What is your biggest financial hurdle? For most people the answer to this is debt. Debt is what keeps so many people in slavery. It takes a mindset shift to get out of debt, but it is possible. Lena and I have been out of debt for a few years now and it feels amazing.
Lena and I have never had a ton of debt. We had car payments and the typical debt that a young married couple has, but we weren’t $50,000 of debt like a lot of people. Still, the constant monthly payments weighed on my. When we first started our journey to financial freedom we first got out of debt. Fortunately for us, when we were down to the last of our debt, car payments, we had a really good tax return one year and paid it off. That may seem like something I shouldn’t tell you. I was lucky enough to be able to pay it off in one fell swoop, which many of you don’t have the ability to do. There are two reasons I tell you this. One is integrity. I always want to be as honest with you as I can. The second, is education. On that note, here are 3 ways to get out of debt.
The first is to pay it off in one big chunk. You may not get it all at once, but you can put a huge dent in it. What do most people do when they get a tax return? They go and spend it. They buy all of the things they wanted to buy the year before and it’s all gone. They still have the same amount of debt that they had before and aren’t any closer to being free, but they have the “stuff” they want. I want to encourage you guys that stuff is just stuff. Don’t let yourselves be slaves to debt. As I said earlier, Lena and I didn’t have a ton of debt but I can’t tell you how good it felt to pay off the little debt we did have. I’m ready to drive our cars into the ground just to prevent ever having a car payment again. So if you have the opportunity to either take a chunk out of your debt or buy something you really don’t need, take a chunk out of your debt.
The second thing you can do to get rid of your debt is to snowball it. This is where you pay minimum payments on most of your debt, but pay a higher amount on the first debt you want to tackle. Once that debt is gone, you roll over the entire monthly amount you were paying on that debt to start paying off the second one. Then you repeat the process until all of your debt is gone. This process helps you get rid of debt at an exponential rate. I have a tool that I can use to plan a snowball for you and show you just how fast you can get out of debt, and I don’t charge you anything to create this plan for you.
The third way to get out of debt is to renegotiate it. This option isn’t available in all states but it is an option. You can either consolidate the debt into one low interest debt, or you can completely renegotiate the debt with the creditors. You can’t do this yourself though. The credit card companies and other creditors won’t even listen to you. They have you on the hook and they are going to get their money. This includes private student loans (I’ll touch on federal student loans in the next paragraph). I deal with a reputable company that can renegotiate your debt for you as long as you aren’t in one of the ten states that doesn’t allow it.
One quick word on Federal student loans. There are great programs still that the federal government has to help you out with your federally backed student loans. The reason I gave them their own paragraph is because they are federal, so anybody can apply for them. There are income based programs, and if you hold a job in public service for ten years, you pay your monthly payments for those ten years and whatever is left over is forgiven. We can help you with this process also.
If you want help getting out of debt, set up an appointment with me here. We can talk about your options and help you get out of debt and save for your future.
Be blessed and free.
