In today’s environment, debt is largely inevitable. It comes in many forms including student loans, medical bills, auto loans, unpaid utilities, mortgages, money borrowed from friends and relatives, store credit and the most dreaded of them all, credit card debt. Whether you’re rolling in stacks of cash or this close to welfare, debt is ubiquitous, but this doesn’t have to be the case. In this nine-part series of articles you will learn the steps to take to become completely debt-free and stay debt-free.

Debt doesn’t have to be a bad thing all the time. If you borrow money for the right reasons, then there is such a thing as good debt. For example, taking out a mortgage to buy even a modest home will most likely cost you several hundred thousands of dollars over the life of the loan, however you will gain equity and the house will usually appreciate in value, making it a better option in a lot of cases than living in an apartment. You may also borrow money for your college tuition in order for you to get promoted at work, or borrow money to open your own business. Borrowing money is also “good” in case of unforseeable events like hospitalization or unemployment. It isn’t bad to borrow money, as long as you really have to.

The problem is, we quite often borrow money for the wrong reasons. Some of these unnecessary reasons would be taking out an auto loan for a Cadillac when your Chevy Aveo is working just fine, failing to save up for the proverbial rainy day (e.g. broken appliances) and the worst debt-related sin of all – using that credit card of yours instead of waiting till you have enough cash to buy a certain item.

The problem has really gotten out of control in the last few decades. Consider these figures – the average American household owes about $19,000 total for non-mortgage debts, and about $7,500 goes to credit cards. When you compare that to the average household income of $43,500, you can see the average American household owes 43% of their annual salary in non-mortgage debt.

So as we have just illustrated, you are not in this fight by yourself. No matter what kind of debt you have, or how much, your life will be less stressful and more fruitful if you eliminate it. Minimizing debt isn’t the key – you have to totally eradicate all kinds of bad debt from your life, and this nine-part “saga”, as I called it, will help you through the process. It definitely will take some work on your behalf, but if you stick with it, you can succeed and the benefits will be well worth the work.

Author bio: Barbara Jennings is a trainer and expert in home staging. Her home staging tips will teach you every aspect of staging homes plus you get listed in highly visible directories and have access to exceptional tools to help you succeed.