Can You Reduce Your Debt?

Can you reduce your debt? I have been trying for years and have finally got my debt considerably reduced. I am not where I want to be—yet. 

Why is this important?

The economy is currently not that bad, but the effects of good economic results are quite spotty. There is still a large overhang of future problems building slowly. Interest rates will go up, and that means prices of investments and residential property must go down. On a purely subjective basis it seems that we have a few years of sideways movement in economy activity. But even though I think a crisis is coming, I feel that the US will "weather the storm" better than most countries.  

While I am not a fan of economic collapse blog, I agree with this point strongly: 

The U.S. National Debt Has Grown By More Than A Trillion Dollars In The Last 12 Months 

The idea that the Obama administration has the budget deficit under control is a complete and total lie.  According to the U.S. Treasury, the federal government has officially run a deficit of 589 billion dollarsfor the first 11 months of fiscal year 2014.  But this number is just for public consumption and it relies on accounting tricks which massively understate how much debt is actually being accumulated.  If you want to know what the real budget deficit is, all you have to do is go to a U.S. Treasury website which calculates the U.S. national debt to the penny.  On September 30th, 2013 the U.S. national debt was sitting at $16,738,183,526,697.32.  As I write this, the U.S. national debt is sitting at $17,742,108,970,073.37.  That means that the U.S. national debt has actually grown by more than a trillion dollars in less than 12 months.  We continue to wildly run up debt as if there is no tomorrow, and by doing so we are destroying the future of this nation. 

Debt is not going down. The statistics you read are not reliable. Another crisis is coming. 

Do not be like the typical person that has zero savings, or even worse, the savings they do have are less than their credit card balances.  If you have credit card debt, make it your highest priority to pay it off. There is nothing you or I can do about the overall economic situation, but on a personal level we can get ready.

Are you ready?