Since I have a personal mission to pay off all debt I wanted to post financial fitness updates here on the blog to help me stay focused. Much like fitness, paying off debt is also a marathon, not a sprint. It’s always been easy for me to get started and then I always seem to stall – which only prolongs the amount of time it takes for me to pay off debt. That’s not good enough anymore, I want all of our debt gone as soon as possible.
I plan on following the steps in Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover which means I will be using the debt snowball method to pay off debt. This involves paying off the smallest debt first and then putting the money I used to put towards that debt, to the next smallest debt.
It’s important for me to teach my kids how to be responsible with money so that they don’t make the same dumb mistakes I have. Or at least not as many. I feel better about doing that if I talk to them about the value of money and the struggles with having debt – while I’m working hard to pay off my own. I have managed to raise my credit score almost 200 points since getting my act together a couple years ago. The first time I checked my credit score it was below 500. I started my journey by settling all my old debts, including a judgement, and making all payments on time ever since then. Now it’s time to get rid of it all.
My financial fitness updates will include:
- Amount of money recently put towards debt
- Total amount of debt left to be paid off (eeeek!)
- Lessons learned + helpful tips
I haven’t added up all the debt I owe yet but I will include the number in my next update. I plan on doing these updates on a weekly basis for at least a month. After I get going I might change it up to update on a monthly basis but we’ll see how it goes. I need this accountability in the beginning stages to get the ball rolling!
Money put towards debt last week:
- Auto loans: $250
- Student loan: $100
- Credit cards: $265
Total: $615
My car will finally be paid off within the next 3 months and once it is 100% mine, I plan on putting the money I was paying for car payments towards other debts so things will definitely start to accelerate at that point. I. can’t. wait.
Until next time…
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