A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week. ‘“General George S. Patton

To get control of your debt, you need to make a plan. Your Debt Plan doesn’t have to be fancy. Like General Patton says above, the most important thing is to implement it now, rather than get it perfect. (NB: please do not take General Patton to be your role model in all areas of life.) Here is my earliest–distinctly unfancy–handwritten plan, from last year when I first started to try and get hold of my finances:

I taped this (see note below) to my nightstand as a reminder of my goals. As time went on, I discarded this plan for a slightly more savvy one. But just having a plan was a major step forward for me.

So how do you come up with a Debt Plan? This will get you started:

STEP ZERO-Track Your Money. Nothing can be done about your finances if you can’t see what you’re doing! I accumulated a lot of my debt simply by not paying enough attention, and not facing the reality of my financial situation.

It’s common to get into a financial mess through lack of attention. A lot of us are lackadaisical about money matters–as long as our checks don’t bounce and our electricity doesn’t get shut off, why should we obsess over every penny? (The financial obsessives in the audience are shuddering at that last sentence.)

Your money matters. The health of your finances makes a huge impact on your quality of life. While I don’t recommend becoming totally absorbed in your financial minutia (moderation in all things), paying strict attention to where your money is going is vital. And, after all, it’s your money. You worked your tail off for it! Are you really willing to let it slip away into the cracks of careless everyday spending?

I use Mint.com to track my money, and I love it. Despite occasional bugs, it is a robust and remarkably easy to use money management tool. Here are some of the popular online tools you should take a look at to help track your money:

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with keeping track of your money with pen and paper or using any other tracking method that works for you.

STEP ONE-Find the Money. This is the logical next step after you’ve made made the mental leap to decide to take action on your debt. Here is where you sit down and look at your financial situation and decide how much money you can set aside each month toward paying down your debts.

Once you start tracking your finances, you may be astonished to see just where your money is going. If you discover that you are spending, for example, $200 per month at restaurants (ouch!), your first step may be to cut that back to $100, then use the left over $100 to start saving/paying down your credit cards.

After you make the first few small changes, you will soon discover the satisfaction of getting control of your debt makes the little sacrifices worthwhile. There’s nothing wrong with starting with a baby step–even an extra $20 a month can make a difference–as long as you don’t get stuck at the baby step stage!

STEP TWO-Make an Emergency Fund. It may seem counter-intuitive to start by putting money in savings rather than starting paying your debt right away, but I agree with Queercents, Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar, and others that an emergency fund is the way to go. It’s all too easy to sink into debt when you’re hit with unexpected expenses like job loss, medial bills, or car repairs. The way to mitigate this danger is by having an emergency fund. Otherwise, as soon as you hit any hiccup, you can rack the credit card debt right back up.

A good minimum amount for an emergency fund is $1000 dollars. I finally got to that amount in December, and it’s a huge weight off my mind. It may take you a while of saving to get that far, but once you do, you’ll be well on the road to a more stable financial future. Then it’s time to kick your credit cards’ butts!

STEP THREE-Pay Down Your Debts. Take the money you’ve been setting aside every month for your emergency fund and start using it to pay your credit card debt down! A little bit at a time, every month, you’ll see your balances decrease.

Paying down your debt completely make take years. Don’t lose heart! Follow your plan and be proud of your progress. This is what I tell myself when I get despondent about my own debt, and it helps a little. Remember that you are better off than millions of people who are going the other way–still accumulating debt every month. You, my friend, are on the right path.

Photo credit: stock.xchng.