How to Get Out of Debt and Become Financially Secure in 7 Steps

I’m going to show you how to get out of debt and become financially secure in these 7 steps

Know your “facts.” When talking about personal finance, your facts are your current financial situation, meaning your cash flow and budget.

Know yourself. It’s imperative to get clear on your beliefs about money and your goals and priorities.

Set your initial emergency fund. Get $1,000 saved in an account separate from your everyday checking account.

Pay yourself first. Enroll in your company’s 401(k) or open an IRA and begin contributing.

Grow your emergency fund. Get one month’s worth of living expenses saved.

Pay off credit cards. Develop a plan to eliminate credit card debt and execute the plan.

Complete your emergency fund. Get six month’s worth of living expenses saved.

I’m going to give you what you need to complete each step.

But know this, it will not be easy.

We’re talking about making a transformational change.

And transformational change is not accomplished quickly. It doesn’t come in a pill, there’s no hack or download that will make this happen for you. The only thing that’s going to make it happen is you.

The good news is, you can do it.

How do I know? Because I did it. And I’ve been helping others to do it for over 20 years.

I’ve followed every step of this process and I know it works.

It’s important for you to know that while I’ve made a lot of great financial decisions in my life, I’ve also made a lot of bad ones. So this is a judgment free zone. Wherever you are, I want to help you get where you want to go.

Let’s get started.

Know your “facts”

With personal finance, your “facts” are your cash flow and your budget. In order to get out of debt and become financially secure, you have to know where you’re currently at. Having a firm grasp of your cash flow and keeping a personal budget will help you do that.

Cash Flow. This isn’t a complicated concept, but it’s an integral one. You have to know how much money you have coming in each month and how much is going out. Odds are, you have a better sense of how much is coming in, because it’s probably more consistent. Our spending is more variable, but when you track it, you’ll get a clearer picture.

To track your cash flow, review the statements for every way you spend money (credit cards, debit cards, etc). As you’re getting started, do this monthly.

The first time you do this, I want you to go through the previous 12 months’ worth of statements, here’s why. You’re looking for recurring charges and for things you’re spending money on that you no longer value. I remember going through this exercise with my wife the first time and finding hundreds of dollars of monthly expenses for things we no longer used.

If you find expenses you’re not sure about, pause them to see if you’ll miss not having them. You can always sign up again.

Budgeting. Budgeting is simply having a plan for your money.

I don’t love budgeting, and my wife keeps our household budget. Over the past 10 years, I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of having a budget. We know we’re on track to meet our goals and objectives. We know if we can afford something, and when we can’t.

A budget is empowering.

There are a lot of ways to keep a personal budget. You can use a spreadsheet or an app. Here’s a post on finding the method that’s right for you.

The 50/20/30 budget guide is a great way to get started. It’s also a great indicator of whether or not your spending is going to lead to long-term financial success. Here’s a post on how to get started with 50/20/30.

Whatever you choose, keep this in mind. Budgeting is not a game of perfect. Some months you’ll be on budget, some months you’ll be over. What’s important is you continue to track and refine it.

As you’re getting started, review your budget monthly. Once you’ve been budgeting for a year, you can shift to quarterly reviews.

Know yourself

It’s imperative to get clear on your beliefs about money and your goals and priorities. In this section, you’re going to dig into how you’re wired (your beliefs about money) and where you want to go (your goals).

Beliefs about money. If you’re serious about changing your life, this will be the most important section. You’ve heard Henry Ford’s quote “whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” That applies here. If you think you’re going to be financially successful, you have the chance to be. If you don’t, financial success will be very hard for you to achieve.

It all comes down to our operating system. Just like our phones have them, so do we. They’re constantly running in the background, taking in information and formulating responses. Think about a polarizing subject and what your response to it is; Donald Trump.

What was your response? Don’t overthink it. What was your initial gut response?

For financial matters, we have beliefs about money which influence our thinking and our behavior. These beliefs were installed when we were kids and while we’re constantly getting updates, the original programming will be there until we proactively change it.

That’s the good news. You can change your beliefs and your brain.

How do you know if you have negative or limiting beliefs about money? Pay attention to your triggers and your behaviors. Are you triggered by people you perceive to have money? Are you triggered by certain cars or brands? Do you avoid certain activities like budgeting?

When you become aware of what you’re triggered by and or what you’re avoiding, you can then investigate their origins.

For example, I was raised by a single mother who was a teacher and we were middle class. There was never enough money to go around. Once a month, my mom would “pay bills” and my brother and I knew to stay out of her way.

That experience of scarcity caused me to avoid financial matters (even though I worked in finance). I didn’t keep a budget, I waited till the last minute to pay bills, and I put off filing taxes for as long as I could.

Once I made the connection, I could change my beliefs and therefore, my behaviors around money.

Goals. In order to reach our destination, we need to figure out where we want to go. That’s what goal setting is.

I’ve always intellectually known the value of having goals, but it took me until I was 35 before I actually did it. Goal setting was always abstract to me and I didn’t know where to start. To help make this process easier, I encourage you to think about what you want to accomplish in these six areas.

Family

Community

Money/Career

WellBeing

Personal Development

Contentment/spiritual

It’s really important that you think hard about what you want in each of these areas, and that you actually write it down.

Getting clear on what you want your life to look like will help you prioritize your financial decision-making today. For example, knowing you want to help your kids with their tuition in 15 years and that you’d like to be able to stop working in 25 years will help you be more prudent with your spending today.

If you’re ready to dig into your beliefs about money and your goals, you can access our Goals Course at no cost.

Set your initial emergency fund

Get $1,000 saved in an account separate from your everyday checking account. Several years ago, research came out that over 60% of Americans wouldn’t be able to come up with $500 in case of emergency. That’s a problem.

The third step in this process is to get $1,000 saved up. $1,000 is enough to cover most minor emergencies like car trouble. Your emergency fund needs to be a bank account that is separate from your everyday checking account. This is a practical decision so you don’t accidentally spend it. It’s also a psychological decision to show yourself you can save money.

If your bank tries to charge you to have an additional account, find a new bank like Chime. There are plenty of online banks that would love to have your business.

If you don’t have $1,000 saved, stop doing any other saving and investing until you get there.

Pay yourself first

Enroll in your company’s 401(k) or open an IRA and begin contributing.

The Golden Rule of personal finance is “pay yourself first.” It’s because if you’re in the habit of paying everyone else, and then paying yourself, you’ll get to the end of the month and there won’t be any money left for you. If you’ve ever lived paycheck to paycheck, you know this to be true.

Even if you’re only contributing 1% of your earnings, you’ve gotten started. Saving money is an activity that is best automated, especially as you’re getting started. I can attribute a lot of my success in life to forming good habits.

As time goes on, and you accumulate money in your account, your confidence will increase as well.

Grow your emergency fund

Get one month’s worth of living expenses saved.

Setting up your initial $1,000 emergency fund was an important step, now it’s time to increase it. By going through your cash flow and setting up your budget, you should have a good handle on your monthly expenses. Put a plan together for saving one month’s worth.

For example, if your monthly expenses are $5,000, and you’d like to get to that number in one year, you’ll need to save around $417 a month. If you want to get there in six months, you’ll need to save $834 a month.

Pay off credit cards

Develop a plan to eliminate credit card debt and execute the plan.

Before I go any further, please know I understand how difficult this may be. It will not be easy to achieve the final steps in the process, but it will be worth it.

You’re someone who can be debt free. You’re someone who can be on the path to financial success.

Once you’ve got one month’s worth of expenses in your emergency fund, it’s time to eradicate your credit card debt and any other revolving debt (store accounts, personal loans, etc). I chose “eradicate” because I want you to treat this debt for what it is; one of the worst things in your life.

Start by getting an accurate accounting of how much debt you have and details such as annual percentage rates and minimum monthly repayment amounts. When you have that information, you’ll be able to put a plan together for paying it all off.

For additional help/guidance, you can access our Get Out of Debt course at no cost. It will help you get organized and develop your plan for becoming debt free.

One of our Partners, Dovly, can help clean up your credit.

Complete your emergency fund

Get six month’s worth of living expenses saved.

You should have more funds available to devote towards this goal since you’ve eradicated yoru credit card debt.

Start with two months, then three, then four, then five, and finally six. Before the pandemic, I would tell people they should have “three to six months” saved up. Now, because of the uncertainty we’ve all experienced, I recognize the importance of having six months.

There’s no guarantees in life. Bad things happen. Having six month’s worth of expenses puts you in a position to withstand bad things.

This can take you a long time. But it’s worth it.

Once you’re debt free and you’ve got six months of expenses saved up, you’ve achieved financial security.

Security, then prosperity

It’s my desire for everyone to achieve financial prosperity. To have and enjoy the lives they want.

I know that before that’s possible, financial security must be found. When you’ve completed these 7 steps, you’ll have financial security. You’ll have developed new habits and routines, you’ll have grown your confidence, and you’ll have reached a new level.

The challenge and opportunity is locking that new level in and making it your new normal.

Making it real

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The first step in this process is making the decision to do it.

From there, it’s calendaring time to go through it, step by step. And when I say “calenarding,” I mean putting it in your calendar. I mean deciding on a day and time when you’re going to do it.

It’s very important to find a day and time where there won’t be any conflicts. If you’re thinking you’ll do this on Saturday at 10am, ask yourself what you normally do at 10am on Saturday. Are there any conflicting commitments on that day or time? If yes, find a different day/time. If not, let’s go!

Making transformational change in your life requires an integrated approach. It requires you to look at your past history with money. It requires you look into the future for what you want your life to look like. And it will require you take a hard look at how you’re currently interacting with money.

This change will also require you to embrace discomfort over comfort. It’s natural to want to revert back to old habits.

But those habits didn’t serve you.

In order to achieve financial security and to get on the path to financial prosperity, you’ll need to embrace temporary discomfort. It’s temporary because it won’t last forever. Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be a new person with new habits, beliefs and a new outlook on your future.

It will get easier. Your life will be better.

Resources

In order to make important changes, you need the right resources. I mentioned some of the free resources we have for you:

If you’re ready to take control of your financial life, check out our DIY Financial Plan course.

We’ve got three free courses as well: Our Goals Course, Values Course, and our Get Out of Debt course.

Connect with one of our Certified Partners to get any question answered.

Stay up to date by getting our monthly updates.

If you’d like help getting on the same page with your partner, check out our Same $ Page Course.

If you’d like to help your kids get good with money, check out our Teaching Kids about Money course.

Our Get a Budget course will help you set up your personal budget

Connect with our Partner Dovly to clean up your credit, and you can take our Improve Your Credit course at no-cost.

Here are some applicable episodes of the LifeBlood podcast

Good luck on your journey to financial security and then financial prosperity. We’re here to help.

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