Burdened by Debt? Restore Your Finances and Your Faith

Ok, sounds obvious, right? So just do it! Cut up all of your credit cards. ALL OF THEM! Don't use the "I'll just keep one in case of emergency" excuse, because I had a pair of amazing Prada shoes that qualified as an emergency in my book.

Someone told me about a trick where you freeze your credit cards in a cup of water, so you have to wait an hour to use them and can spend that time waiting for the spending urge to pass. Why have the tempatation in the house? CUT THEM UP TODAY!

Cut yourself off from all money sources, too. Stop hitting up your parents for money, and most definitely avoid sites like Prosper. If you got hooked on payday loans, there's some good advice here on dealing with too many payday loans.

Like all things life, you are never alone. For me, creating support was the most important part of this process. I'm sure I'd have ten times as much debt by now if my friend hadn't cut up my cards! Go and find find an accountability partner who can get you over the hump and lend support during those tough times. You'll definitely think twice about racking up more debt if you know you'll have to call your partner and confess to them!

For me, my church has also been an amazing source of support. My pastor helped me realize that my spending and debt was causing me to lose control of my life. Breaking my bad habits was crucial because I was letting myself down in His eyes.

I strongly recommend that everyone read how you can you can repair your finances and your faith together at the same time. Check out and get active in the Christian Debt Forum, especially if your church doesn't offer a support group for people with financial problems.

You knew we would get to this. Those bills are going to have to get paid somehow.

Start with a good credit card payment calculator. No more minimum monthly payments for you, Buddy Bear! It can take you over five years to pay back your loan that way, and the interest just keeps chugging along. The cool thing about loans, though, is that just paying even a little bit more helps them go down a whole lot faster.

Here's the proven two-step method to paying down your debt quickly:

Step One: Pay as much as you can each and every month

Figure out the most you can pay each and every month and stick to it. I'm not going into a big lecture about cutting out lattes and all that. Just figure out how much you can pay towards all of your debts and PAY IT every month. No excuses. If you have a little extra money lying around one month, put that towards your card too.

Step Two: Pay the most expensive debt first

Look at all of your bills, and rank them by interest rate. Add up all of the minimum payments due and subtract that amount from the amount you've committed to paying each month. However much is left, put it all towards the highest cost credit card. This will result in you paying off the most expensive loan as quickly as possible. When that loan is gone (good riddance!), take the whole amount you were paying towards that loan and put it towards the next most expensive loan, and so on.

When you get a bunch of months into this process, you'll get the very expensive debt paid off and then you'll be shocked at how fast the rest of your balances start decreasing!

Absolutely stay away from all of those 0% credit card offers. They are just going to give you a short break and then cause even more problems! You may want to learn about debt consolidation programs. You should definitely consolidate any student loans that you may have -- this can save you a few hundred dollars per month that you can put towards your credit cards!

You've finally reached the end of the rainbow. Your debt is gone, you feel good about yourself, and you maybe are even ready to responsibly take out some credit again.

Make sure that your past stays in your past. Start by getting a free copy of your three credit reports. (Don't get conned into paying a service for them!)

Give them a solid review -- they probably aren't pretty, but they may not be accurate either. Credit reports are usually full of errors that will hurt your ability to borrow and get a good interest rate. It's actually not hard to improve your credit report, so don't waste money on all of those services offering to do it for you. You can learn how to fix your own credit report by just writing a few good letters to the correct places.

With you debt cleared and credit restored, don't even think of dumping your accountability buddy and the other resources that worked for you. I don't want to see you back here with new problems!

--Shelly