Accruing debt is a lot easier than paying it off, but with discipline, there is hope for anyone wanting to get out of debt.
Here’s 5 things you should know about getting out of debt.
Stop creating new debt
The first thing you should do if you are seriously interested in paying down your debt is stop creating new debt. While closing a credit card will hurt your credit score, there isn’t a penalty for keeping your balance at zero.
If you feel you may be …show more content…
The minimum payment is usually 2 or 3 percent of what you owe and when you are only paying that small of an amount, most of it is going towards the interest.
Find expenses you can cut back on, such a cable, and allocate the money you save towards your debt. Doing so will save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in interest payments. Packing a sack lunch or waiting to buy the latest smartphone are just a couple of ways you can cutback on spending, freeing up more money to put towards debt.
3. . Snowball Effect
The snowball method is recommended by financial author and radio host Dave Ramsey. First you gather all of your debts and write down how much you owe for each. Don’t worry about the interest on each debt. Then start paying the minimum on each debt except for the one with the smallest balance. For it, you will pay as much as you can afford. Once you pay it off, you move on to the next smallest debt and so on.
This article by Dave Ramsey explains this method in more detail.
4 Transfer credit card debt to a lower interest