage brokers and some of them are insurance salesmen, some of them are bankers, and not that those are bad people, but if you're looking for a financial advisor to give you advice on a holistic perspective, help you create a plan. There's an organization called the (cfp board) So you can go to cfp.net and do a search for financial planners near you. There's the fpa (financial planning association) that also has different advisors near you that you can put in your zip code and they'll help you at least start narrowing down your search

Do You Actually Need A Financial Advisor?

I'm the type of guy who prefers to try and figure out things on my own before paying someone else. If something's wrong with my car, I'll try and fix it on my own before bringing it to a shop, I've done all of my business filings on my own without ever asking for help from an attorney and I've even done my taxes myself on multiple occasions. I know there are a lot of people just like me reading and wondering, I've got robin hood, or I've got m1 finance, and I've read a couple of dave Ramsey books, do I really need a financial advisor? I can probably just do this stuff on my own and save myself a few bucks

Finance is something that's very interesting because the last thing you want is to have your financial decisions based on emotional factors. And that's one of the hardest things when it comes to money, it's trying to stay objectively neutral. Whether it's investing, when the markets go up and down, or a personal family decision, you want to try to be as non-emotional as Vulcan as possible when it comes to decisions. And a good financial advisor can help be that objective sounding board for you. So it's always good to have an extra set of eyes that keep you objective. So why does it make sense to hire a good financial advisor because hopefully, you're going to get a lot more value for the money you spend than if you try to do it yourself and maybe make some mistakes along the way that usually are more costly.

Conclusion

It's generally a good idea to work with a financial advisor, as long as you're out of debt and are ready to get serious about your money. Sure, you can learn this stuff on your own, but what you're paying for when you hire a financial advisor is the expertise of someone who is down in the weeds, working on this stuff every single day. And depending on how you choose to spend your free time, that advice can be very valuable 

In this article, I'm gonna be giving you all the tips that have helped me stop spending money because I am a recovering Shopaholic. A few years ago I had a really bad shopping addiction. I was always at the mall and it was so bad that the people that work in the stores in the mall knew me by my first name. And it took me about a year to get my spending under control, but I finally was able to do it through these tips.

Do Some Soul Searching 

You need to sit down and do some soul-searching because buying up everything and not having any control over your spending is pretty much indicates that there is a larger problem, and the faster you can sit down and figure out what is triggering your spending, the faster you can create a plan of action to keep those triggers from eating up your bank account and so you can save more money. I think it gives us a temporary sense of happiness, so it helps to fill whatever void that we have, and whenever you go into a store and you buy things, you feel better, you feel good, but the second the newness of those items wears off, then you are right back into the store buying up more things to fill that void. And then the cycle just keeps repeating itself and you just keep using money that you don't have to spend and putting yourself deeper in the hole.

So you have to sit down someplace quiet where you can really listen to your own thoughts, and you are going to keep interrogating yourself by asking yourself why? Until you figure out the root cause of your spending. If you don't do this then you're just going to continue to buy them, you're going to continue to accumulate things and you are going to try to replace healing with material things, and you're trying to fill this void and we all know that's gonna be like trying to feed a black hole, it's never going to get filled up. So whenever the newness of the item wears off, you are out looking for the next shiny thing. So you have to ask yourself those tough questions, are you in an unhappy relationship? Are you trying to make yourself feel better because you hate your job? Do you have low self-esteem? And you think buying things is going to make you feel more of worth and that was something that was a trigger for me. I thought if I bought all these things then it was gonna make me feel like I was just the bomb like whoever else I was looking up to at the time. 

So whenever you figure out what is driving your spending then you can create a plan of action to keep those feelings and emotions from blowing up your bank account. So whenever you feel those feelings and emotions that you were before, that would cause you to spin, you now have a strategy to keep yourself in check, and whatever you focus on internal healing, then you also heal your finances. 

Unsubscribe

Whenever you are trying to heal from excessive spending, any little things can trigger you. And if you have an inbox full of promotions and new items, you are likely going to be sent over the edge. And right now I notice that my inbox is full of promotions and discounts because Therona has taken over and these companies are like, we need to make money, so they are pushing out all of these emails trying to get me to spin. And these companies are smart. So they do their research and they know how to get inside your mind to make you spin. So they are studying how people think in order to get you to spend money. 

So if you are someone that is trying to stop spending money then you need to clean out your inbox. Limit all distractions, do not tempt yourself, and if I find that someone is emailing me every single day trying to push a sale, I politely remove myself from that list because I know if I keep digesting those emails and what they are putting in those emails then I'm eventually going to break down and make a purchase.

Set A Goal

Whenever we have goals we are intentional, and this helps to curb our spinning because now we have something else to focus on, and we have to keep ourselves in check, in order to reach whatever we set out to do. And so this can be anything from paying off debt to saving money, etc.. whatever it is that you want to achieve financially. Once you know what you want to accomplish, be sure to write your goal down instead of trying to keep a mental note of it, because research actually shows that whenever we write our goals down, we are more likely to reach them because as humans, we are visual beings. So whenever we have a vision, we are processing that image, but when we also write our goals down, we are reprocessing that image, so it's like a double whammy, and we are more likely to bring that image to life. And this also helps to move your goal from what I call the "daydream phase", to reality, because you just put it out in the physicals, and you put it out into the universe, you said what you wanted to do, so you are forced to put in action or suffer the consequences which are being really embarrassed because you didn't do what you said you were going to do.

So whenever you write your goal down, make sure to take it somewhere. Put it somewhere that you are going to see it daily. Whether that's the refrigerator, you can put it on your desk at work, you can make a screensaver, and put it on your phone, or you can tape it down to your wallet which is probably a really good idea because whenever you go out to make a purchase you are going to be unconsciously asking yourself, ok, do I really need to make this purchase? Is this aligning with my goals or is this going to keep me from hitting what I said I was going to do?

Use The 24-hour Rule 

This makes you really question your purchase to see if you really needed to make the purchase or if it was just an impulsive buying. To do this, let's say you go into Target and you came out with a lot of bags, you came out with more items than you expected, you will leave the items in the bag, leave them by the front door for 24 hours. So if you were able to go the whole 24 hours without needing the items then most likely you didn't need them, you just wanted them.

And whenever we let them sit in the bag for 24 hours then that impulsive feeling starts to subside and we start thinking more clearly, and we can actually make a conscious decision. If you're someone who likes to shop online then you will do the same exact thing except you will leave the items in your online cart for 24 hours and then whenever the 24 hours have gone by, go back to your online cart just to see how you feel, if you are still feeling the need to make these purchases. And the good thing is with online shopping, is you can lose the items to other buyers after a certain amount of time. So if you didn't need those items, this makes it a lot easier to wave bye-bye to them because it hurts to remove those items from your cart. I know.

Use the 24-hour rule. Leave your items in the bag, and whenever you go back to your items, if you really feel like you did not need to make those purchases, then take them back to the store.

Budget A Specific Amount For Things 

When you set a budget you are just creating a spending plan. I do not recommend going cold turkey when you're trying to shift from being like a spender to a saver. Because just like whenever you are trying to stop smoking, if you do it cold turkey, you are more prone to relapse and the next time you spin is probably going to be worse than what it was before. So just gently ease yourself into making the transition by setting a specific amount for things such as clothes and food, so you are going to set a certain amount, then give yourself time to adjust to sticking to that specific amount that you've allocated, and then once you have time to adjust, then lower that amount again, give yourself time to adjust, and then continue to do this, until you get your spinning down on those certain items to an amount that you are comfortable with.

Use Cash

Studies have shown that people who use cash actually spend less, and as I stated before, as humans, we are visual beings. So whenever you go out and you are swiping a card, you are not seeing that transaction take place because it is happening on the backend. Therefore, since we are not physically seeing anything, it's a lot easier to detach ourselves from whatever purchase that we made and the effect that it had on our balance. But whenever you use cash, you are physically seeing your $20 bill turn into nothing. And let me just say that it hurts, and whenever something hurts we don't want to do it again, so using cash you become a lot more stingy, and you don't want to give your money up, you don't want to see your money go, you like to see your money in an envelope or wherever you keep it, so you are more prone to question those transactions. You're going to be like, okay, do I really need this? Is this worth my $20 bill turning into a $1 bill?

I recommend pulling out the budget categories that you struggle with, like food, groceries, whatever ones that you continuously come over budget with. I recommend pulling them out in cash just so you are able to keep better track of your balance and how much you have left, and whenever you see your money reducing really fast, then you know you need to tighten up.

Avoid Going To Places Where You Know You Will Spend

This tip is really short and sweet because it is a no-brainer. If certain places make you make it rain, then don't go, or limit your visits. And for me personally, Target is one of those places like I know that I will make it rain in Target. I will blow through my whole paycheck. If I have to go then I would have like a little pep talk with myself in the car just so I have it together. Like dude, get it together before you go in here, which is why I don't really go to Target that much.

Make A-List

How many times have you gone into a store with the intention of only buying a few items, only to come out of that store with a cart full of stuff?. When you write down exactly what you need before you go into a store, you are only focused on those items, so it limits the chance of you just randomly roaming through an owl and picking up a bunch of random stuff that you don't need, and this also helps to cut down the time that you are in the store because you know exactly what you need, you're not looking around and you can get in and out very fast which keeps your money in your pocket. 

Before you enter into a store, set the intention of only going in for what is on your list. If it is not on your list, then it does not need to make your cart either.

How to start your debt-free journey? This is a question that I see all of the time, people are overwhelmed, they're like, how do I start, I don't even know where to start, or how to start. So in this article, I'm going to be breaking it all down for you, giving you some quick very helpful tips on how to get started. So if this is something that you want to learn about, then continue reading.

Prepping Your Mind 

This first tip is a must, it is an absolute must, it's a non-negotiable, if you don't get this right then your debt-free journey is not going to be successful. And that is prepping yourself mentally to take the journey. I know a lot of people are probably like, what debt do I start on? What makes the most sense mathematically? But honestly, the way that you manage your money is mostly behavior-based. But honestly, think about it, when you are sad, you're happy, you're bored, then you are more prone to spend money. Your money revolves around your behavior and your mindset because whatever your thoughts that you are thinking, it is going to play out on how you actually manage your finances. And that's why a lot of times I know some people reading this, you may have started your debt-free journey before, and then you fell off because you lost motivation along the way, or you got discouraged and thought that you couldn't do it, so you quit.

This journey is going to require confidence, you have to be confident in your ability to properly manage your money, otherwise, you're not going to do it. Your desire is to become debt-free. That requires confidence in your ability to become debt-free. So if you're not confident in your ability to become debt-free, mentally you really don't believe that you can do it, you're not going to do it, you're going to fall out the bandwagon, you may do good for a couple of months but just like any other goal, like a new year's resolution you're not going to follow through with it. This is number one. First, prep yourself mentally to take this journey. Know that it is not going to be easy, know that you are going to hit some difficult rough patches, but that you still have that vision of yourself reaching that freedom at the end. So despite what happens don't let your circumstances dictate your outcome, and if you're feeling discouraged or a lack of motivation then oftentimes that's you're putting too much focus on your circumstances, versus what you actually desire, versus your goals

So I challenge you before you do anything before you try to go out and figure out what balance to start with, what makes the most sense mathematically, things like that, just to focus on working on your confidence and your faith because you are going to need that to continue on because a goal without any faith or confidence is not going to work out because you're not going to put action towards it.

Break Up Your Goal Into Milestones Or Smaller Goals

The long-term goal is, of course, debt freedom. But depending on your income and your balance, your total debt balance, it may take you a while to reach that goal. And what happens when you have a big long-term goal, that's going to take you a while to reach. You are going to often lose motivation and you're going to get discouraged and you're going to quit. But when you break up long-term goals into milestones or shorter goals, you are having quick wins along the way and that gives you the boost of motivation that you need to continue going. So this is when you decide how you will start your debt-free journey? Will you start with your smallest debt balance, will you start with the balance that takes the most income, will you start with the highest interest rate, it all needs to make sense to you. I know that there are a lot of personal finance gurus. And so you want to adapt their strategies and apply them to your journey. 

But this is your journey, they don't have your mindset, you can't borrow their mind from them, so you have to do what lights you up and what makes the most sense for you. So just as I was rattling off, a couple of ways that you can start is with the smallest debt balance that you have. That is when you are new and you know how you are mental. If you are someone that loses motivation really quickly, you need that instant gratification of seeing the winds happening faster, then you may consider doing the debt snowball

So let's say that you have debt, and your balances range from an $8,000 auto loan, a $5,000 student loan, and then you have a $2,000 credit card. 

• Debt Snowball

Focus on the smaller individual debt balance first. Make minimum payments on other debts but apply extra money to the smallest balance.

• $5,000 student loan 
• $8,000 auto loan
• $2,000 credit card - Start with this balance first 
• $3,000 personal loan 

With the debt snowball, you will start with the $2,000 credit card balance because it is the smallest balance that you have, and when doing this, you are going to pay on your auto loan and your student loan you're just going to pay the minimum, but then you are going to put most of your extra money towards the credit card debt. And then once you get that knocked out, you will take the money that you were once using on your credit card debt, and roll it over into the next smallest debt in line, which would be your student loan balance. And with the avalanche, it makes the most sense to those who focus on the numbers

So you know that you don't really have a problem with motivation and staying on track. You can keep yourself disciplined and numbers make the most sense to you then you can consider this debt payoff strategy, and this is when you tackle the debt with the highest interest rate 

• Debt Avalanche

Focus on the balance with the highest interest rate. Continue to make the minimum payments on other debts.

• $5,000 student loan  - 6%
• $8,000 auto loan - 5% 
• $2,000 credit card - 22%  - Start with this balance first 
• $3,000 personal loan  - 9%

High-interest debts are costing you the most money. So a lot of people like to take this route because, in the long run, it's saving you the most money. After all, you're knocking out that high-interest debt first, so you don't have that interest eating up your payments anymore, but you may not see the winds as quickly as you would with the debt snowball, because your high-interest debt, that payment is going to interest with the majority of it is depending on your interest rate. And that high-interest debt that you have maybe the highest balance. So you're adding that higher balance and the highest interest rate together, that may take you a while before you really start seeing progress. But if this is something that makes the most sense in your head and you are disciplined and you know that you can stick to it, then it can be really beneficial.

Get On A Budget

Yes, I know. Your skin just crawled, you are rolling your eyes. But a budget will save your financial life. There is no way around it, you are going to need to tell your money what to do. Your money is like a lazy employee if you don't tell your money exactly what it needs to do for you, it's not gonna get done. And instead, it's just gonna run into the hands of someone else. So if you are someone where you know you're making money, you know one day you have money, and then you check your bank account and you went from 100 to zero real quick then yes, you need a budget because your money just ran off and it did not go to you, because you're looking for it, which means, it didn't benefit you at all.

But honestly, when I got on a budget, things started to change and it changed super fast because now I was controlling my expenses which maximized my income. So when you create your budget you have to create it around your values. This is going to require you to sit down and evaluate what is important to you? Is your shopping important to you? Are your mannies and Pettis important to you? What is truly important to you? And this journey is going to require you to strip yourself down of your old identity. Don't expect to be the same person. You are going to completely transform. It's not just your finances that are transforming, it's you transforming as well, so you have to get comfortable being at your barest like, you're going to be completely naked because you can no longer hide behind the things that you were purchasing before, you are now trying to shift your finances which is going to require you to let some things go so whenever you're creating your budget just remember that. But you want to make sure that you are giving your money a plan, your budget is just a spending plan it's telling your money what to do for you. Don't see it as a sacrifice. See it as a way to improve your finances in a way for you to be able to afford the things that are valuable to you.

Build An Emergency Fund 

You have to think of it this way, whenever you start paying on your debt balances if something happens, what's going to be there to back you up? You need something to act as your safety net. And I know I've been there before where you're looking at your debt balances and you literally feel sick to your stomach, you want that instant gratification of seeing them being knocked down, you cannot focus on anything, but paying off your debt. But I challenge you to practice patience because you don't want to knock yourself back 10 steps whenever you took five steps forward. After all, you did not establish anything to back you up before you started. And a lot of times the personal finance gurus likes to go back and forth on how much you should have put back in your emergency fund, it's said to have a $1,000. But I'll be completely transparent, I did not start my debt-free journey with $1,000. I started with about $500 to $700 because I was low income, and honestly, it took me a while to get to that $500 to $700. And I knew that if I kept on trying to hit that $1,000 mark, I was going to be missing out on time because it was just going to take me a while.

So for me, I put some faith in it and I walked with that $500 to $700, but this is not the ideal situation. I would encourage you to at least have a $1,000, but if you can only get up to $500, I say $500 is the least amount then I would say as long as you feel confident in your job and confident in your ability to do this, then walk the journey. You just need something set back to help cover you if something happens, you're not going to be like, oh, I just have $500 here, you're going to be like, thank God, I have this $500. So see your emergency fund as a way to protect your debt-free journey's progress.

I do want to say that you can save money and pay off the debt at the same time. That is what I did. Even though I had less than the $1,000. I was putting back about $10 to $20 from each paycheck because that's all I could afford, but still, I was putting back something in my emergency fund. So I was paying off debt and I was building my emergency fund at the same time, and when you do this, you do establish the habit of staying consistent on your debt-free journey because you are consistently sending off debt payments, as well as saving money consistently. So you're building the habit of saving money as well. It's kind of like a win-win situation. But of course, if your car is always breaking down or you have a home so you know something can happen with the home and it needs repairs, if you have large expenses that often come up, then I would recommend that you have at least $1,000 to start with. That way, you're not getting discouraged, if something knocks you off track, you have something there to help cover you.

Evaluate And Re-evaluate Your Strategy

When you are starting out on your debt-free journey, you are new. And just like when you're new to anything else. It is important to evaluate what is working and what isn't working because you want to make sure that the strategy that you are using is successful, and your life is always happening. Life is changing, your income may change, your circumstances may change, or you just picked a random strategy in the beginning, and you found out that it's really not beneficial and you're not seeing the progress that you had expected. So you may want to evaluate and re-evaluate so you know maybe what strategy works best for you. And don't just evaluate your progress on your debt. Evaluate your mindset as well 

Is the strategy that you are using lighting you up? Is it motivating you? Or is it making you feel completely miserable?. If you are someone that tends to quit easily when things get tough, but you started using the debt avalanche. If it's making you feel miserable and you are on the verge of quitting, then you need to evaluate your strategy and maybe the debt snowball would be more beneficial because you're starting with the smallest balance, and you see those wins a lot faster. So as you progress on your debt-free journey, of course, you will start using a more stable strategy, but in the beginning, to get to that stable strategy, you want to make sure that you are evaluating the strategy that you started off with, that way, you can make your tweaks and your changes as you go to perfect it

Financial setbacks happen, they're going to happen, you're not perfect Patti, but you can always bounce back. I want people to know that despite their circumstances, debt freedom is still an option, but unfortunately, what happens on your debt-free journey is sometimes you have a financial setback or maybe you're not even on a debt-free journey, you're just trying to save money, build wealth, whatever you're trying to do with your finances it is not going to be a linear process. But sometimes on the internet, it can seem like that. 

In this article, I am going to be breaking down my five-step process to help you bounce back if you have recently had a financial setback and maybe went into more debt.

1. Understand What Happened

Understand what happened, analyze the situation, because just like with history you have to know your history so that history doesn't repeat itself. If you really don't know what has happened in the past and analyzed the situation to understand what went wrong and why then you're more prone to repeat it again. And I know that depending on your personality you might not even want to deal with it at all, you might want to act like it does not exist because the thought of it makes you sick to your stomach and you feel like if you look at it, its entirety, it's gonna make it more real. So it's just easier for you, it feels better to try to act like what has gone wrong has not really happened like it doesn't exist, but you are doing yourself a disservice when you do that

A financial setback is just feedback. It is an experience that you needed to gain wisdom. Now you know what not to do because it results in XYZ. And I know that there are some people in the same breath that are super hard on themselves, so instead of acting like it does not exist, they are stuck in the shoulda, woulda, coulda phased. So you're really just down on yourself like I should have done this, what if I would have done this, oh, I should have done this, and then I wouldn't be XYZ. still, depending on what side of the spectrum you're on, whether you are in this shoulda woulda coulda stage, and you're really hard on yourself, or you act like it doesn't exist, it's still both are keeping you from progressing, both are keeping you in the same spot. Because when you act like it doesn't happen you're not going to take action to fix it because you don't even know what to fix, and then when you are stuck in the shoulda woulda coulda phase, you are keeping yourself stuck in the same spot because you're not taking action to go forward because you are blocking your opportunities to go for it, you're using all your brain energy on what should have happened, even though it already happened, so you're not going forward

What has happened has already happened, you can't change the past, but you can change the future. And I also feel like whenever you stare it down, the situation loses the power that it once had over you. It loses that grip that it had on you because you're staring it down, you're stripping it of its power and now you're able to see opportunities to bounce back. And also, with experience comes wisdom. if you did not have any experiences, how would you have wisdom, wisdom to know what to do and what not to do, so don't see it all as a negative thing, having a financial setback can be a positive thing. As for those who are in debt, if you never went into debt you probably would not know about interest rates, how loans work, you probably would not know about debt payoff strategies, you probably would not have gotten into the topic of personal finance at all. So everything has its place in your life, but you have the power to decide how you're gonna go about it. Are you gonna let it defeat you, or are you gonna get up and bounce back?

2. Run The Numbers

Just like you did at the start of your debt-free journey where you listed out all of your balances, you're going to do the same with your new debts so you're going to list out the balances, the lenders, the interest rates, and the type of debt that it is, and then you're going to work that into your total financial plan. So now you're going to have your financial picture all in one sitting and it's probably going to hurt, but once again, whenever you stare it down, you strip it of its power over you, and you start seeing opportunities. So don't feel discouraged whenever you add these additional debt balances to the ones that you are currently tackling because you have a plan that you are putting in place to overcome those things.

3. Set A Goal

Not goals, but one specific goal. Goal setting I know it's often talked about and people often create goals, but they don't create goals in a way that's going to light them up and keep them motivated and actually wanting to take daily consistent action. So you may be one of those people that have set goals at the beginning of the year and then you fizzle out after a few months and you lose that motivation and you just quit and the goal is never reached. 

You have to know where you want to be, your destination which is your goal before you can figure out how to get there which is your action plan. You cannot create an action plan to bounce back until you know where you want to be.

So creating a specific goal is key. I'm an advocate for smart goals, I always use smart goals. Because you want your goal to be specific, you want it to be measurable, you want it to be relevant and attainable, and you want it to be time-bound, because if you just say that I'm going to start on a Monday, there are a lot of Mondays during the month, and it's so easy to be like, okay, I'm going to start next Monday, but when you put a specific date on it, like a timestamp, it just does something to you mentally where you know that you have to get your butt in gear by this specific date, and then you have a goal that you are trying to hit at a specific time. So it pushes you to keep working towards that goal, and taking daily consistent action. And also, whenever you are creating a goal, your brain automatically adopts that new identity. So you want to make sure that your goal is realistic. That is key. Setting an unrealistic goal is a recipe for losing motivation and feeling down about yourself because you didn't hit the goal. So you want to take your current financial situation into consideration whenever you are setting your goal. Don't take the income that you're expecting to have in the next few months, use what you have right now so should something happen later down the line, you still have your goal that is realistic to your current financial situation.

So based on the debts that you have including the debts that you recently ran up and the ones that you are currently working on before the financial setback. Choose one of those debt balances to focus on. Choose the one that lights you up the most. This could be the one with the lowest balance, this could be the one with the highest interest rate, it could be the one with the highest payment, or it could be the one that is causing you the most stress. And whenever you set your goal, make sure it is within a six to one-year time frame. So you want to kick your butt into gear, and you don't want it to go past a year. For example, let's say that you ran up a credit card balance by $4,000, so now your current debts are 4 student loans, $4,000 credit card balance. So that credit card that you just recently ran up is causing you the most stress, it's making you sick looking at it, you're just ready to get it over and done with, so you decide to change your goal because you are going to have to change the goal that you were previously working on if you were already on a debt-free journey because now you have to add in that setback, so you decide to change your goal from tackling maybe a student loan to focusing on that $4,000 credit card balance

A goal you can set is you want to pay off $1,500 from that credit card balance in the next six months.

4. Adjusting Your Spending Plan

Depending on what you were doing before on your debt-free journey it is, of course, going to need to be adjusted. Your spending plan is going to need to be adjusted because now you have new debts that you have worked into the picture. And I always suggest going straight to your budget first, because your budget shows you what you are doing with your income, it's the easiest way to go about it. Your budget is your spending plan and so it's going to tell you what expenses you're paying for, how much each expense is, and how much discretionary income that you have that you could work into this goal or this plan because your discretionary income is the amount of free money that you have after all of your expenses are taken care of.

I always advocate for a goal-based budget, a budget that is created around one specific goal. You want to adjust your spending plan and make it work around your goals. So depending on your goal, going back to our example, we want to pay off $1,500 from the credit card we ran up in six months, so when we go to our budget depending on how we were previously going about it, we're of course going to need to pull the funds from that student loan that we were once focusing on and applied the majority of our excess funds to that credit card, of course, you are still going to make your minimum payments on your other debts, we don't want you to default or anything like that, so make your minimum payments on your other debts, but because your goal is focused around this one credit card, your extra money is going to need to be applied to this credit card in order to get the goal knocked out, in order to get the balance to where you feel most comfortable, and in order to bounce back.

5. Create Milestones & Tasks

Break up your goal into milestones and milestone tasks. We all know that having a budget and a goal is just simply not enough. If it were, a lot of us would be out here killing it. But unfortunately, a lot of people who set goals don't reach them. You have to be committed to taking daily action towards your goal, and a great way to ease yourself into doing this without feeling like you are dying is to break up your goal into milestones, and then for each milestone, create tasks to achieve each milestone. So you're like tricking yourself into getting to the goal by taking even smaller steps. Going back to our goal where we want to pay off $1,500 from our credit card in six months, we can create two milestones.

• Milestone 1: Stop using credit cards 
• Milestone 2: Increase payment from $300 to $380 by April 1, 2021

So now that we have our milestones, we need to set or create milestone tasks. What needs to be done to make sure each milestone is going to be hit, you do want to do at least one to three things daily so set one to three daily tasks for yourself, because you want to get into the habit of taking daily action towards your goal, and it takes about 30 days to form a habit so just expect for the beginning to feel really uncomfortable especially if this is new, it's not going to be easy, but it does get easier over time

• So using one of the milestones as an example, we stop using credit cards, our tasks can look like we're going to leave the credit card at home before we leave the house. So we're going to take them out of our wallet, put them up, and then we are going to leave them out without the credit card so we're not tempted to use them. 

• Then the second task could be to pack a snack every day for work. That way whenever you get off work, you can eat your snack on your way home that way you're not tempted to stop by fast food, drive-through line and blow your budget and run up your credit card if you did not leave it at home.

• Then the third task could unsubscribe from all retailer's email lists. That way we can ensure that we are not going to be using our credit card, but you want to take into consideration what your spending triggers are, what habits do you have, bad spending habits do you have concerning this credit card, and then create your milestones and your tasks around that 

Conclusion

That wraps up how to bounce back from a financial setback, and these were the five steps that I used to help me bounce back every time I went into more debt. I do want to reiterate that you are more than capable of bouncing back, you have a decision, you can decide to let the financial setback just take you out of the game, or you can decide to get up and do something about it. As long as you are disciplined, you are motivated, you have a specific goal and action plan to overcome this financial setback, then you will.