If you’ve set up the first three parts of the five-step plan appropriately, you should have a clear path to success in front of you.

By now you have

• A monthly budget that allows you to live within your means
• A system for keeping track of your costs, giving you the tools to stick to your budget
• An emergency fund with three months costs saved up, giving you a safety net in case anything should go wrong
• An amount of cash left over after your costs each month, which you will be using to pay down your debt

You now have a long, hopefully fairly straightforward path to being debt-free in front of you. We just need to calculate how long it will take us, and engage a process of continuous optimisation.