The Illusion is that your happiness increases as you have more stuff so you go into debt, get money and you get your stuff to be happy. But the reality is that stress, not the happiness increases as you borrow more money. And that's the aha moment we don't want you to have. But unfortunately you probably will. It may take you a year to figure it out. Five years, ten years down the road, you're going to realize that your debt and your behavior has caused you this stress. So we realize that some of you may be facing some really tough stuff like a death, divorce, major illness. When your life settles down, the steps we're sharing are still relevant. For the other 90 percent, it's time to get to work. We're going coached ill. You've got to have a behavior change. No more instant gratification. Can't say no. That has got to change. And this is what's blocking you from tackling your debt. So to help you, we've put together some steps. Number one, you've got to stop borrowing. We've just explained how it affects you emotionally. You've got to avoid the mouse traps. You need to have a zero based budget. And when completed properly, the average improvement in debt reduction is 19 percent. And an increase in savings is 18 percent to those who don't do the budget. How about that emergency fund? We've talked about it. It's a cushion between you and life. Remember, baby step one, it's $1,000. Get it in the bank. And here's the nice, important one. The really big key when it comes to tackling debt. It's called the debt snowball. We begin by listing all of your debts from the smallest to largest by balance with the exception of your house. We'll take care of that later. In our example, we only owe JC Penny $350. So that's listed first. The largest debt is the student loan at a whopping $20,000. So we're going to put that last at the bottom of the debt snowball. We're going to pay off the smallest debt first. Let's pay off JC Penny, have a garage sale. Not that one out. Be done with it. So now the $35 we were sending to JC Penny, we can add that to the $75 paid to Best Buy. So you actually now have $110 going towards Best Buy. The snowball is starting way to go. Once that's paid off, just like the couple in the budgeting and planning for emergency story, we need to celebrate our victories. Cross that one off the list and do a day and celebrate. We're rolling. We're starting to win. And this is about behavior and gaining momentum. The snowball is growing and we add that payment to the next bill. And we now have $260 going to fresh start. We do this until we get to the student loan and instead of paying just $250 per month, you are now sending $1,110 to get rid of the student loan. The cool thing is when the student loan is paid off, you will have an extra $1,110 a month. What could you do with that? I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty motivated to get rid of that debt. Remember, if you're why is strong enough, the how happens. No more excuses. Let's just go kill the debt. And just by paying the minimums, it would have taken 9.5 years to pay off these debts. The debt snowball, it's important because that method reduces it to three years. What does adding just $500 a month do? Your debt free date goes to just under two years and we've seen coaching couples do that on a regular basis. So you might be saying great, I'd love to have an extra $500. Where do I find it? Well here are a few ideas for extra money. Check your withholding. So many people love a large tax return. Rather than a large refund, adjust your W4 withholding is to have more take home pay. For example, a $5,000 tax return will add roughly $350 to your bottom line each month. Also, you can adjust your retirement. You need to quote your insurance. Insurance rates are constantly changing. Quoting auto and homeowners annually may save you hundreds of dollars a year. Consider term life insurance against whole life insurance. And you may have some savings, some money in the bank. You may just get a bonus, some gifts, some extra checks, types of money there that are floating around there and their nice gifts when they come along. Well they now have a name on them and they are going toward the debt. And sell some stuff. You need to kill this debt so sell your stuff now. The boat. The buy. You're not using those. How about the four wheeler? And yes, sell the car. In short, look for stuff around the house. Have a garage sale. Get busy on eBay and Craigslist. It's just stuff and we can get more later. You may also want to look for some part-time work or overtime. Now some of this is going to hurt, but you know what? It's worth it. Why is it important to get debt paid off as quickly as possible? Well, it's time for this fun. It's time to grow your money. You've got the debt paid off. Our friend and coach Chris Hogan says interest paid is penalty. Interest earn is a reward. So I don't know about you. I want rewards not penalties. So let's get out of debt. Let's take a look at what happens when we pay ourselves those payments. So check out this graphic. Now we should easily be able to save $100 a month because we're out of debt. So that would grow to $7,800 in five years, $20,000 in 10 years, and $76,000 in 20 years. The numbers get staggering when you look at what savings $500 a month could do and $1,000 a month savings. Wow. Can you see why we're so emphatic about encouraging you to tackle your debt? And we mentioned that. You're getting the picture. Your largest wealth building tool is your income. Stop throwing at a debt and start building wealth.