If you're like the average person, let me warn you ahead of time about what I'm going to reveal in the next few paragraphs. You may be angry after you finish reading this article about how you've been misled in the use of credit card debt.

The American economy is designed to make you work yourself to the point of exhaustion, only to build wealth for those very same companies you work yourself to death for ? not for YOU!

The most eye-opening example of this is with consumer debt. For example, if you purchase your home with a conventional mortgage, you'll pay about THREE TIMES the amount over the life of the loan. Think about it this way. It's like taking your monthly mortgage payment and tripling it, then sending it off to the bank.

This is how much you will eventually pay back for the privilege of using their money. So you can see how two-thirds of the total amount you'll pay your mortgage company is primarily INTEREST payments. Interest is pure profit for the mortgage companies and a detriment to your financial well-being.

Ask yourself a serious question ? does the Bank deserve to get so much of your hard earned money? Do you think that they are doing such an outstanding job that they should be compensated so well?

This simply means that when you come home from a hard day at work, you've just contributed to your bank or mortgage company's bottom line ? not yours. THIS IS YOUR MONEY! I'm sure you've work hard to earn it. You'll most definitely have to pay taxes on it.

For instance, if you think your mortgage payments are out of control --consider credit card debt. If you have an average payment of $5,000 in debt, it will take you over 60 years to pay that debt in full if you make the minimum payments.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be retired and still making payments on credit cards I charged up in my twenties.

But you know the story, and you've probably heard it a million times -- the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's certainly not fair and I'll give you an easy way to get out of debt without loans or debt consolidation programs and more importantly, stay out of debt.

When you know how to invest the money you're currently spending on mortgage payments, car loans, credit card debt and any other type of monthly installment debt, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you can become debt-free.

Make a commitment to yourself to find at least 10% of your monthly take home pay to help you get out of debt. Look for ways to cut costs. Go over your cable bill, your cell phone plans, see if it still makes sense to keep your home phone, revisit insurance policies, etc. and see where you can redirect money to help you get out of your debt situation.

Now go and gather up your credit card bills, automobile loans, and any other installment loans you have and total them up. Keep in mind there's a difference between debt and expenses. Expenses are things like utilities, foods and taxes.

After you've come to grand total, look at the monthly payments for each debt. Select the monthly payment that is the smallest amount. Now, you'll add the money you've "found" to help you pay down this debt to zero. Once this debt is paid in full, take the money you were paying on this debt, add it to your second debt, plus the extra money you found and continue to payoff your debt in this manner.

It won't happen overnight, but you didn't get into debt overnight either. Consistency is the name of this game. By faithfully following this method, it will take the average person between 5-7 years to get completely out of debt.

Jamie Madison created a consumer website to help individuals get out of credit card debt. Get FREE access and step-by-step instructions to help you become and live debt-free. http://www.zapyourcreditcarddebt.com