Are you drowning in debt, as they like to say? Can you never seem to get out of the slump, spending every bit of cash on minimum payments, and having to continually wrack up more debt with your credit cards? You’re not alone. According to one site, 176.8 million people owned credit cards in 2008, with the average household debt being a whopping $15,799.

I know with the recent economic downturn, millions of people decided to get out of debt. This was one of the good things that happened during this time.. However, it was not wiped out, and many have started re growing this debt. Credit cards are now being used more and more for essentials, rather than luxuries and such, but this still is adding to the problem.

To get the full scope of how bad credit card debt is, try looking @ a credit card repayment calculator. This will blow your mind. Try entering your debts, and calculate with minimum payments. Focus on how much interest you will have paid, and tell me how expensive that new pair of jeans that you saw Ms. Jones wearing and you had to have? Or, gentlemen, how expensive did that big screen TV turn out to be? This calculation tool should open your mind, and even slightly scare you. Do you know what you could do for your family, for other needy people, or even for yourself, if you didn’t have to pay all that interest?

You’re now thinking, with all this debt I have, I’ll never get out of debt. It is so hard, and I can’t make any more money without getting another job. Then I’ll have no time for my family. I’ll just keep going making these minimum payments, and going more in debt, until I hit the lottery. Just a little side note, you won’t win if you’re going that direction either. Look, I have a solution.

Take all your credit card bills. Lay them out, and look at their interest rates, and their balances. Whichever one has the highest interest rate, and preferably a medium sized balance, start with that one. You need to look at your finances, and find out where you can cut an expense or two, and attain a little extra cash, even if it’s only 50 bucks. Continue paying minimums on all your cards, but on this one you have chosen to start with, put that extra $50 dollars to it each month. The trick is, when it is paid off, you keep that $50 buck + this minimum payment, and add it to the next card, so that it will get paid off even quicker. You see how this works? A kind of compounding payment plan. I know it will be slow going, but you didn’t get into debt over night, and with interest rates and such, it will take longer to get out. But with these incremental payment growths, you will feel a continuous sense of accomplishment, and this in itself will create even more drive.

You should always be reading and learning about your finances, and finding anything you can to reach that financial freedom you are seeking.