5 Simple Debt Payoff Tips

Debt.

It’s the four letter word that makes most people cringe in fear.

Once in you’re in debt, it feels as though you’re sinking in quicksand, clawing frantically towards the surface, desperately trying to pull yourself out.

It’s a hangman’s noose that slowly tightens around you, choking you until you feel like you can’t breathe.

We’ve been there – student loans, car payment, mortgage, credit card, medical expenses, etc.  All of those payments can make you feel like you’re drowning.

Hi everyone, it’s Phillip.

According to Dave Ramsey’s 7 baby steps to financial freedom, getting out of debt is the second most important step you can take.

Thankfully, you don’t have to drown in debt!  It is possible to get out of debt quickly and efficiently with our simple debt payoff tips!

Simple Debt Payoff Tips

Here are five tips to help you eliminate your debt so you can move on with your life, free.  We’ve used these steps time and again to pay off student loans and car loans years ahead of schedule!

Tip #1: Set up a budget to pay off debt

In order for you to know how much you can put towards your debt, you need to know these two things:

• How much you can spend in order to avoid getting into more debt
• How much extra you have that you can put into your debt snowball

Having a budget will answer both of those unknowns.  You can’t fix your debt if you keep up spending habits where you spend more than you earn, and you can’t pay off your debt as quickly if you don’t know the maximum amount that you can pay towards it.

How to set up a budget is definitely more detailed than we’re going to go into this post, but you can get the world’s easiest budget here. It’s the first step in paying off your debt!

Tip #3: Set up a debt payoff snowball

Now that you know how much extra you can put towards your debt on a regular basis, you can set up a debt snowball – which is the second debt payoff tip we have for you!

A debt snowball is the most efficient way to pay off your debt.  First, you arrange your debts in order from smallest to greatest.

(While it may sound odd, you do not pay attention to the interest rates.  Simply the balance that’s due.)

You pay the minimum payment on each debt every month, and you funnel all extra money towards paying off the smallest debt.

Once the smallest debt is paid off, you take the amount you were paying towards it, and pay it each month towards the second-smallest debt until it is paid off.

You continue this snowball until you reach the last debt, paying all of the money you were paying towards the other debts towards this last debt.

If you want more detailed information on setting up a debt snowball, I go more in-depth on this post here.

Tip #4: Get gift cards for regular purchases

One way to lower your budget for purchases you can’t cut out (you know, food is important), you can try to pay with gift cards. You can then use the extra money to payoff your debt.

If you know that you have to make a $100 purchase at Walmart, for example, you can go to a website like Raise and get it at a discounted rate.  Since you have to spend the money anyways, you might as well save 5% on it!

There are also several ways that you can get gift cards for free!  Although this won’t add up to be hundreds of dollars per month, you’d be surprised at how much you can earn.

Since these gift cards will give you extra money leftover in various budget categories, you can contribute the extra towards your debt snowball.

Tip #5 Earn extra cash to payoff debt

Are there any ways that you can earn extra cash? Pinterest is full of hundreds of ideas for ways to earn money!

Whether it’s side gigs, or even making items to sell, you can find ways to earn a bit of extra cash that can go towards your debt snowball.

One of our favorite ways to put extra cash towards my debts is to use my income tax return (increase it by itemizing medical expenses!). And also put any work bonuses towards them.  It’s tempting to get that influx of cash to make a big purchase, but there is nothing more rewarding than cutting down a debt by a large amount!

Just keep working at it

Some of these tips may not seem like much individually, but they will work together to pay off your debts the quickest way possible!

We’ve found that following principles in the scriptures about money have helped us a lot.  We’re not the only ones – this couple paid off $300,000 in debt in just a few years by reading the Bible!

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