Free Money Finance hosted the third edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. Of the seven posts in this carnival, one that caught my eye was this one by Chief Family Officer:

5 ways to motivate yourself to get out of debt

Accomplishing anything worthwhile, whether it’s saving money, learning a new skill, losing weight, or getting out of debt, requires a long, steady effort. The long haul can get awfully long with debt reduction, ranging anywhere from a few months to several years. When faced with tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt, a payment of $50 seems like nothing, and the balance hardly budges. CFO came up with these five tips to keep going toward the debt-free prize:

1. Tackle a small debt first
2. Rank your debts, and attack the next one
3. Make extra payments if you get little windfalls
4. Use a payment calculator so that you can see the whole picture, and most importantly, the light at the end of the tunnel
5. Reward yourself along the way

This last part is really important. It doesn’t have to be a big reward. Just something to motivate you. Just like a person on a diet needs to be able to throw back a really good beer once in a while (or eat a banana split, or whatever), a person getting out of debt needs to go see a movie or go out to dinner or something like that after tightening the belt for so long.

So if you’re trying to reduce your debt, look for ways to keep yourself motivated.  It’s not easy, and there’s nothing wrong with getting help anywhere you can to accomplish this very important goal.

• The No Credit Needed Network has posted the carnival Welcome to 2007 everyone!  Thanks again to NCN who filled in the busy end-of-year schedule to post the first Carnival of Debt Reduction for 2007!A few great personal debt reduction stories in this edition:Debt Hater with two posts on her lessons learned on debt and personal finances.Debt Free 4 Ever......
• Firefly Edition of the Carnival at Green Panda Treehouse A big thank-you to Green Panda Treehouse for filling in on short notice for this week's Carnival of Debt Reduction!  She draws her inspiration from the sci-fi TV series Firefly. I don't watch this series but upon investigation she chose four of the posts for accommodations in Captain Mal Reynolds'......

• Balancing Good Vs. Bad Debt In This Economy. Every headline you read about personal finance right now says to get out of debt. With the economy crashing, the last thing you want to carry with you is debt, right? Well, yes and no - you do want to get rid of any credit card debt, for sure. But......
• Debt is Slavery, Part 2: Is money really not that important to you? Michael Mihalik's Debt is Slavery is a short book that has a ton of great insights packed into its 123 pages.The second post in this series deals with the importance of money in our lives.  This is one of several observations that Mihalik makes in his book that makes so......