I went from $40,000 in debt to having 2-month emergency savings and some investments in 3 years. In this article, I'll teach you how I did it.

If you're in debt, you know the struggle. The only way to fix our finances is to take control of our spending. This is why you need a budget.

Unfortunately, too many of us get ahead of ourselves, try to cut back too much, and wind up back in the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle.

The only way to get out of debt is to take control of your finances.

So why don't most budgeters succeed in taking control of their financial future?

• They set ambitious and unrealistic savings goals.

• They immediately try to cut back to rice and beans without a plan.

• When they fall way behind, they give up instead of starting over.

• They try to tackle too many goals at once.

Finally, give the reader a sentence of hope: you're going to explain to them how they can overcome all these problems you just laid out!

But breaking the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle is possible. Understanding these common pitfalls helps us to take a simpler approach and make debt-freedom inevitable.

Here's how, step by step:

Step 1: Create your best-guess budget. Only budget what you have.

Our budget doesn't need to be perfect to help us. It just needs to give us an idea of where we're at.

That said, it should be as realistic as possible. First, write out the obvious fixed costs (rent, credit card minimum payment, subscriptions) go over your credit card statements for the last few months to get an idea of what you spend. Assign goals to each category with your average spent.

Once you have your goals, you can assign money to your budget, but remember to only budget what you have today. Remember: We aren't trying to rack up more credit card debt. If you don't have enough to fund all your categories, fund the most immediate payments and budget the rest only when you get paid next.

Step 2: Budget weekly. When you're wrong, adjust, and improve.

Most budgeters start with step 1, but when their best guess is inaccurate, they think they've failed and they quit.

What they don't realize is that this is actually the most important part. Unexpected expenses always come up, and sometimes we underestimate how much we'll spend. Everyone overestimates how much they can save at first. Learn to roll with the punches and adjust your budget to improve.

It took me 3 months to learn to accurately record expenses, and another 3 months before I had an accurate representation of my expenses in my categories. Once I did though, I had a pivotal experience.

Step 3: Adjust your spending to pay off your debt.

An accurate map of every expense makes saving easy, even automatic.

Unlike most budgeters at the start, by this point, you're a pro. You're not planning to live on rice and beans and stop paying your rent. You know what you're spending, and when you see yourself moving money to categories that don't bring you joy, you'll want to adjust to meet your goals faster.

Step 4: Pay off your debts using the Debt Snowball Method.

With an accurate budget in place and your goal firmly in mind, paying off your debt is inevitable.

The Debt Snowball will help your build momentum. Start by putting all your extra income into paying off your smallest debt first. Once you've paid it off, you can apply all your money to the next smallest debt.

With each debt repaid, you'll free up more to pay off the others. Like a snowball rolling down a mountain you will build momentum and become an unstoppable budgeting force.

Once you've paid off your debt, that momentum won't stop. Saving investments and an emergency fund will be easy when you have all those debt payments as free cash flow.