Jean Chatzky has been working with viewers of NBC’s Todayshow for a yearlong series on how to get out of debt once and for all. Her method, both on TV and in this book, is simple yet powerful: the key is saving just $10 a day that you currently waste. It doesn’t sound like much—a movie ticket or lunch for two at McDonald’s— but $10 really can take you from debt to wealth in just a few years. And because it doesn’t feel like an impossible goal, people are more likely to stick with Chatzky’s plan than an extreme regimen of spending cutbacks.Chatzky is focusing on debt because it’s the single biggest threat to our financial health. The average American family has sixteen credit cards and high-rate debt of more than $8000, not even counting car loans and mortgages. They pay more than $1000 a year in interest alone. Debt makes people feel depressed and overwhelmed, leaving them without enough money for the truly important things in life—education, retirement, owning a home, feeling secure.Chatzky, one of America’s most popular personal finance experts, writes in down- to- earth, woman-next-door language about how to get started right away, without giving up the things that truly give you pleasure. She offers practical, accessible strategies to help readers find the money to pay off their bills, lower their interest rates, and improve their credit scores. Featuring real-life examples of people featured on her Todayshow series, Pay It Downcan transform debtors into future millionaires.

Jean Chatzky is the financial editor for NBC-'s Today show, has a monthly column in Money magazine, and is a featured columnist for USA Weekend and Time. Her books include You Don-'t Have to Be Rich.

Introduction: Getting Ahead and Staying Ahead 52 million times a day. 2.2 million times an hour. 36,242 times a minute. 604 times a second. That?s how often we use our credit cards in this country. That?s how often we whip out our slim pieces of plastic, slide them through the little electronic slots or hand them over to the cashier. We type the numbers into our browsers or read them hurriedly to a clerk over the telephone to buy books, or groceries, or movie tickets, or even to foot the bill for the co-payment at the pediatrician?s office. We do it so often, we don?t even think about it anymore.But we should. Because on average, each of those transactions costs us $82. That may not sound like much?dinner for four at the local Italian joint; a sweater and a pair of jeans at the Gap; a rehab for the broken vacuum cleaner?but when we start to add up all of those $82 charges, the number quickly becomes meaningful. And when we lump them with the money we owe on our mortgages, our car loans, our home equity loans, and our student loans, the numbers start to get very large very quickly. In fact, they get downright scary. The fact is, consumer debt, as measured by the Federal Reserve, is at an all-time high. Members of the average household in America owe more than $8,000 on the 16 (16!) pieces of plastic they carry in their wallets. We have less equity in our homes than at any time in the past. We have less equity in our cars than at any time in the past. That?s why it?s not so surprising that the number of cars repossessed and homes foreclosed on has skyrocketed in recent years. Ditto the number of people filing for bankruptcy. The fact is, Americans are addicted to debt. Is Debt Getting in the Way of Your Future? If you have too much debt?particularly credit card debt?I can guarantee that you don?t have much of a financial future. Why? Think about what happens when you have credit card bills looming large. You feel like you have to pay those bills first?and so you do. If you don?t, the creditors start to call. Because those bills are so large (even the minimums look maximum), there?s nothing left over to save or invest. So when an emergency hits?whether it?s an unreimbursed medical bill or a new transmission?you pay for it with plastic. Then the minimums go even higher, and the cycle continues. There are millions and millions of Americans in your shoes, and, unfortunately, for many, many people it?s about to get worse. Years of the lowest interest rates in history have made it possible for you to borrow more for less: you could take out bigger mortgages, larger car loans, tack on home equity lines and keep your monthly payments fairly steady. But interest rates aren?t headed down. They aren?t even likely to remain fixed for very long. As our improving economy gains traction, they?ll be heading up, which means that your adjustable-rate loans?your adjustable-rate mortgage, your home equity line of credit, your variable-rate credit cards?are going to be more expensive. That?s going to be extremely difficult to deal with . . . unless you start to wipe out the most expensive of those debts: your credit card bills. Why You Have to Tackle the Credit Card Bills FirstThe amount you can accumulate by investing that $10 a day is so tempting that you?ll want to skip the first two steps?the credit card repayment, the emergency savings cushion?and jump right in. (And if you can free up $20 a day, well, then, be my guest.) But there?s a good reason for tackling those credit card bills first: at 14, 15, or 16 percent and higher, they?re costing you more than you can earn by socking the money away. At 24, 25, or 29 percent, they?re costing you double or triple what you can earn. Not only that: they?re doing damage to your confidence. They?re sabotaging your ability to be content, not only with your mo