 TITLE: How to Pay Off Debt in a Year CONTENT: Start With a Debt Repayment Plan\n--------------------------------\nTo pay off your debt in a year, you'll need to assess your financial situation.\nStart by checking your credit report to confirm how much debt you owe. Your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) list out all debt accounts that your creditors have reported to them. Your balances may not be current since your report will contain an account's balance at the time it was last reported to the bureau, but it's a great place to get a bird's-eye overview of your debt. You can obtain a free annual credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com, or you can get your free Experian credit report at any time.\nMake a list of all of your debts, including credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, student loans and mortgage. For each debt, take note of the name of the payment recipient, amount you owe, interest rate and minimum monthly payment.\nThen start thinking about which debts you want to pay off first, and which ones you can realistically expect to pay off over a year. Typically, the most economical strategy is to prioritize paying down your highest-interest debt first, but another strategy may work better for you (we'll go over this in more detail later).\nAt the same time, think about whether you need to be saving money. If you don't have any cash set aside for unexpected expenses, create an emergency fund. Ideally, the fund should cover three to six months' worth of expenses in case of an emergency or loss of income. However, an emergency fund with just $1,000 is better than no fund at all. The money in your emergency fund should provide a cushion that prevents you from missing important payments or depending on a credit card or other high-interest debt to pay a surprise expense, such as replacing two flat tires on your car. END