Debt is persistent. You may have noticed that. Debt has a sticky quality, like gum that gets in your hair.
The harder you try to get rid of it, the more of it there seems to be.
When you dislodge a chunk, you can't believe how much is still left and how hard it is to clean out.
If anyone knows this, it's me. Not only have I been in debt and clawed my way out of it, I've spent the past eight years writing about debt from just about every angle:
- How I fell into that hole and my struggle to get out of it.
- How other people spiraled into debt and their struggles to break free.
- The success of the Women in Red Racers, who continue to wow me with their steady get-out-of-debt strategies.
I have the world's first unofficial doctorate in debt. And yet, as I read through my considerable oeuvre recently, I was struck by an obvious omission.
I hardly ever mention the one skill I found myself dwelling upon almost constantly as my husband and I paid down our credit card debt. It's the secret ingredient that is as important as, perhaps even more important than, finding the money: persistence.
More from MSN Money
The science of debt
It's not an illusion -- or a sign of your own personal failure -- that debt is so sticky. Once you're in debt, researchers have found, you're much more likely to stay in debt for a long period.Researchers at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago analyzed the persistence of debt in 6,000 adults born between 1957 and 1984. Data come from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth.
Those who were in debt at point A (say, age 33) were likely to still be in debt five and 10 years later, and their debts were likely to have increased. By contrast, those who had no debt when they were first surveyed were less likely to have accumulated any debt in five to 10 years.
Among those surveyed between age 20 and 25, the people in debt at age 20 were carrying an average of about $10,900; five years later, their average debt had quadrupled to $43,700.
In other words, there's no question that debt tends to persist, and you have to cultivate an extraordinary persistence of your own to deal with it.
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Change is a process
Being in debt, by definition, means you've been living beyond your means. We all know that.On the surface, the remedy also seems obvious: Spend less than what you earn, and you'll get out of debt.
What people overlook when they make their get-out-of-debt plans, however, is how very difficult this first step is.
Continued: Big lifestyle changes
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