As of April 2009 the United Sates had an estimated 57 trillion dollar debt. If anybody needs to find the best debt relief program I think Barack Obama should be the first in line. I realize that you probably don’t have anywhere near a 57 trillion dollar debt load but I also know that it certainly can feel that way sometimes. What I want to do in this article is give you 3 Simple and effective steps to relieve your debt load and do it fast.

1. Stop Spending – As much as you may hate to hear that it really is unavoidable. How serious are you about getting rid of your debt? If you’re looking for an easy way out you will regret it in the long run and may end up like the American Government sooner than you think. The one thing that I realized when I was looking to get out of debt was that If I didn’t closely watch my spending I was only gonna go deeper and deeper in the hole and would get no where fast.

Obviously you need to get the essentials (groceries, medication, etc.) But if you really want to get out of debt and get out fast you are going to have to sacrifice some things that may be perfectly legitimate to buy but not absolutely essential.

2. Make a Budget – Keep all your receipts for one month and calculate all your expenses for that month. Next, divide all your monthly expenses up into categories eg: (rent, utilities, groceries, savings, emergency etc.) and find out how much of each pay check needs to go into each category. Lastly, make sure you stay consistent in putting the proper amounts of money in each category every pay period.

3. Highest Interest First – Within your budget you will have a category for debt and you must make sure to pay as much as possible off of the highest interest debt that you currently have off of every paycheck. This is simple yet essential and yet is often overlooked.

Listen, you really don’t have to be in debt! If you will follow these simple steps you will be well on your way to climbing out of that seemingly bottomless pit of debt!