You’d never say, “I want to be in debt”, right? Of course not. And you’d certainly never say that you wanted to be in debt forever.
Or would you?
You might be surprised, because those are exactly the kinds of things many of us say on a regular basis. Oh, we don’t say them out loud. Instead, we say them with our actions.
What our actions say
Every time you put something on credit or take on “easy monthly payments” you’re saying that you want to be in debt. You can’t struggle to pay off a $1,000 credit card on one hand while going out and borrowing $15,800 for a car on the other. You can’t afford to buy the new iPhone 5 if you’re just making minimum payments on your debt.
Doing those kind of things makes no sense. It’s saying (with your actions) that you want to be in debt.
Change your actions
If you want to get out of debt, you’ve got to change what you do.
You might really need a car. But if you truly want to get out of debt, you don’t need a car payment. If you’ve got $2000-$3000, you can buy an inexpensive car that will do for now — one you can afford to pay cash for. (They ARE out there.) Or you find another way to get to work until you’ve got the money.
You’ve got to change your actions so that they line up with your stated goal. If you find that hard to do (and it can be very hard at first) picture yourself saying “If I take on this payment, it’s like saying I want to be in debt.” You’ll probably be inspired to find another way.
And then both your words and your actions will be saying “I want to be debt free!” instead. That’s when you’ll truly be on your way.
I'm Jackie Beck, personal finance writer and creator of 
I’d go further and say if you know this about yourself, freeze those credit cards! Stop spending money you don’t have and pay off the debt. Make a plan!
This is key! “Stop spending money you don’t have and pay off the debt.”
Actions speak so much louder than words. It’s easy to say “I want to be debt-free” but when push comes to shove, how many people are willing to drive a $2,000 car? But that’s the reality of living a consumer-cash existence.
(In college, I paid $420 for a car. I negotiated the price down from $450. :-) )
That’s awesome that you got a discount on your $450 car :)
And yes, you may start out driving a $2K car, but you don’t have to drive one forever (unless you want to).
Action is everything, What you say means absolutely zero. Your actions tell your life story. I really liked the focus of this post.
That’s why it pays to look at your actions :)