My Simple Way to Get Out of Credit Card Debt

The way I chose to get out of credit card debt may not be a secret but it seems too many people aren't familiar with it. The way I chose to reduce and eventually get out of credit card debt is simply to stop producing it. I forced myself to take control of my spending. With discipline and practice it proved to be easier than originally thought overall. In the beginning it was tough but I stopped spending money on things I thought I needed but didn't really need. I had to stop being a wasteful spender and begin spending within my means. Very popular phrases everyone seems to know: "live below your means" and "spend less than you earn" if only everyone actually practiced what they already know. I had to make sure that my monthly spending on bills, living expenses, and paying off debt never exceeded the amount of money I earned each month. My first step to debt reduction was to stop producing more debt. Using Mint.com I was able to identify my spending trends and dig down and find not the big expenses that I thought was producing my debt, but the smaller $5 here and there expenses that were adding up to a majority of my credit card spending every month. Next, I created and followed a proper plan for paying off debt efficiently. Learning to live and accept what you have is very important to reducing debt and saving wealth. In the past it was too easy for me to fall into the past time of "keeping up with the Jones" and excessive spending on credit in order to "look" more than I am actually worth. Controlling our internal consumerism might be difficult but it is a lesson that I believe will pay off over and over. The best thing yet I have learned in my personal finance is that I want to be able to retire at a proper age and I want to attain personal wealth allowing me to live comfortably along the way, however, pretending that I already have reached those goals and spending excessively wasting money on possessions and things I don't need will never get me there. After paying off all of my high interest debt I plan to stay out of debt and invest in my future while practicing proper money management.