These same people are now so weary that they are wishing to be out of debt forever, dreaming to never have to worry about money, craving to be financially free.

As you know, jumping from being deep in debt to having financial freedom is not a small leap at all. To attain real freedom takes concrete planning and self-discipline in taking orderly and progressive steps from where you are now to where you want to be.

Before your finances can actually soar you need to get out of your deep hole of debt first. This should be your first goal. As soon as you are out of debt, you can easily embark your journey to your financial freedom!

Track your daily expenses

The aim for doing this is to know exactly where your money goes everyday. Record every incoming and outgoing penny and evaluate every week how much money you spent on necessities and how much money you could have saved. Was it really necessary to buy those $200 shoes using your credit card? Could you have bought something less expensive with money you actually had in your wallet instead of using your credit card again?

By recording and evaluating your expenses regularly you will come to see that there actually are ways to reduce expenses and save money! The more money you can save everyday more money you will have to pay off your debt completely.

Don’t rob Peter to Pay Paul

Some people are so deep in debt that they don’t know what to do. It is common that at some point they would obtain cash advance on one visa to pay other credit card bills.

Do not go through this kind of “rob Peter to pay Paul” strategy! They usually don’t work. Most people are too easily tempted to further use visa or cash which was initially intended to pay other bills for shopping. Eventually, they wind up accumulating even more debt.

As you see there is no financial advantage for you in having more than one credit card. On contrary, “robbing Peter to pay Paul” strategy would only make your debt worse.

Cut up your credit cards and keep one card (if really necessary) for emergency ONLY.

Now that you are trying to get yourself out of debt and have actually started saving money to pay it off, stick to your plan and stop accumulating more debt. This should be your next goal.

One credit card can be very useful in case of emergency and having one credit card is usually still manageable. But if you are in debt with more than one credit card, in addition to other kinds of debt like car loan, mortgage etc., there will be times when you feel that you are drowning in it.

Choose one credit card to keep and cut up rest. If you don’t trust yourself enough lock up one card you have in your drawer at home to make sure you never use it for shopping. Discipline yourself not to use it unless in an emergency. Remember: you want to get out of debt, not accumulate it!

Plan Your Debt Elimination Process

The best ways to start your debt elimination process is by first sitting down and making a plan of attack.

Write down each debt that you have: Visa, MasterCard, Amex, car loan and so on. Now, make a list of your debt, starting from smallest total balance to biggest.

Early this decade in North America, there were all kinds of opportunities for distressed assets investing, and not just in securities. Remember big fiber optics bust? Cisco Systems and Nortel, among others, found themselves with too much inventory and too much debt. After dramatic growth throughout most of 1990s, market for fiber optic equipment and systems declined dramatically in 2001. Fiber overcapacity and cutbacks in telecom carrier capital investment triggered near panics in stock markets in U.S. and Canada.

Fiber optics equipment is constantly being improved to give more bang for buyer’s buck. It’s not something that can lie around in warehouses until market for it improves. Suddenly, a lot of equipment, billions of dollars worth, had to be dumped. Distressed asset investors profited. True, companies and their investors lost a bundle, but they stood to lose everything without intervention of distressed asset investors.

Exodus Communications (an unfortunate name, as it turned out), once claimed to be “the recognized market leader in managed hosting services.” Venture Asset Group, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based financial services firm specializing in sales of assets of troubled telecom companies, got nod to liquidate company’s venture capital investment portfolio in 17 private companies, valued at about $200 million.

A company spokesman said buyers could include storage and Web-hosting companies or speculators, including venture capital firms, looking to pick up cheap investments and turn companies around. “In bankruptcy, everybody’s focus is usually on big assets (such as core company), which are very hard to find buyers for right now. There can be liquidity in small assets.”

Bankruptcies or Chapter 11 reorganizations often trigger distressed assets opportunities. As you might imagine, though, these are rarely opportunities for individual investors. But where there is a possibility of a buck to be made, someone somewhere in investment industry will find a way to let private investors in on fun and rewards. Today, there are funds managed by professionals who have knowledge, flexibility and patience that a company’s creditors may not have.