How to Get Out of Debt on a Freelance Salary

The number one problem most freelancers have is that their income is inconsistent. This makes it hard to plan. As a freelancer with some financial savvy, I've noticed some things that have helped me keep the debt monster at bay.

NOTE: Notice I wrote "at bay"; I haven't completed escaped him, but he's not an all-consuming threat either.

1. Get a job you hate: Why? A little story:

Jerry Seinfeld said that he sold light bulbs before he became rich and famous. He said he hated it, but he did it because it made him work that much harder on his comedy. His thinking was, "The sooner I succeed, the sooner I could give up selling light bulbs.

I thought this a brilliant concept.

Moral of this story: Complacency kills and this is kinda like reverse psychology. Imagine if you hated what you were doing. You'd work much harder to not have to do it and put every penny you earned towards the debt you owe so you could quit - as soon as possible.

2. Save ONLY $1,000: One of the things I learned from Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover, is to have an emergency fund.

Hold on, don't tune out. This is not having 3-8 months of expenses in the bank, like most financial gurus will tell you. Dave says to start with $1,000. Why this amount, and why is it so radical?

When you hear, save 3-8 months of expenses, most of us turn a deaf ear. If you're struggling just to keep up with the bills as they come in, putting $5,000, $10,000 or more away seems impossible.

But, most of us can imagine socking away a grand.

Mr. Ramsey's theory is that it's the little emergencies that cause us to constantly whip out the plastic and before we know it, we're a few thousand in debt. He says, if you have an emergency fund of $1,000 and the transmission goes on your car, you won't have to finance it with plastic.

You pay cash for it and therefore you haven't created more debt at a time when you can least afford it - when things are going bad.

I'm a big believer in the universe talking to you. Some may call this presence God, Buddha, Allah; whatever you call it, I'm a big believer in a higher power. Around the time I read this, three things happened that added up to almost exactly a thousand dollars.