Where do you get the money?

Here is where it pays to keep your must-have expenses in balance. If you are spending about half your money for the basics—mortgage, car payment, insurance, and the like—then you have roughly half your salary left over for everything else. This means you should have plenty of money to cover stuff you want (but don’t absolutely need), like new clothes and an occasional restaurant meal, and money to start getting caught up on your bills. A good guide is to earmark 20 percent of your paycheck to debt repayment and savings. When you balance your bills, you will have money left over to repay debts and begin saving. There are no short-cuts and no quick fixes. So beware of traps “to get out of debt quick” because they can end up costing you more money in the long run.