Call for Submissions
I will be hosting the Carnival of Debt Reduction this week. If you would like to participate, please send your entry to me by Sunday at 5:00 PM. All posts regarding experience with debt reduction or advice on how to get out of debt are welcome. For more information, please visit Mighty Bargain Hunter to get the full scoop!
Labels: MomAdvice News
posted by Amy at 8:27 PM
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1 - Stop digging. Cut up the cards. Yes, even that "just in case" one you were about to hide in the undies drawer. It's amazing how much this helps.
2 - Do whatever it takes to build up a $1,000 emergency fund. Sure enough, just as you start to try to pay down that big credit card bill, the water heater goes out. The fund handles that stuff so you can focus on killing the debt.
3 - Debt snowball. Don't the the mathematical thing and go after the "highest interest rate" or the "highest credit card balance". You won't see results quick enough. If you attack the lowest balance with everything you can, you can eliminate it faster. First, you'll have one of those debts checked off the list and second, you'll be able to take the amount you were paying on that and add it to the next lowest balance payment. It starts picking up steam and pays that one down that much faster.
That's about as far as we got, but paid off three credit cards before we got preggy and ended up having that debt reduction go towards a safe "mommy mobile". We're not piling on any more, and we're now where we can start ticking away a little bit more at it. And we've changed our lifestyle to our new income so that when I go back to work, we'll get it knocked out in less than a year with all of my income going to debt payoff!"