Living Paycheck to Paycheck? 10 Steps to Break the Cycle!

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Did you know that 6 in 10 Americans live paycheck to paycheck? Yep, according to this CNBC.com article here, approximately 64% percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That stat is absolutely mind-blowing to me.

But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Because it’s never too late to fix this. YOU can fix this.

If you’ve got debt, can’t breathe, and live every month paycheck to paycheck, then this post is for you.

If you don’t save, can’t control your budget, and spend every dollar, then we’ve got you covered.

I mean, it’s tough to get ahead these days. I can understand. I’ve been where you are – no money, a lot of debt, little hope, and a long journey ahead of me to fix my mistakes. But I got out. I broke the paycheck to paycheck cycle and now live comfortably with my wife and son off of what we make.

Even when times have been tough, having your finances together can save you the stress. And when times are good? Yep, they’re really good.

So in this post, we’re going to look at a couple of things:

What exactly is living paycheck to paycheck.
Why living paycheck to paycheck sucks.
7 reasons to stop living paycheck to paycheck and…
The 10 step guide to breaking the paycheck to paycheck cycle (so that you can build wealth and enjoy the rest of your life with bulletproof finances).

Alright. So what exactly is living paycheck to paycheck?

What is living paycheck to paycheck?

Living paycheck to paycheck is when your bills, expenses, and payments every month are the same or more than your monthly income. This can occur at any income level and is the result of overspending, too much debt, too many expenses, and not managing your finances properly.

If you make $5,000 dollars per month and spend $5,000 dollars per month every month, you are living paycheck to paycheck.

But like I said, it could be at any income level and because this is an informal expression of how a person is living, there are many different examples of living paycheck to paycheck including:

A person who’s expenses are just under the amount they make. Example: a 65 year old who makes $1,500 in social security and has $1,475.00 in bills and expenses. This is close enough to be called living paycheck to paycheck.
A person who’s expenses are exactly the same as what they make. Example: you make $20,000 dollars in take-home income every month and have $20,000 dollars in bills and expenses. It doesn’t matter what you make. If you spend everything you make, you’ll have nothing left.
A person who’s expenses are MORE than they’re income. Example: you make $3,000 dollars per month, and because you don’t manage your money, you have $3,500 dollars in bills and expenses. This happens to a lot of people and it often means supplementing with debt month after month. This is DANGEROUS, so if this is you, you need to stop this NOW.

So basically, if you make a certain amount of money every month, and you have very little or nothing left at the end of the month, you’re living paycheck to paycheck. You will know if this is you.

Paycheck to paycheck SUCKS

From a person who’s lived paycheck in the past, I can tell you that living this way sucks a lot. But I’m sure you already know that. I hated living this way so I changed it up.

My story

While I was in college, from 18-22 years old, I was frivolous with money. I spent everything I made, put expenses on a credit card, and didn’t care where my money went. I racked up student loans and even spent a $2,500 dollar student loan refund check in one summer (on top of my job income of about $1,000 dollars per month). It still hurts to think about that one.

I lived paycheck to paycheck until I woke up in 2013. I started listening to Dave Ramsey and I found out that debt didn’t have to be forever. So I paid of off $30,000 dollars in student loan debt over the next 40 months on $1,200-$1,500 dollars per month (and a little bit of extra side hustle income). I sacrificed to pay off my debt.

Over the next few years, my wife and I lived frugally but expenses started to get higher and higher until we were almost living paycheck to paycheck again. After my son was born in 2019, we made a huge financial mistake and financed a car. Great car. Terrible financial decision. We were back to living paycheck to paycheck until about March of 2020. That’s when it hit me – this sucks. Paycheck to paycheck sucks. It’s time to change for good. I’m sick of being broke.

So we spent the next 11 months getting out of every piece of debt we had: a small amount owed on my wife’s car, our newer car, and our cell phones. Another $30,000 paid…but this time in less than a year. We said no more to the paycheck to paycheck life and have never looked back.

So why are you living this way?

So if you’re stuck in the rut of living paycheck to paycheck, why stay like this? You may feel like it’s not possible to get out, but it is. YOU can change your whole life if you just start doing a few simple things.

Time to change it for good

YOU are the only person that can get you out of any financial mess. Not your family, not the government, and not a bankruptcy lawyer. YOU and YOU alone. So it’s time to make a change and do things differently. It’s time to stop living paycheck to paycheck. Let me show you why…

7 Reasons to stop living paycheck to paycheck

1. It sucks

Living this way is just horrible. Paycheck to paycheck sucks so don’t get stuck living this way forever. I know you may not know how to get out of the rut, but don’t worry, because this post will cover that in the next section. So why keep going on like this when you can change your whole life and fix your finances? I can show you how.

2. it can trap you forever

There are a lot of people who will never get out of this lifestyle. Some don’t know how and never find the resources to help them. Others don’t believe it’s possible. Then there are some that just don’t care. I mean, you only live once, right? Wrong. Don’t stay trapped living paycheck to paycheck forever. Change it up and start to bulletproof your finances today!

3. it can crush you with debt

As you continue living paycheck to paycheck, the average person will continue racking up debt and increasing expenses. At that point, you start having to pay more money than you’re making. You borrow more to do this. Then you have to borrow more to pay back what you’ve borrowed. It’s a hellacious cycle that has to be broken immediately or long-term financial damage in inevitable.

4. it can ruin your retirement

Long-term damage? Yep, having to continually make payments on debt, bills, and other expenses can often cost you your entire paycheck. That means no money left over for retirement and other saving. The average person trapped in the paycheck to paycheck cycle doesn’t invest at all. Then they think social security is going to be enough. It’s not. If you do end up investing, most don’t invest enough to have a substantial amount of money at retirement. The paycheck to paycheck cycle is dangerous. Get out now so that it doesn’t ruin your retirement.

5. you want to build wealth

If you want to build wealth, or have a decent amount of money for retirement, you have to stop living paycheck to paycheck. Once you do this, you’ll start paying off debt or cutting your expenses to free up money. All of that extra money can be used for saving, investing to build wealth, and having fun.

6. you want to be able to breath

Some of us, like myself, just want to breath a little better by not living paycheck to paycheck anymore. Having debt and tons of money owed in expenses is a heavy burden to carry. It weighs you down, stresses you out, and just doesn’t allow you to breath as well. At least, that’s my experience. Living paycheck to paycheck is tough. So don’t you think it’s time to change it up?

7. you want to be able to live and have fun

Once you get your debt paid off, cut your expenses, and can free up money in your budget, you can use some of that hard-earned money to spend and have fun. Nothing wrong with that. But you have to sacrifice to get to that point. And you have to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle as soon as possible. Here’s how you do that ⬇️:

The 10-step guide to breaking the paycheck to paycheck cycle

Step 1 – Have a BIG reason WHY

Having a BIG reason WHY you’re doing any of this is insanely important. You HAVE TO have a HUGE reason WHY you’re doing this, because if you don’t, you’ll end up getting stuck living paycheck to paycheck again.

This is exactly what happened to me. I got out of debt just to get out debt. Eventually, I fell back into debt again. I soon realized that I needed a bigger reason why I was trying to get out of debt and stop living paycheck to paycheck. I found that reason.

Here’s my BIG reason WHY: I’m sick of debt, tired of being broke and having nothing, sick of not being able to afford anything, sick of a negative net worth, my wife and I want to travel one day, I want to help my son go to college without loans, and my wife and I want to be a millionaires.

So you can see that my BIG reason WHY is pretty massive and it cuts deep into why I’m doing all of this. The question is: what do you want? Why are you trying to stop living paycheck to paycheck? Are you just done with the paycheck to paycheck life or sick of debt? Do you have financial goals or have a kid to think about? Find your BIG reason WHY and you’ll be successful in your journey toward bulletproofing your finances.

Step 2 – Stop borrowing money

So how do you stop borrowing money? Simple – you just stop borrowing money. That might not be what you want to hear, but in order to stop borrowing money, you have to STOP BORROWING MONEY.

First things first, starting today, you need to stop any borrowing, financing, or credit card use immediately. Continuing to borrow money is only going to put you further in the hole and continue your misery living paycheck to paycheck. No more borrowing.

You also need to start making different decisions with your money if you want to have better finances. Paycheck to paycheck sucks. Debt sucks. Every time you think about borrowing, I want you to physically say, “no more borrowing money.” Over time, it gets a heck of a lot easier. Every positive financial decision you make allows you to fix your finances just a little bit more.

You also need to take debt completely off the table. Whenever you go to make any kind of purchase, take credit cards and other financing out of the picture. If you need to buy something, pay cash for it. If you can’t pay for it in cash, you can’t afford it. You either save up for it or don’t buy it. Again, NO MORE BORROWING.

For more on this, check out my post: “How to Stop Borrowing Money: 10 Step Guide to a Debt Free Life”

If all you do is stop borrowing money, and pay cash for what you buy, you’ll eventually get to a point where you’re out of debt and aren’t living paycheck to paycheck anymore. It’s that simple. But let’s turn it up a notch.

Step 3 – Financial goals

In order to make progress with your finances, you HAVE TO have financial goals. If you don’t, what’s the point in even working and making money? I mean, why just work, pay bills, work harder, pay more bills, and then die? I’d rather do all that plus build wealth and have some fun, too! But in order to do that, you have to set some goals for yourself.

You’re going to want to write out these goals so you can hold yourself accountable while you’re fixing your finances and getting out of living paycheck to paycheck. Writing out your goals and having them in front of you is one of the keys to actually achieving them.

I want you to set goals for the following:

Short-term goals: goals that are meant to be achieved in a short period of time and aren’t usually too difficult to complete. These goals can be as short as 1 day up to about 36 months (3 years).

“I want to save up my $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund in 30 days.”
“I want to pay off my debt in 12 months (1 year).”
“I want to get out of debt, have a fully funded emergency fund, and not be living paycheck to paycheck within the next 24 months (2 years).”

Medium-term goals: goals that take longer than short-term goals, but take less time than long-term goals. These goals are more difficult and usually span more than 36 months (3 years) and less than 10 years to complete.

“I want to get all of my consumer debt paid off ($100,000+ plus dollars) in 40 months on a $40,000 dollar income.”
“I want to go to a 4-year college completely debt free.”
“In 5 years, I want to double my income from $50,000 dollars and have a total income of of $100,000 dollars.”

Long-term goals: these goals are very difficult due to the time and patience factor and often take more than 10 years to complete.

“I want to pay off my 30-year mortgage in 15 years.”
“I would like to be a millionaire in 20 years.”
“I would like to buy a beach house in cash when I retire in 30 years.”

Legacy goals: these are really special goals that you’d like to achieve by changing your family’s financial legacy or by leaving a legacy behind you when you pass away. These can be scary, but they can also be the most fun that you have with trying to fulfill them in the future.

“I want to leave my son a million dollar inheritance.”
“I want to help my son build a million dollar net worth by 30 years old.”
“Create college funds for my kids and grandkids so that they can go to college completely debt free.”
“Create a perpetual debt free scholarship that pays out a $2,000 dollar scholarship every year for the next 50-100 years.”

Those last legacy goals are actually my personal legacy goals. As you can see, they’re life-changing. All of the previous goals can be life-changing, really. But you’ve got to set financial goals. Why?

Lastly, here’s the beautiful thing about goals – even if you don’t hit your goals exactly how you wanted or when you wanted, you’re going to be much farther along than if you didn’t try in the first place. You might not have hit your goal, but at least you’ve made progress. And with that, you can continue moving forward until you finally hit whatever goal you’re shooting for.

So make sure you at least have some financial goals, because as the great speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

For more on how to create financial goals, check out my awesome post here: “How to Make More Realistic Financial Goals.”

Step 4 – Create a budget

The next step in fixing your finances is to create a budget. You NEED to have a budget. Because you’re going to have a really tough time managing your money otherwise. If you don’t have a written budget, you’ll make money, spend money, and not know where it all went.

You need a budget because a budget allows you to control your money, not let it control you. You work too hard to make money and then let it all slip away. So you’ve got to know where your money is going so that it doesn’t get wasted or frivolously spent.

The first thing to do is start tracking your expenses. You want to write down all of your expenses in last 30 days. Knowing what you’ve spent is key to creating a budget and then cutting expenses down. Do this first. Total up all expenses.

Next, you need to know your income – exactly how much you make per month AND per year. That should be easy. Simply look at your bank statements and see what was deposited at your last payday. Add up all of your money made in the month to see what your monthly take-home pay is. Then look at an end-of-the-year paystub to see what your total amount of money was before taxes. That’s just good to know.

Take a look at your total income for the month. Then take your total expenses and subtract from your total income. For example: $3,000 dollar income minus $2,800 dollars in expenses equals $200 dollars left over. You should have some left over. Your expenses need to be less than your income. If they’re not, you have a problem and you need to start cutting expenses.

If you have a $3,000 dollar income and $3,500 dollars in expenses, that’s bad. That means you are living on more than you make and are borrowing money to keep an inflated lifestyle (living above your means). If your expenses are more than your income, you have to cut expenses to be lower than your income.

You can do this by drastically cutting ALL of your expenses. If you’d like to learn how to SERIOUSLY cut your expenses down, check out this epic post that I wrote: “101 Ways of Creatively Cutting Expenses to Save a Ton of Money.”

So next, let’s go ahead and create a budget! Do that now!

If you’re trying to figure out which kind of budget to use, that’s easy. I recommend using the zero-based budget or the zero-dollar budget. Why? Besides being the overall best budget for your money, the zero-based budget allows you to track every single dollar, doesn’t allow for any wasted money, and in my opinion, can help you reach your financial goals the fastest.

So if you’re interested in the zero-based budget, check out my post, “7 Ways a Zero-Based Budget is the Best Budget for Your Money,” for more.

Just reading that post can help, but if you’re unsure of what to use for your zero-based budget, here are 3 options: you can use Mint.com, EveryDollar.com, or an Excel spreadsheet to keep up with your budget. I’ve tried all 3 and I personally like the excel spreadsheet the best. The others can be a little bit easier with tracking every purchase, but I personally like having all of the categories and money allowed/spent right in front of me. But that’s up to you.

Use whatever budget is going to help you. And don’t be afraid of it or against it. Budgeting is tough, but it can help you win financially and CRUSH your financial goals. Remember, the budget is permission to spend your money. YOU control YOUR money. It doesn’t control you.

Lastly, if you’re still hesitant on the budget, just give it a try. I promise it will help. It may take a month or two to get used to, but it’s going to help. Your budget doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done.

To get some help with saving money in your budget, check out this post: “37 Ways to Give Yourself a Raise in Your Budget (#27 is Crazy!)“

Step 5 – $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund

So up to this point, you’ve found your BIG reason WHY, stopped borrowing money, made financial goals, and created your budget. That’s a huge leap toward getting out of the dangerous cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. GREAT job so far!

But before you start the journey to get out of debt, and continuing to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, you have to have a $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund saved up in the bank. It’s crucial that you have a starter emergency fund in the bank to tackle small emergencies.

So start saving your $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund right now. If you already have $1,000, that’s great, and you can quickly move into the next step in this post. If you don’t have $1,000 dollars, you need to have this saved up in 1 month or less. Get it done QUICK.

If you need help with this, check out my post, “The 10-Step Quick Guide: How Can I Save $1000 dollars in 30 Days?“

Once you have this $1,000 dollars, it’s time to move on to the next step. I know you may not like only having $1,000 dollars while paying off debt, but it’s okay. The $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund is not meant to be a fully funded emergency fund, just a buffer while paying off debt. It’s meant to catch small emergencies so that you don’t have to go back in debt because of a small emergency.

But can I increase the $1,000 dollars while getting out of debt? No. It might be tough not to have more money in your savings. You might be used to more in savings. But anything over your $1,000 dollars needs to go towards debt. It might be uncomfortable to keep only $1,000 bucks, but having a $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund is meant to be uncomfortable. Make this motivation for getting out of debt as fast as possible (so you can build your 3-6 month fully funded emergency fund)!

Step 6 – Get out of debt (as fast as possible)

This next step is to start getting out of debt as fast as you possibly can. I mean, I want you to be as intense as you can get with it. Gazelle intense is one great example of how fired up you should be.

If you don’t know what Gazelle Intensity is, here’s a quick rundown: “Gazelle Intense is the term Dave Ramsey came up with to describe the speed and intensity you should have when paying off debt,” according to his website. Check out their article here for more on that.

You need to absolutely be on fire when paying off debt. Why? Because debt sucks. It robs you of your hard earned money and keeps you from building real wealth. I mean, I absolutely hate debt. So I got rid of my consumer debt for good and we’re working on paying off our home and getting out of debt completely. But now it’s your turn. So here’s what you need to do:

First, list all of your debts smallest to largest and total it all up. You need to know how much total debt you have. Then you can start the process of actually paying them off.

Next, pause any investments (temporarily) while you’re paying off debt. You’re going to do this so that you can take advantage of every single dollar that you can get your hands on. The only way I say not to pause investing is if you’re going to permanently lose a match. Otherwise, pause everything temporarily.

Alright, now start paying off your debt by attacking the smallest debt with a vengeance. Start with the smallest debt and work your way up to the biggest debt. It’s a simple concept that allows you to get some serious momentum by the time you pay off the last biggest debt.

If you’re wondering why we say pay off the smallest debt first instead of highest interest rate, check out this post: “Highest Interest Rate vs. Smallest Balance: Which Debt to Pay First?“

While you’re paying off debt, I want you to do anything and everything you can to pay it off. Here are a couple of easy things you can do to make more money while paying your debt off:

Work overtime – most jobs will allow you to work at least 5-10 hours of overtime. Some places offer as much as you want!
Take extra jobs – a second or third job can offer as much income as you can work.
Side hustle – side hustles are awesome and can make you $30 dollars or more per hour. These include lawn care, babysitting, and driving for Uber. I’ve started multiple websites that I see as extra side hustle income.
Sell stuff – sell all of that junk that you don’t really need. Add that money in to your income to pay off more debt. My wife sold around $1,000 dollars during our debt free journey. It may not seem like much but that helped us get $1,000 dollars closer. I bet that you’ve got that much or more in stuff to sell at your place.
Increase income – do whatever else you can do (that’s legal and moral) to increase your income. I don’t care what it is. Just get your income up.
Decrease expenses – finding every possible way to decrease your expenses can save you thousands of dollars per year and can help out tremendously with your debt. Again, check out my cutting expenses post here.
You can also check out my post – “47 Creative Ways to Pay Off Debt This Year,” for more.

Once you pay off the smallest debt, take ALL of the money that you were paying on the smallest debt and add it to the money you will be paying on the next biggest debt. Once you pay that one off, move on to the next biggest debt and then the next biggest. The money that you’re paying on each debt will continue getting bigger and bigger. That’s called the Debt Snowball. If you’d like to learn about the Debt Snowball, check out his post here on Ramseysolutions.com.

Work your way up the debts list until you get to the final biggest debt and pay that off. After that, you’ll be debt free and you’re left with a large pile of money at the end from your debt snowball.

Now between the extra money in your snowball and your budget, you can continue cash flowing everything (paying cash for what you buy). This is easy to do once you’re not living paycheck to paycheck anymore. Steps 1-6 should have helped you get there. But don’t stop now. Continue with the plan!

Step 7 – 3-6 month fully funded emergency fund

Even though you’re out of debt at this point, you need to continue forward and get your 3-6 month fully funded emergency fund together. Believe me, this next step is REALLY important.

In order to complete step 7, you need to have a fully funded emergency fund of 3-6 months of all required and necessary expenses (how much it costs for bills, groceries, and other expenses times 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, or 6 months). How much you save is up to you.

But you do need to decide now how much you’re going to have in your emergency fund.

If you have a stable job: you’ll need a 3 month emergency fund.
If your job is less stable or you’re self employed: you should have a 6 month emergency fund.

For example: my family has 2 stable incomes plus income coming in from my blogs so we have a 3 month emergency fund. Our expenses are just over $3,000 dollars so here’s the breakdown – $3,000 dollars per month in expenses times 3 months = $9,000 dollars – so we made our emergency fund $10,000 dollars.

Quick note: just like your journey to pay off all of your debt, you need to get this done as fast as possible. I’m talking the same intensity level as steps 5 and 6. You should have your 3-6 month fully funded emergency fund together in less than 6 months.

Getting the fully funded emergency fund done is extremely important because having this in order will help you continue to stay out of debt and not have to continue living paycheck to paycheck.

Step 8 – Invest 15% percent & start kids college fund

Invest 15% percent

Once you’re completely out of debt, I want you to set up investments at 15% percent of your gross annual income. We do 15% percent because anyone can become wealthy on 15% and because anything extra is going to go toward paying off your home early.

So with your 15% percent, I recommend your employer’s 401(k) with a match, a Roth 401(k), or a Roth IRA with good growth stock mutual funds that have long track record of success.

An easy way to remember this is: “Match beats Roth beats Traditional.”

Starting kids college fund

If you have kids, I want you to open a 529 college savings plan using mutual funds for your investments. This savings plan is awesome and is not taxed if the money is used for education expenses.

You should definitely open up a 529, but the amount depends on how old your child is, when they’re going to school, and how much you can afford to invest. If you don’t have a lot of money left over, just do something. Set an amount and stick to it every month.

For our son, we do $100 dollars per month and plan to increase that over time. You do whatever you can for your children’s college but try to invest something.

Lastly, if this doesn’t apply to you, move on. Only open a 529 if you currently have a kid.

Step 9 – pay extra on mortgage and get mortgage paid off

If you’ve gotten to step 9, congratulations because there are far too few people who actually succeed in getting this far. This is the step that my wife and I are currently on. And if you continue living like this, you can easily build wealth and become a millionaire. That’s our plan.

In this step, you’re going to pay extra on your mortgage so that you can get it paid off. Doing that will only continue to bulletproof your finances and lead you farther away from the dangerous cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.

But in order to do this, you’re going to get some push back. People are going to tell you not to pay your house off. Why? For various reasons including getting a tax write offs or low interest rates. Don’t listen to those people. What they’re telling you is a bunch of crap. Let me tell you what I know: people who become wealthy, and don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck, pay off their home and steadily invest until they eventually build wealth.

Don’t listen to stupid people. Get your house paid off and take away the risk of having a mortgage payment. Because if you want to stay out of debt, and not live paycheck to paycheck anymore, it’s important to become completely debt free including your home. This will free up A LOT of money on top of the money that you aren’t putting towards other debt anymore.

So start paying extra on the mortgage if you can. Just like with putting money aside for kids college, try to dedicate at least a little bit of money to this and stick to that EVERY month.

Also, if you can get a decent interest rate, try refinancing from a 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage. This in and of itself can cut 15 years of payments off of your mortgage. And that’s A LOT of savings.

We are personally paying extra every month to get our home paid off early. At the end of the month, we press submit on our extra mortgage payment, $1,200 dollars, every single month without exception. Our plan is to have this paid off in 5 total years from when we started paying extra.

Target payoff date: August 2026 – started August 2021.

Lastly, I want you to pay extra on your house, but once you’re debt free, you can use a little bit of money to spend and enjoy. Once you’re out of debt, instead of being gazelle intense, you simply need to continue being intentional with your money. That will quickly lead you into step 10.

Step 10 – Build wealth, give, and have fun!

So like I said earlier, I’m still working on step 9 myself and I can’t wait to be totally debt free. If you’ve made it to this step, you’ve done something that few people ever do in our society.

Because at this step, you have absolutely no debt and your house is completely paid off. You should no longer be living paycheck to paycheck and you should be very good at managing money by the time you get here. But don’t let that stop you. Keep going. Let’s get to step 10.

In step 10, after your home is paid, you need to max out investments, use some of your money for charity or giving, and use some to spend and have fun. This step can be the most fun of them all…or so I’m told. I’m working toward this. I hope you are, too.

In order to keep living your best life, and stay out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle, you need to do the following things:

Continue investing. Max out your retirement account if possible.
Continue budgeting.
Continue living without debt.
Continue living below your means.
Continue being intentional with your money.
Save up for everything.
Never borrow money again.
Build wealth.
Give generously.
Spend and enjoy some of your money and…
Swear that you will NEVER live paycheck to paycheck EVER again.

If you do every step as I’ve outlined above, you can be extremely happy and extremely wealthy.

Finally

It’s tough to get out of living paycheck to paycheck. But it is possible. I’ve done it myself. So I know how to do it and I’ve laid out a 10-step game plan in the section above for you to get there, too. Hopefully this post has helped you start the process of becoming debt free and break the paycheck to paycheck cycle forever.

It’s tough, but not impossible. However, it’s up to YOU to change your life. No one else. So what’s it going to be? A life of crushing debt while living paycheck to paycheck? Or a life of freedom, where you can build wealth, give generously, and actually spend and have fun with your money? The choice is yours.