It's amazing how many Americans are falling deeper and deeper into debt every year even after all the government and non-profit programs available to help rescue them! After doing some analysis, I've really found that there is an obvious but scary underlying reason why people are falling more and more into debt. I mean besides, increasing in spending and an inability to save. There are literally millions of people who are trying their best to get out of debt by making their minimum payments and even enlisting professional help. The #1 reason why most Americans are having a hard time getting out of debt is because of a lack of financial education. Americans do not understand the fundamentals of what they need to do to get out of debt. No matter how many debt consolidation firms you hire, you'll never be able to get out of debt unless you go back to the basics! The #1 Strategy To Use To Get Out of Debt Now, I'm warning you, this is going to seem very simple and maybe even "stupid" - but this the best advice I have offered anyone I have helped and watched them come straight out of debt faster, quicker and by spending less money. The advice is: "Pay off one debt at a time rather than trying to pay them all off at once..." Most people in debt have more than one source of debt and what they try to do is pay "the minimum + some extra" on every source of debt every month in attempts to come out of debt. At this rate, you'll be paying forever, trust me. What you need to do is switch to only making the MINIMUM payments on every debt source, except for one. That one gets ALL the excess money you have - so you focus in on paying that one debt off the fastest. Focus on the low-handing fruit first - this way you can start to get things off of your credit report. Also, try to focus more on the very high interest debts so that you pay off the most costly debts first.