Welcome to Goodbudget 123: Be Debt Free. You’re here because you’re fed up with your debt, and you want to start tackling it now. You’ve realized your debt is holding you back from accomplishing the financial goals that are most important to you. You’re ready to do the hard work of taking aim at your debt and throwing everything you’ve got at it so you can crush it. 

If that sounds like you, then you’re in the right place! 

Here’s how you’ll crush your debt with Goodbudget 123

During this one-month course, you’ll work through seven assignments that aim to help you start your journey of crushing debt using the time-tested Debt Snowball method. By the end of the course, you’ll be ready to make your first real-life debt snowball payment, and you’ll know how to continue on your debt journey. 

Plus, you’ll learn how to do all of this using Goodbudget. 

What is the Debt Snowball method? It’s a debt repayment strategy that’s all about building momentum. You’ll gain speed by building a “snowball” payment that you’ll use to pay off your smallest debt first. Tackling your smallest debt first will allow you to score a quick win that’ll help motivate you throughout the rest of your debt payoff journey. After you’ve paid off your smallest debt, you’ll work on paying off your next smallest loan and so on until you’re debt free. 

Here’s what your debt payoff journey will look like. You’ll:

1. List all your debts from smallest to largest to help you visualize the debt you’ll be tackling.
2. Create a budget that prioritizes paying down debt.
3. Shape the “snowball” payment that you’ll use to tackle your debt.
4. Throw your first snowball by making a real-life debt payment on your smallest debt first, while paying the minimums on everything else.
5. Continue making those large chunky debt payments until all your debt is gone.

Now that might sound like a lot, but you won’t be alone! To help inspire and encourage you along the way, you’ll hear from Karisa, who shared about her experience getting into debt and paying it off in the second season of the Goodbudget Way podcast. You’ll also have the opportunity to hear from others in the Goodbudget community in the Discussion sections at the bottom of each assignment, and you can share what you’ve learned too!

Okay, ready to start crushing your debt? We thought you might be! 

Get started now! Check out the Homework and Discussion sections below. 

Today’s Homework: Make a list of your debts

By the time Karisa was 22, she was already $40,000 in debt. She said, “The bulk of my debt was student loans for $25K. There was also a car loan for about $14K, and some store cards totaling about $1K.”

Now it’s your turn. Even though it might be scary or overwhelming, do what Karisa did and make a list of all your debts, but rank them from the smallest balance to the largest balance. Seeing all of your debts listed out can help you visualize the opponent that you want to tackle. 

When you’re done making your list, keep the list somewhere safe — you’ll need it for the next assignment when you work on creating Accounts in Goodbudget so you can start tackling your debts.