Debt Free Journey (4k Away From Below 100k In Debt)
These posts are going to be more common as I want to be transparent and talk about how I’ve been able to apply the ideas from books to my life. That’s the key thing. You have to apply what you learn. One of things I had a hard time with was debt — credit card and student loan . How do I tackle the $124k of consumer debt I have?
I’ve compiled notes and ideas from 15+ financial books, and I’m using these ideas to pay off my debt while also saving for retirement.
I went through so many books like Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, Automatic Millionaire by David Bache, and so many others.
I formed a plan from the financial books I read in the fall of 2021 and this plan didn’t finalize until the summer of 2022. Then I built up an emergency savings in several months. In September of 2022, it was finally time to dump money into my debt.
I did the snowball method where I started with the lowest debt first. This way I got motivation leading up to the $108k student loan.
I worked on my credit cards first, which was at $6k. I paid this off in longer time than I thought because I kept on using my credit cards. Horrible financial mistake that I kept on doing. It’s better now, but a mistake that I’m working on not making again because every penny has to go to my student loans.
After my credit card debt was wiped out, it was my private loan of $10k. I had $8k left on it, so I put every dollar I could on to it and paid it off in five months.
Now, it’s the large debt of $108k. I just paid off $4k and having below triple figure debt is so close. 🤏 I can taste it. My goal is to hit below $100k before the New Year. I need to buckle down, spend less on groceries, get another shift at Domino’s, work extra hours at my other job, and keep the ball rolling.
In 1.3 years, I’ve paid off $20k in debt — $8k in credit cards and $12k in student loans. I used my credit cards too much when I was paying it off, so I racked up another $2k on it. It’s a mistake I can’t make again.
I was able to pay off this amount by putting every paycheck I earn from one job to the loans. The other paycheck I dumped into my savings account, groceries, or gas. My goal is to dump all the paychecks that I get from both jobs into the loans, but I haven’t been able to do that yet due to how expensive groceries and gas are.
I hope this inspired you to pay off your consumer debt. Let’s do this together. What’s the amount of debt you owe and how are you paying it off?
