Keep Track of Your Debt

Right now, without looking at bill statements or your written budget, do you know exactly how much total debt you have? Do you know exactly how much you must pay every month in debt payments? Do you know exactly how many creditors you have? Do you know exactly how long it will take you to pay off all your debt at your current rate of payment?
If not, don’t feel bad. Most people don’t carry this information around in their heads. You must know your debt situation down to the last penny, not so you can dwell on your woes, but so you can acknowledge your situation and continue to work on solving it.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to debt relief is denial. If you do not track your debt, you will be less likely to think about it. When you don’t think about it, you will find it much easier to continue the spending, charging and living habits that got you into debt in the first place. The next thing you know your debt will be twice as much as it was before.

To Solve A Problem You Need To Know Its Dimensions
Of course, some people don’t think about their debts because it’s too painful. They choose to be in denial rather than face the facts and take corrective action. That’s too bad, because with just a little effort and perseverance, they could solve the problem once and for all. As Abraham Lincoln once said “You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Please don’t stick your head in the sand. Know at all times exactly how much you owe and to whom. This is called tracking your debt, and it’s an essential action for anyone who owes money.
Debt tracking does not have to be difficult, time-consuming or complicated. In fact, as a reader of this book, you can get a clear and quick analysis of your debt by using the resources I mention in the appendices of this book. For the most part, these are automated tools. So you don’t even have to work hard to have the knowledge you need about your finances. You will find a
tremendous wealth of knowledge, plus information on how you can increase the speed by which you can become debt-free, using your computer and the internet.
Please be sure to read the next article before you develop your debt-elimination strategy.
The chapter deals with specific strategies for reducing or eliminating your debt … so you can finally start building wealth.