Debt can be extremely frustrating and a big reason for financial stress, if you don’t have a plan in place. More than 50% of Americans actually spend more than they earn each month. Debt can continue to dig deeper and deeper to the point where you have a serious financial situation. If you’ve been struggling with debt, let’s get you back on track to becoming debt-free. Below are some ways you can work to attack debt.
Pay more than the minimum payment
Debt can take years or even decades to pay off. If you have a credit card balance of $15,609, pay 15% APR, and make the minimum monthly payment of $625, it will take you 13.5 years to pay it off. No matter what kind of debt you have, paying more than the monthly minimum payment will help you pay it off faster.
Try the debt snowball method
If you decide to pay more than the minimum monthly payment, the debt snowball method can help speed up paying your debt off.
To do this, you want to make a list of all the debts you owe from smallest to largest. Throw all your excess funds at the smallest balance, while making the minimum payments on your larger loans. When the smallest balance is paid off, put that extra money toward the next smallest debt until you pay off that one, and continue from there.
This process will knock off your smaller balances one by one, giving you more money to pay off the larger ones.
Get a side job
If you have time, this is a great way to make paying off debt a little faster. Any money you make with this extra gig should go towards paying off your loans immediately.
Create a strict budget
This is another very important step. You need to cut down your expenses as much as you can. This means you’ll be living pretty thrifty until your able to start paying off some debt.
Sell what you don’t need
If you have things collecting dust in the attack that you know you will never use, sell them! This is a great way to make some extra cash. Have a garage sale or sell things on Facebook marketplace. Use the money you make to pay down those balances.
Transfer your high-interest balances to an Eastex Visa Rewards credit card
Our cards have low interest rates, no annual fees, and an interest-free grace period.
Drop expensive habits
Eliminate the expensive things your spending money on that you don’t need. If you don’t stop these bad spending habits, your debt will only get worse.
Living paycheck-to-paycheck is stressful. It’s time to take control of your debt so you can live a life without the financial strain this is adding. Don’t wait another day. Take advantage of these strategies so you can get yourself back on track.
