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In the United States, debt has become a way of life. Half of all U.S. households owe at least $7,000 in credit-card debt and pay more than $1,000 per year in interest and fees alone. Heard of compound interest? Few of us understand this sneaky concept when we first sign on. What we do know is that stereo, dress or hot new cosmetics item has suddenly become ... available! A small monthly payment (initially) and we can get a washer-dryer, new shoes, you name it.

But before long, we're struggling to make even the minimum payments, generating high-cost late fees and watching that balance burgeon with every bill. Debt becomes a shaming monster, turning us into secret spenders, and faceless voices at the end of the phone demand payment "immediately!" "That Plastic Card Was Like My Prince" Both men and women can find their lives taken over by Debt. But women, I've learned, have their own special problems with money. We have a problem becoming -- and staying -- financially independent. Our social conditioning, even today, prepares us to be taken care of by someone else.

Even women who don't expect to marry and have babies hardly imagine having to produce the cash to support themselves forever. And yet, 90 percent of women will be responsible for their finances at some point in their lives. We need to get with reality if we want to live without financial burden and worry -- if we want the power of paying now for what we buy now, and having money left over at the end of the month to actually invest! Those of us who are deep in debt have no choice but to get out of it; otherwise we can't go on to the next step and make our money grow. Here, I'm going to help you with the behaviors and attitudes that that put us in debt: compulsive spending, fear of numbers, wishes (conscious or otherwise) to have someone else do it and other psychological deterrents to being really powerful with money. You may receive an online credit report from a number of agencies and private companies.