Debt Snowball worked for me! Will it work for you?
Getting out of debt is an awesome money goal! When you’re debt-free, you have access to more money that you can use to spend on things that are important to you. Now that it’s a new year, many of you are already in the process of re-evaluating your budgets or thinking about how you can meet some of your financial goals.
So if you’re considering tackling your debt this year, let me give you a gentle push and say, “DO IT! NOW!” It might be hard in the short term, but you’ll thank me when it’s all said and done.
My life changed when I became debt-free in September of 2017. You see, I got in debt at a young age. This isn’t a new concept… Many people, myself included, take on student loan debt at an incredibly young age. (You can be 18 and take out a 20K loan???) I also had store cards and a car loan. By the time I was 22, I owed 40K to creditors. (If you want to hear a more in-depth version of my journey to paying off debt, take a listen to the second season of The Goodbudget Way podcast.)
When I decided I wanted to actively pursue debt freedom, I relied on the Debt Snowball method to help me tackle my debt. I love this method because it’s all about building momentum. I started by figuring out how much extra money I had leftover each month after paying all my other bills, and used that “snowball” to pay extra towards my smallest loan, while still paying the minimums on everything else. Once the smallest loan was paid off, my snowball was bigger and I put that towards paying off the second smallest loan. And, so on until I paid it all off.
Because my smallest loan was relatively small, I paid it off in the first month. That quick win helped get me even more amped to pay off other debts, and motivated me when things got tough. Paying off debt is definitely not easy, and I needed all the help I could get. But with perseverance and a lot of self-control (which really isn’t my strong suit), I got the job done.
By being debt-free, I’ve been able to focus on money goals that are more important to me. I’ve been able to give more, to build a better emergency fund, pay out of pocket for my wedding, go on a dream vacation to Europe, and the list goes on. I couldn’t have done these things as easily had I still been in debt.
So have I convinced you to get started on your debt payoff journey this year and to do it with Snowball? I truly hope so! If you’re ready, here’s how you how you can create a Debt Snowball plan in Goodbudget with GB 123: Be Debt Free.
Happy budgeting,
Karisa
1 thought on “I paid off $40K of debt in 2 years. Here’s how I did it.”
Awesome! That’s exactly how I did mine too. I have never had good credit. Since I was young I never used money very well and credit was…well, what is credit? Not doable with the bad choices I had made. Now that I am 71 and I have worked very hard over the years and now I am debt free and own my own house. I keep one credit card and my car is paid for. I just got my credit score to 810. WOW! Don’t let those credit card companies fool you into accepting all those offers you will be getting in the mail either. I get 3 of them a day. But it’s great knowing that if I need it and my washer or car breaks down I have the good credit now to afford the new item. For that matter I can probably just buy the new washer with cash. But there was definitely a time that I couldn’t even think like that. Snowball’s work let me tell you.