Michael,

That's an excellent point. I am always amazed at how many people carry debt without a thought -- especially credit card debt!

It's also interesting that there are many ways to get out of debt. But it seems that almost no one is interested.

The easiest an quickest way is simply to sell off those items that we own via debt and then buy them back (if desired) in cash after saving up to do so.

Another way is the plan that real-estate investor John Burley describes in his book Automatic Wealth. It involves paying off one debt at a time and then "pyramiding" your payments to pay the others off very quickly. He estimates that the average american family could use that plan to become debt-free (including mortgages, cars, and everything) in 3-7 years. That's the plan I usually recommend to others.

It really is amazing how indebted people are (at least here in America). I have friends who I would not be surprised if half of their expenses are for debt payments. If they would pay off their debts, they could instantly double their effective salary.

Thanks for the thread,

--Phil