Starting a Debt Diet: A Review of Oprah's Debt Reduction Program

In February of 2006, Oprah had three financial experts develop a debt diet to help people eliminate their debt problems. The debt diet is broken into two phases, each one with four steps. Phase one is to help you get started on the right path. In phase two, you go into a more detailed plan to ensure that you will never need to go on another diet (for debt, anyway). If you have been making regular payments to your credit card company and you can adjust your lifestyle, Oprah's Debt Diet will work well for you. If you are having trouble making your payments every month and you have already given up "luxuries," a different debt reduction program will serve you better.

The first part is perhaps the most painful. You must stop having debt denial. Find out exactly how much debt you have, and what your debt is costing you. Look at the principal that you owe, the interest rates you are paying, and find out how long it would take to pay off this debt if you were only paying minimum each month. So many people think that they would be overwhelmed or paralyzed if they knew how much debt that have, but you will not become debt free until you are committed to paying it off and knowing how much you have to pay off.

Step two is important, but while some will find it useful, others might find it discouraging. In step two, you track your spending. Your goal is to find extra money to pay down your debt, ideally at least $10 a day. Everyone, no matter how they got into debt, will find tracking their money useful. If you are in debt because of overspending, it should be easy to free up an extra $10 a day. Eliminating fast food, movie tickets, and coffee is important if you are serious about getting out of debt. But if you accumulated debt due to a job loss or an illness, chances are have already eliminated the extras in your life.