To listen to our politicians and press, you'd think we've returned to the
Great Depression, with 25% unemployment and soup lines, when it's just about
1% of our people getting overextended in debt.  Still, if you're one of
those people, it is the Great Depression for your family.  Well, how do
you get over this personal debt crisis, get out from under all the credit
card debt and make the changes necessary to wipe out your debt for good? 
This article will show you how to eliminate debt without filing bankruptcy,
ruining your credit or being harassed by creditors over late payments. 
As an added benefit, you'll learn how to keep this from happening to you,
again.  

The Debt Crisis In Personal Credit:  It concerns me to hear all the
talk about a credit crisis as though the lenders were villains, forcing
their money on poor, defenseless debtors.  If you think of yourself as
a victim of the creditors, this article is probably not for you and you will
probably be bankrupt or homeless in a short amount of time.  If, on the
other hand, you're willing to accept responsibility for your debt crisis,
you probably have a good chance to get it fixed...permanently.  The
root of the problem is the credit customer, always wanting to live beyond
his income.  We see all that stuff other people have and want it for
ourselves, whether we can afford it, or not.  The motivation is
probably a combination of low self-esteem, greed and pride, but the result
is a personal debt crisis.

We buy a bigger house than we can afford because someone will give us the
money...100% of it's current value.  We refinance as the value goes up,
to get other things we want, not wanting to admit home values go up and down.  We buy cars, boats and other big "toys" on
fairly high interest loans because we're unwilling to wait until we've saved
for them and because we don't want to be seen in that old "beater" of ours. 
After we've bought the home, we discover how many thousands of dollars
credit card companies are willing to loan us, and that's usually when the
problem goes from barely manageable, to impossible.

Credit Card Debt:  A credit card is a great tool for people who
manage their money but don't want to carry it around.  You can use
someone else's money interest-free for a month, enough time to get the bill
and pay it off.  If you don't pay it off, you've already agreed to pay
ridiculous interest rates each month until you do.  If you make the
minimum payment, it will take over 20 years to pay for whatever you buy, and
cost you more than 3 times as much...not very smart.  Average credit
card debt per household in the US is $ 8,400, but since over 60% of families
have no cards or pay them off each month, the average household debt of the
rest is $ 21,000.  This doesn't count the car loans and mortgages.  
In fact, a very scary practice has been to refinance the house to pay for
the credit cards and then use the credit cards to make the house payments. 
People who do this are mere months from losing all their assets due to
foreclosure and bankruptcy.    

Bankruptcy And Debt Negotiation:  People who use debt negotiation
and bankruptcy to clear personal debt without fully paying what they owe,
are often robbing themselves of good credit and of a genuine solution to
their spending problem.  People go to court, get a good bit of their
debt excused and, as soon as they get credit cards, start the cycle over
again.  The pain continues because the price of being financially
irresponsible is not high enough...someone keeps swooping in and bailing us
out.  We never lose anything, and begin to think we're entitled to get
other people's property without paying for it.  This is a very painful
existence, never being free of debt, because we're never willing to say "no"
to ourselves.  Most people are capable of paying their debt off and
freeing themselves if they hadn't gotten bailed out.  Had the people
come and taken our TV, we'd have incentive to learn how to end our debt
cycle, and free ourselves.  

Wiping Out Debt And The Debt Cycle:  For over 99% of us, it's
possible to eliminate credit card debt in less than 2 years, and total debt
in less than 5.  All we need to do is make a
Total Debt
Elimination-Reduction Plan and discipline ourselves to follow it. 
Uh-oh!  Did I use the "D" word...Discipline?  Well, that's the
price of debt-freedom.  If we aren't willing to pay that price, it
explains why we're where we are, financially.  For the precious few who
read this article and actually decide to discipline yourselves and wipe out
the debt cycle, I want to applaud you and tell you there's no question you
can do it.  For the rest, I'm not going to coddle or sympathize.

Here in the US, we have more wealth and economic choice than anyone in
the history of the world.  Our welfare recipients live in better
economic conditions than 96% of the world.  Having visited third world
countries and seen people living in cardboard boxes, it's embarrassing for
me to hear financial hardship described as having only one plasma TV. 
I said that to say this.

Anyone in the US who is willing to work hard and discipline themselves
can wipe out their credit card debt, auto loans and mortgages.  You can
free yourself from the debt cycle and soar above the common temptations of
wasteful spending.  The only thing holding you back is willingness. 
If we're not willing to work hard and discipline ourselves, no amount of
assistance will free us.  On the other hand, if you're willing to do
what it takes to be debt-free, you'll have all the help you need.