If you were to purchase a $150,000 home with a $120,000 mortgage (80%), and you paid an interest rate of 9% for 30 years, you will have paid over $227,500 just in interest (in addition to original $120,000). That's nearly two times cost of home!

A credit card debt of $7000 (now average) at 18% being paid at rate of $20 principal plus interest each month will take over 29 YEARS to pay off, almost as long as a home mortgage. Interest charged on this credit card debt will top $18,400, more than 2.6 TIMES original debt!

If you work for a living, you know that when you are not working, you are not getting paid. But interest never gets sick, never takes a vacation and never sleeps. It is working against you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, each and every day of year.

So what can you do?

You may not be able to pay off your debts or mortgage now. You may not have enough equity in your home for a loan. You may not be able to afford refinancing costs or home equity loan costs. You may not be able to lower your credit card interest rates.

But you can make additional or extra payments.

So how does making an extra payment help lower your interest charges? Is it going to make next month's bill smaller? You can't scrape together too much for an extra payment so how is just $10 going to help when you owe tens of thousands?

The secret is in making early and consistent extra payments. For example, on home mortgage shown above, if you pay an additional $100 each month you will save over $82,000 in interest payments. Not only that, but you will also have your home paid off nine years and two months earlier. You knock nearly 10 years off your mortgage just by paying an extra $100 a month.

How does that work?

Well, that $100 extra you pay first month would have cost you about $270 in interest to borrow for 30 years. Since you have paid it already, you can reduce your last mortgage payment by $270. The next month's extra payment will reduce your last mortgage payment by $268. Each month as you pay that extra $100, your final mortgage payment will be reduced until you won't need to make a final payment, then second to last payment, then third to last and so forth. Soon you will have shaved years and thousands of dollars in interest charges off your mortgage.

The average American family is now over $7000 in debt just on their credit cards. That debt generates an interest charge of over $105 each month if your card charges average 18%. If you have missed a payment or made a late payment (even by one day!), you may be paying up to 27% interest or over $157 each month.

Most credit card companies require a modest payment towards card balance. Modest meaning from $10 to $20 a month. To pay off a $7000 debt at $20 a month you will not pay off this debt for 29 years.

And what about those interest charges? Paying off a $7000 credit card debt charging an interest rate of 18% and paying $20 a month towards debt, you will pay over $18,400, more than TWICE original debt, just in interest.

What if you have more than one card? What if your debt is over $7000? What can you do? How can you get out of this hole?

There are some techniques that can help you pay off your debt and do not require expensive loans, invasive credit checks, or expensive financial planners and accountants. You can also save on interest charges by paying off your debts in a certain order.

The most effective technique is sometimes called "snowball" method. The snowball method suggests that when you pay off one debt you apply that payment amount to next debt. Thus amount you pay on a debt grows like a snowball rolling down a hill.

For example, you have three credit cards with debts of $5000, $4000, and $3000 which are charging you 18%, 27%, and 12%, respectively, and you are paying $150, $125 and $100 each month. By paying these required monthly amounts you will pay off your $3000 credit card first.