Are you sick of your debts?
Thinking how to pay off debt fast
I am showing you below how to do that
But I want you to think for a moment
There are few affiliate links, if you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you
What made you fall in debts in first place
Are you over spending on luxury items?
Because you want people surrounding you
To see you in a good way
You cannot handle criticism so
You try to show off to avoid people making fun of you
Perhaps you spend money on your friends
Buying them a lot of gifts just to plead them
You want them to stay around you
I don’t want you to pay off your debt
Then fall again in another one
You have to find the cause first and work on
Fixing this issue then pay off your debt
Actions to take on how to pay off debt fast
When I got married in 2010
I had to buy a whole new things for my condo
I knew I will be in debt but I had control over it
What made things worse I got laid off and
Me and my wife were living on a single income
We managed to get rid of our debts quickly
I am willing to show you how to pay off debt fast
Let me list below what you can do to pay off debt
Get back on track as a debt free person
1) Make a list of all your debts
You start by creating an excel sheet
List all of your debts on the left as rows
Create columns for your debts to include for each debt
Minimum payment, interest rate and total amount you owed
Now you can rank your debts based on highest rate
Target to pay these debts first
Also if you can manage to pay small debts to cross them out of your list
This will motivate you and keep you focused on big ones
2) Set your budget
To setup a good balanced budget
You have to review all your credit cards history
You got to analyze your spending
Some expenses are fixed like rent or mortgage you cannot control them
While other expenses are fluctuating like utilities, groceries and gas
Track all the fluctuating expenses
Try to come up with reasonable and moderate budget for all these expenses
Do that based on average of ups and downs
I tell you that so you don’t track your expenses during holiday
Which are considered high and apply them all year round
Once you set a realistic budget
Bring envelopes and label them with the expense name
If you are paying some expenses using
Authorized credit cards payments
Then don’t label envelopes for them
There is a free app which is called
Goodbudget for Android and iPhone
3) Set your goals and plans
Do you have a plan on how to pay off debt fast
Have this plan written somewhere in your home
Check it daily and track your progress on the same sheet
Without goals it will be hard to stay on track
Set a due date on how you will finish one debt
If you manage to pay one debt successfully on time
You will be very excited with your small progress
It will boost your enthusiasm to keep you paying more into your debts
4) Pay with cash
Stop using credit cards
Although some cash back credit cards rewards you on your purchases
Problem is with you using your credit cards
If you cannot control spending on your credit cards
Leave them at home
Only bring your debit card with you for emergencies
5) Lower your spending
Cut fast food and dinning out
You have to endure some sacrifices
Stop buying what you want
Get only what you need
There are so many things to cross from your buying list and
Still put its money to pay your debt
Like buying new clothes, accessories and shoes
If you stop your daily drive thru coffee
You will save around $15$ to $20 weekly
Just a thought that came to me
Open a new saving account if you don’t have one
Imagine paying for your coffee and
Pay its amount to your saving account
Pay the accumulated amount at the end of each month to one of your debt
6) Pay more for debts with high interest rate
Pay high interest rate first as
You don’t want accrued interest to get accumulated
Your plan is to pay less in term of interest charges
At the same time some people debate to pay
The smallest balance to keep you motivated
I would say pay the small balance for one debt
That can be paid in one or two months
While still paying most of your payment into the highest interest debt
7) Finish paying lowest balance first
If you have 2 similar debts with equal interest rates
Finish first the lower one to give yourself a relief
Although I mentioned above to pay the debt
With the highest interest and now I tell you to
Pay lowest balance first, you get confused
Actually this is a debate
In my opinion if you have a small balance
That can be completed in one or two months
I would share the monthly payment between
Paying the 2 debts with highest interest rate and lowest balance
I will give an example with numbers here
If you have debt A for $11,000 with 19% interest
While debt B for $600 with 5.5% interest
If you are committed to pay $800 monthly
I would allocate $300 towards debt B
While paying $500 towards debt A
In 2 months I will finish debt B and move to debt A
8) Double up on payments
If you finished paying one debt like paying one credit credit in full
Congratulations and keep up the good momentum
Allocate the same amount towards another credit card
To accelerate finishing it faster
Any extra payment will go towards your principal
Make sure you are not paying just the interest
Your payment has to cover the interest plus part of principal
If you pay only the interest unfortunately
You are not decreasing your loan or credit card
9) Pay down debts using bonuses
Whenever you get year end bonus or
Tax income coming from your tax returns
Take all the money and put it towards your debts
Also most of us get paid biweekly
This means in any fiscal year
You have 2 extra payments
Look at your calendar and check all the paychecks
Usually it is Fridays and see
When you will get the next extra paycheck
You can use it to pay more into your debts
10) Pay more than the minimum payments
It will take you forever if you are paying just the minimum
I have one of my credit cards on its statement
It has a statement under the balance that says
If you pay the minimum only
It will take your 9 years to pay all your balance
This amount is less than a thousand
It is completely insane to pay minimum only
Doing that you will be paying the interest
11) Get rid of extra things by selling them
Check around your belongings from electronics to furniture
There are so many things you can sell and still feel you didn’t lose much
There is nothing wrong about that
Don’t take it personally and get the feeling that you went broke
I managed to sell toys that are in good condition
If you have 2 laptops but only use one
You can sell your items on Facebook Marketplace https://m.facebook.com/marketplace/
In your nearby community or you can sell your items on eBay https://www.ebay.ca
But eBay requires extra skills to learn how to create a listing
12) Cancel unnecessary subscriptions
I remember I looked one at PayPal subscriptions
I found 2 unused subscriptions
Which I cancelled right away
Most credit cards statements have beside
All transactions an icons to indicate
If a transaction is a recurring type
Go through all your recurring types and see what you can get rid off
What about your cable
You can switch to free or paid online streaming service
What about your GYM membership and yard maintenance
13) Lower your mandatory subscriptions
For all mandatory subscriptions like cell phone plan
Check if you are paying for extra services and not using them or
Paying for a service but using part of it
Like paying for 10 GB of data
When you are not using more than 3 GB monthly
You can save good money
If you apply this on all mandatory ones
14) Focus to be satisfied with what you got
To be satisfied you have to stop comparing yourself to others
Don’t look on what they got and you don’t
What they got should not concern you
Also practice doing these things in your life
Write down your daily gratitude
You have to recognize all the good things
You got in your life each day
Be flexible and accept change in your life
One in a while always think about people’s point of view
Try to think about it and accept it
Look at things in new perspective
Turn any negative situation into a positive one
Perhaps being in debt will teach you to live frugal life
I mentioned earlier to look for the cause of
What got you into debts in the first place
15) Avoid new debt
It doesn’t make sense to create new debt
While you still paying your current one
If you plan to buy a new car
You don’t need to that
Used car will also do the work for you
16) Analyze your shopping habits
Sometimes you need to think
What makes you spend money
If you find that you hang out with your friends and
This triggers you to spend money
Now you know the cause
Remember I am not trying to make your life hard
At least you should have fun
But find a way to limit the habit that makes you spend money
Also check your credit card statements
See if you can spot any extra thing to stop buying
17) Find a way to increase your income
If you increase your income
You can pay your debt fast
There are so many ways online to make an extra income
Check how to make an extra $200 in one day
18) Volunteer for a good cause
This will help you feel how lucky you are with what you have
It will also help you save money especially
If you hang out with your friends a lot
Also if I cannot ask you to denote or I will be insane
I would ask you to denote from your health
By doing service in charities
19) Overcome your addiction
If you are a smoker or you buy alcohol a lot
It is now your decision to stop your addiction and
Save money towards paying your debts
If not, think about your addiction from different perspective
Some people are addicted to buying clothes especially shoes
I know a friend who is really addicted to buying watches
If you stop your addiction
You will get self satisfaction that
You have done your best to fight your debts
20) Focus on your needs and not your wants
You have to differentiate between
What you need and what you want
Forget about your debts now
Just focusing on chasing your wants
This will drop your level of happiness
As you feel deprived
If you want to be happy
Focus only on what you have
21) Learn basic money management and investments
You have to understand the basics
Like the bad effect of compound interest
How to calculate the matured value of initial money after investment
I see lot of people they don’t understand those basic money management
I recommend you read used books for the budgeting habit or Financial peace planner by Dave Ramsey
22) be positive and stay motivated
Number one problem with any people under debts
They don’t believe that they can be debts free one day
Usually because they have low income
Getting despaired will make you lose hope
If you lose hope you will not be able to overcome your debts
23) Speak to a credit counselor for free
in US and Canada
There are free credit counselor offered by the government
You can listen to their advice
Don’t assume you know everything
Always there can be few things
You are not aware of
24) Get a consolidated loan
Sometimes credit cards send regular mail
Offering you to get use of low interest rate for up to 9 months or even a year
This is considered a very good change to transfer all of your credits from other credit cards
You will be able to consolidate into one card
This will motivate you to pay your debt faster as you will be paying more on principal than interest
25) Refinance your mortgage
If you own your home
You still has a good opportunity to apply for
Home equity loan with low interest rate
You pay all of your credits and then work later to pay this line of credit
The idea is to get all debts under low interest rate
It happens that home equity loans are the lowest rates
26) Save on groceries
You still can save a lot of money on grocery
You never imagine how much you can save
All savings should be applied to your debts
What to do after you pay off debt fast
The feeling of overcoming your debts is completely joyful
You restore your confidence back
First thing you think about is
You don’t want to fall in debt again
Start with the following precautions to avoid falling in debt
- Avoid buying things that stretch your budget
- Keep track by using an excel sheet for all your credit cards balances weekly or biweekly
- Don’t miss credit cards payments
- Pay your credit balances in full
- Limit the number of credit cards you have
- Create an emergency fund and save for US 401K or Canadian RRSP
- Start saving by going through a challenge called 52 weeks money saving challenge
I hope I really helped you to know how to pay off debt fast, share it with those you feel can benefit from reading this by clicking on the social media icons to the left or bottom (mobile)
Leave a Reply