Common taters and uncommon taters around the globe have weighed in on the economic crisis - the recession that creates depression. They say Get Out of Debt. If there's something you want to buy, like rock-bottom-priced stocks, go ahead. Unless you don't have the money to lose. In fact, if you don't have the money, don't buy anything.

Are you thinking that advice would have been more valuable in the have-it-all eighties? Or the looking toward the millennium 90s? Or even the early years of the whew-we-made-it-to-the-21st-century?

You can't unspend what you've already spent. You can, however, stop spending. I read recently about people experimenting with going an entire month without purchasing anything. Eat the canned goods you have stashed about. Carpool. Skip the movies. As I recall, it quit being fun after about a week. Day 11 had a come-to-jesus moment.

But today's blog is about getting out of debt, that elusive "get-out-of-debt-free card" we'd all like to find. Sure, it will cost us something to get out of debt. We might have to pay our bills. But if we pay them quickly, we will save thousands and thousands of dollars.

I coached a young couple yesterday as they put into place an aggressive payment schedule. They'll save a million dollars. Furthermore, if after they are out of debt, they keep making payments, but to themselves or modest investments, they'll have a million dollars saved up by the time they would have gotten out of debt had they not stepped up the pace. That's a difference of two million dollars! That's better than free; that's a plan that pays!

Have you already made changes to your budget, your spending, your debt payment strategy? Are you paying off your mortgage, too? You know the faster you do that, the faster you can start saving for anything you'd rather spend your money on than mortgage interest!

Let me hear from you about what you've done and what you've planned. We can do this thing!