How to Eliminate Your Debt in 5 Easy Steps

Did you know that roughly 40 percent of Americans have credit card debt? Even further, research shows that American households owe an average of $6,929 to the creditors. What’s even more interesting, is that as a society; we’re earning more but we also owe more! I think it’s safe to say, that when it comes to credit card usage, it can fast become a downward spiral, if you let it. Unfortunately, I am not an exception to this revelation. But instead of hiding under a rock, I’m determined to do something about it and eliminate, or for purposes of this post, slay my credit card debt – once and for all. Are you interested in becoming debt free? Keep reading to learn how you can eliminate your debt in 5 easy steps. 

My Debt Free Journey

A few weeks ago, I opened up about my rocky relationship with money and my debt. At the beginning of my pay-off journey I owed $43,292.43 in credit card debt (it’s still very hard for me to admit this.) But I clearly have a REALLY bad shopping problem. Maybe this is why “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is one of my favorite movies. But unlike Rebecca Bloomwood, I’ve never missed a payment. I, on the other hand, just fell victim to not paying off my cards as fast as I was using them. I guess the whole “Buy Now, Pay Later” shtick only works if you’re actually paying off your card balance in full! That clearly hasn’t been me. But I’m not tripping, and I’m not throwing a pity party. In fact, I’m extremely excited to tackle this beast!

Since facing my situation head on, I’ve created a plan and will be debt free in the next 18 months. That’s right! In less than two years… I’ll be debt free!  I’m able to do so with the debt snowball method. If you’re in the debt free community then you should be familiar with this term.For those that don’t know, the debt snowball method is a strategy that involves paying off your debts in order from smallest to largest. As you pay off your smaller balances, you roll that payment amount into your next largest balance…thus creating a snowball. It’s pretty simple when you think about it, and highly effective. Since embarking on this journey in December, I’ve already paid off over $5,000 in just three months! See below for information on how you can also eliminate your debt with the snowball method! 

How to Eliminate Your Debt

1. List out all of your cards from smallest balance to largest balance.
2. List out all of your minimum payment amounts on all of your cards and add up the total (For those that budget each month, this will be your monthly threshold).
3. Make your minimum payments on all of your cards, except for the card with the smallest balance.
4. In addition to the minimum payment due on your smallest credit card balance, send as much extra as you can. 
5. Repeat this process until all of your cards are paid off! 

Even if you don’t have credit card debt, I think that this debt reduction method can be applied to all debt! The only important thing to remember is to avoid creating more debt, so that you won’t end up in this situation again. 

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