UNITED STATES—Debt is debt. It is something I think every American has and will have a vast portion of their lives. Why? We have credit cards, we have loans, we have access to things that can get us in trouble. With the credit card it starts off small, but before you know it you start swiping and you cannot stop and boom you have amounted thousands of dollars in debt America. The question then lingers what the hell can I do to knock this debt down? Well it all starts with not creating more debt.

If you know you have credit cards that are nearing their max, you have to develop a plan of attack to start paying off the balance on those cards. Why? You’ll just be stuck in that cycle where you are paying off a credit card each month and not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. It is smart to be wise about using those credit cards. Use them ONLY if you absolutely have to use them. That happened to me recently at a retailer where I had a credit card and I try to ONLY use it if I’m saving money. If not, there is NO point of me using the card. Why? I’m adding to my debt which is the last thing I want to do.

In addition, if you do save that discount at that retailer where you have a store credit card, pay it back that same day. Why? You prevent interest from being added to the card and you’re not adding debt to the card. Remember, store credit cards tend to have the highest APR most waver between 24 and 30 percent. Yeah, that is a huge amount people, so the more you reach your limit the higher the interest which means, if you’re ONLY paying the minimum due, you are barely putting a dent into your debt it just keeps growing.

When it comes to credit cards, I’m a proponent that you don’t need more than 2 maybe 3 at most. When you get into having 5, 6, 7 or more major credit cards you really put yourself in dicey situations. How so? You have all these cards that you have to pay off each month. If you have 10 cards and each have a minimum of $50, that is $500 a month in just credit card bills you have to pay off, not considering the fact that you’re ONLY paying the minimum due, meaning you’re basically paying the interest and not knocking the debt down.

Don’t be tempted to use your card if you have cash. I think that is the issue so many Americans have we are scared of NOT having cash, and as a result we rely on the credit, but we still spend the cash, so then we have nothing as a result. Use your cash to pay for things because you’re more aware of what is being spent and you are less likely to overspend as a result which helps you stay within your budget and knock down debt at the same time.

Written By Jason Jones