I remember being swamped in debt. I felt like the person in the wonderful TV commercial who states, “I am in debt up to my eyeballs.”

I wanted to become debt-free, and I knew that it would take some time. How much time? There is a very quick and simple way to calculate one’s Debt Freedom Date.

Prepare a list of your debts. For each debt, include the loan balance and the monthly payment being paid. I recommend that you prepare the list without the mortgage and mortgage payment for the first Debt Freedom Date calculation. Once all of your debts are on the sheet of paper, add up the total debt owed. Next, add up the total monthly payments that are being paid each month to the lenders.

For this Debt Freedom Date calculation, we are going to pretend that this is just one large debt with just one large monthly payment. To calculate the Debt Freedom Date, divide the “total debt owed” by the “total monthly payments.” For example, one might have seven debts totaling $21,000, each with monthly payments that total $700. Divide $21,000 by $700 and “Presto!” we have calculated a Debt Freedom Date of 30 months.

It should be noted that this calculation does not include the impact of interest, but the entire point of this calculation is to get a “rough, but close, estimate.”

The reality is that for those people who say, “I’m getting out of debt!” – these people usually achieve debt freedom in about two-thirds of the calculated time! Why? This calculation does not include positive items such as pay raises, bonuses, tax refunds, and “found-money” achieved by better budgeting.

Go ahead and calculate your Debt Freedom Date. Now, calculate your Debt Freedom Date including the house mortgage and payment. Use only the principal and interest portion for the monthly payment amount.

Do not include the escrow portion of the payment.

The average American can become debt-free except for their house in just 18 to 36 months.

If the house is included in the Debt Freedom Date calculation, the average American can be one hundred percent debt-free in just seven to 10 years.

Want a fantastic pay raise? Become debt-free! How much are you paying in monthly payments to service your debt?

What else could you do with that money? If one were paying $700 each month to service debt and becomes debt-free, they have given themselves a $700 per month take-home-pay raise!

This is equivalent to a $1,000-per-month gross income pay raise!

In the hundreds of financial counseling appointments I have conducted, I have enjoyed seeing the reactions of folks who realize that they can be debt-free in such a short time.

Even more, I have loved hearing the stories of folks who have actually achieved debt freedom. You can too!