By Melissa Lambarena, NerdWallet

When debt feels overwhelming, it can be hard to imagine how any general one-size-fits-all advice can lead to financial freedom. Financial therapists suggest that a relationship with money is emotional and behavioral, but becoming debt-free is not far from reach if you make your own path.

A good starting point is to acknowledge and normalize your feelings around debt, according to Dr. Christine Hargrove, a certified marriage, family and financial therapist who serves as assistant director of the Love and Money Center at the University of Georgia, which offers clinical training, client services and outreach programs. A key is to recognize that debt is temporary and not absolute or final.

That temporary state can get shorter with one small proactive action followed by another. Whether it’s checking card balances, downloading a tracking app, or reading debt-payoff success stories, what matters most is starting and maintaining.

Here are strategies from therapists to sustain your debt-payoff journey.

1. Create comfort rituals

Consider those things that have helped you cope with prior stressful situations. It might be a cup of hot chocolate or tea, or a reward to look forward to at the end, Hargrove says. A simple ritual won’t erase debt, but it can make tough financial tasks more manageable.

2. Designate a support buddy

Hargrove suggests enlisting a “body double” — a friend who joins you via phone, video or in person while you work through a task. A money-savvy buddy can also offer encouragement and practical advice along the way.

3. Organize your time and approach

Decide how much time to devote to your goals. Even five minutes daily can contribute to progress.

Break tasks into manageable steps:

Choose your debt-payoff tracker

Stay encouraged by tracking debt based on your preferred method, whether it’s spreadsheets, bullet journals, downloadable printables you can color in at every milestone, or something else. Also, track your budget with an app, spreadsheet or other option that will keep you aware of every expense.

“The more you engage in it, the more motivated you are to stay with it,” says Simi Mandelbaum, CEO and founder of Prospr Financial Wellness, a financial therapy and coaching service.

Quantify the debt

Pull your credit report for free at annualcreditreport.com or log into your accounts to get a list of your debts, minimum payments and/or interest rates assessed.

“It can be comforting to feel like, ‘OK, there’s [not another] boogeyman in the closet, right?’” Hargrove says. “We have now turned on all the lights.”

Create or update your budget

Review your expenses, debit and credit card statements to understand costs and trim where needed, or switch to less pricey alternatives. Redirect any savings to an emergency fund and debt payments.

4. Decide on a strategy

Set a debt-payoff deadline based on a realistic monthly amount you can pay toward balances.

Also consider these moves to save time and money:

Lower your interest rate: Depending on your credit scores or circumstances, you might qualify for ways to lower high-interest debt with a balance transfer credit card, a credit card hardship plan, a debt management plan at a nonprofit credit counseling agency, a consolidation loan or a different option.
Pick the avalanche or snowball method: If you have multiple debts, decide whether to target the smallest balance first (the snowball) for quick wins, or the highest-interest debt (the avalanche) for maximum savings. Keep up minimum payments on all other debts to protect your credit.
Stop using credit: Temporarily switch to cash or a debit card if you must.

If money is tight, try to supplement your income with enjoyable work, or consider a lifestyle change like moving, getting a roommate or downsizing.

5. Build an emergency fund along the way

Avoid cycling back into debt by building an emergency fund for unexpected costs while you pay down existing balances. Initially, that might be easier to do with the snowball method.

“Don’t feel like you have to do one or the other,” says Nathan Astle, a certified financial therapist at Beyond Finance, a debt consolidation company. Even if one of your balances is small, “just getting that off your plate would feel like a start,” he says.

An emergency fund, too, can start small. Even a safety net of just a few hundred dollars can help. Eventually, shoot for three to six months’ worth of living expenses.

6. Celebrate milestones and leave room for improvement

You don’t have to wait until you’ve fully paid off debt to celebrate or treat yourself. Reward small milestones with something of value that won’t break the bank. It could be quality time with family, self-care or something else.

“Small incremental rewards are usually better for us than one big thing after all of it is figured out,” Astle says.

Expect setbacks along the way as you’re building new habits and navigating unexpected changes or circumstances.

“What you’re actually changing is behavior,” Hargrove says. “The more that you apply the intention and correct as you go, then it starts to become habit.”

Mandelbaum suggests writing down a list of challenges you’ve overcome as a reminder you can do it again.

“When I have a setback, that’s my list I go to, and then I look and say, ‘Yup, I’ve had something like this happen to me and look, it worked out,’” she says.

7. Talking to yourself can help. Really.

Envision yourself in the short-term future being grateful for decisions made now. Hargrove suggests talking out loud to yourself when you’re making a choice to help your goals. Say something like, “Future [insert your name], today I’m not going to spend on dining out (or a different expense), I’m staying on budget for you.”

When you later review your progress, say something like, “Past [insert your name], you really watched it this month, that was awesome, and I really appreciate it.”

It might sound silly, but self-talk can help change behaviors and inch you closer to your goals, according to Hargrove.

“It sets up a really positive loop that helps motivate and sustain the behavior change,” she says.

Melissa Lambarena writes for NerdWallet. Email: mlambarena@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @LissaLambarena.

The article Overwhelmed by Debt? Ease Into a Plan With These Expert Tips originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By GERALD IMRAY, Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A Cuban man deported by the United States to the African nation of Eswatini is on a hunger strike at a maximum-security prison having been held there for more than three months without being charged or having access to legal counsel under the Trump administration’s third-country program, his U.S.-based lawyer said Wednesday.

Roberto Mosquera del Peral was one of five men sent to the small kingdom in southern Africa in mid-July as part of the expanding U.S. deportation program to Africa, which has been criticized by rights groups and lawyers, who say deportees are being denied due process and exposed to rights abuses.

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Mosquera’s lawyer, Alma David, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that he had been on a hunger strike for a week, and there were serious concerns over his health.

“My client is arbitrarily detained, and now his life is on the line,” David said. “I urge the Eswatini Correctional Services to provide Mr. Mosquera’s family and me with an immediate update on his condition and to ensure that he is receiving adequate medical attention. I demand that Mr. Mosquera be permitted to meet with his lawyer in Eswatini.”

An Eswatini government spokesperson referred the AP, which requested comment, to a correctional services official, who didn’t immediately respond to calls and messages.

Mosquera was among a group of five men from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen deported to Eswatini, an absolute monarchy ruled by a king who is accused of clamping down on human rights. The Jamaican man was repatriated to his home country last month, but the others have been kept at the prison for more than three months, while an Eswatini-based lawyer has launched a case against the government demanding they be given access to legal counsel.

Civic groups in Eswatini have also taken authorities to court to challenge the legality of holding foreign nationals in prison without charge. Eswatini said that the men would be repatriated, but have given no timeframe for any other repatriations.

U.S. authorities said they want to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Eswatini under the same program.

The men sent to Eswatini were criminals convicted of serious offenses, including murder and rape, and were in the U.S. illegally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. It said that Mosquera had been convicted of murder and other charges and was a gang member.

The men’s lawyers said they had all completed their criminal sentences in the U.S., and are now being held illegally in Eswatini, where they haven’t been charged with any offense.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has cast the third-country deportation program as a means to remove “illegal aliens” from American soil as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying they have a choice to self-deport or be sent to a country like Eswatini.

The Trump administration has sent deportees to at least three other African nations — South Sudan, Rwanda and Ghana — since July under largely secretive agreements. It also has a deportation agreement with Uganda, although no deportations there have been announced.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that it has seen documents that show that the U.S. is paying African nations millions of dollars to accept deportees. It said that the U.S. agreed to pay Eswatini $5.1 million to take up to 160 deportees and Rwanda $7.5 million to take up to 250 deportees.

Another 10 deportees were sent to Eswatini this month and are believed to be held at the same Matsapha Correctional Complex prison outside the administrative capital, Mbabane. Lawyers said that those men are from Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Cuba, Chad, Ethiopia and Congo.

Lawyers say the four men who arrived in Eswatini on a deportation flight in July haven’t been allowed to meet with an Eswatini lawyer representing them, and phone calls to their U.S.-based attorneys are monitored by prison guards. They have expressed concern that they know little about the conditions in which their clients are being held.

“I demand that Mr. Mosquera be permitted to meet with his lawyer in Eswatini,” David said in her statement. “The fact that my client has been driven to such drastic action highlights that he and the other 13 men must be released from prison. The governments of the United States and Eswatini must take responsibility for the real human consequences of their deal.”

Nokukhanya Musi contributed to this report from Manzini, Eswatini.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump was put on hold.

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The Kremlin said that as part of the maneuvers involving all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea. The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.

The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin via video link that the drills were intended to simulate “procedures for authorizing the use of nuclear weapons.”

While Putin emphasized that the maneuvers had been planned in advance, they came hours after President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Putin in Budapest was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”

The decision about the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which Trump had announced last week, was made following a call Monday between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Lavrov made clear in comments Tuesday that Russia is opposed to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump, meanwhile, has been shifting his stance all year on key issues in the conflict, including whether a ceasefire should come before longer-term peace talks, and whether Ukraine could win back land seized by Russia during almost four years of fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday emphasized that the planned Putin-Trump summit needs to be thoroughly prepared.

“No one wants to waste time: neither President Trump nor President Putin,” Peskov told reporters. “These are the two presidents who are accustomed to working efficiently with high productivity. But effectiveness always requires preparation.”

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s prime minister toughened his stance Wednesday by declaring that his country is in charge of its own security and isn’t an American protectorate as he prepared to discuss progress on Gaza’s fragile ceasefire agreement with U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks ahead of his meeting with Vance appeared aimed easing public concerns that the presence of an envisioned international security force in Gaza could limit Israel’s ability to strike in the devastated territory to thwart future threats.

“We are not a protectorate of the United States. Israel is the one that will decide on its security,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office as he headed into the meeting.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting’s start, Vance acknowledged that the road to peace is strewn with huge hurdles but at the same time tried to maintain the buoyant tone he sounded Tuesday on his arrival to Israel.

“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel. That’s not easy,” Vance said. “There’s a lot of work to do, but I feel very optimistic about where we are.”

Vance is also meeting Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday. He is accompanied by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Questions abound on next steps of ceasefire plan

Uncertainty remains over the deployment of an international security force in Gaza and who will govern the territory. Vance said Tuesday officials are brainstorming on the composition of the security force, mentioning Turkey and Indonesia as countries expected to contribute troops.

Britain is also sending a small contingent of military officers to Israel to assist in monitoring the ceasefire.

Palestinians walk trough the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

As Vance’s meetings got underway, Israel said it completed the identification of the bodies of two more hostages that were handed over by the Red Cross to the Israeli military in Gaza on Tuesday.

Authorities identified the deceased hostages as Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar who were killed in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, which triggered the two-year war.

Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over, a key element to the ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile, the burial of 54 Palestinians is set for Wednesday at a cemetery in Deir al Balah, Gaza. The bodies were displayed outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis ahead of the burial.

Funeral prayers for Palestinians

Dozens of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered outside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis for funeral prayers over the bodies of 54 Palestinians clad in white shrouds.

The unidentified bodies were among 165 that Israel sent back to Gaza last week. They will be transported to Gaza’s central city of Deir al-Balah for burial.

A senior health official in Gaza said some bodies bore “evidence of torture” and called for an investigation.

Israel has not provided identification for the bodies or explained their origins. They could include Palestinians who died during the Oct. 7 attacks, detainees who died in custody or bodies that were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.

So far, authorities in Gaza have identified 52 of the returned bodies, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Charity says an armed group took over its Gaza facility

A top Palestinian nongovernmental organization that offers mental health services to people in Gaza said Wednesday that there had been an “armed raid and brutal takeover” of one its facilities in the territory last week.

The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme said an “armed group” it didn’t identify stormed the facility in Gaza City on Oct. 13, seized the building, expelled guards by force and put up their own families there.

“This blatant attack and serious crime represents a flagrant violation of all laws and norms,” the group said.

It was unclear why the organization waited more than a week to report the takeover, but it said that although it had made immediate requests for authorities to intervene, there had been no “concrete action” to return the facility “despite repeated promises to evacuate.”

They urged Palestinian authorities to act immediately and called on countries sponsoring the ceasefire to “intervene decisively.”

Israelis to bid farewell to a Thai hostage killed on Oct. 7, 2023

Israelis were set on Wednesday to bid farewell to a Thai farmworker whose body will be repatriated to his native Thailand later in the day.

Sonthaya Oakkharasri was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, and his body was held in Gaza until it was returned last weekend.

A statement by the Families’ Headquarters for the Return of the Abductees said a gathering will be held at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to pay last respects to Oakkharasri, calling him a “devoted father and farmer who dreamed of establishing his own farm.”

In the 2023 attack on Israel that started the war, Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.