Freeing yourself of debt before you even have it! Chances are, the first thing you are going to encounter that is going to put you into debt is college. Before you even have your life together you may find yourself thousands of dollars in debt. Having this debt may severely upset you and cause you to feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, which you will come to find out that there is. However, there are three ways in which you can help yourself ahead of time before you even have debt. Get a job. Yes, it is that obvious. Find yourself a job when you are old enough to work. This can be anything you want, from working in a restaurant to working in a library. It is important that you do this for a number of reasons, and one of them being that this will help you to have a certain understanding of the value of money. If you have to work for your own money, you will be less likely to spend it, and will be less likely to frivolously throw it out the window in the future. You will have no option but to make wise choices with your money, so in the future when you do have a credit card or do apply for college loans, you will be sure not to make it a lot worse than it needs to be. Save. After you get a job, or start to accrue money from birthdays or holidays or any occasion where your family or friends give you money, it is extremely important that you save. If you can start saving money before you go to college then you will have a head start and be less likely to overdo your finances while in school and will have to take out less loans for living expenses that most students have to. This contributes to college, purchasing a car, or anything of that nature. Saving money is one of the best things you can do to keep yourself out of debt. Get good grades. You have been yelled at all of your life to get good grades for a reason. If you do well in school, and do the best that you can do, you will most certainly get a college scholarship from somewhere, and this alone could cut down your debt in half. If you are able to do excel academically at an exceptional level, you will most likely get a free ride to school and will enter the real world having no debt at all. Most people find themselves getting jealous of the people who are lucky enough o have this, but the truth is, they did not get that full scholarship by partying all of the time. They got that full scholarship because they worked the best to their ability and were rewarded. However, even if you are able to get a small scholarship, it is going to make a big difference and help you when you are out of school. Even a scholarship for $15,000 is going to cut down the time it takes you to pay back your loans significantly. It is worth the hard work and is certainly worth the effort.