One of the questions I get asked all of the time is “How did you guys do it?” How did you pay off debt so quickly? The short answer is that we lived on less and used all extra monies available to pay down debt quickly. The longer story is a winding twisting road, but over all we sacrificed.
My husband gave up his voice, and that’s because I dang near forced him into this process. I would not recommend approaching your spouse in this manner but the truth is I was so passionate about the idea of being debt-free that I became overbearing and a little obnoxious.
We cut back completely on spending, eating out, social events, and travel. Not everyone will agree with this level of intensity. I completely understand. There is a certain level of tenacity and grit needed when paying off debt. In addition, you have to be laser focused on why you want this so badly.
If you are wondering why you are not getting ahead in your debt-free journey let’s explore some things that may be holding you back.
1. You Don’t Know Your Why?
If I asked you “Why do you want to become debt-free?” what would your answer be? Could you in one to two sentences share with me how being debt-free would change your life? What difference would it make?
You have to have a come to Jesus meeting with your self and your spouse (if that applies to you) to figure out why getting rid of debt is so important.
I didn’t begin to think about getting out of debt until I realized I wanted to be a Stay at Home Mom. By the time I realized this I had a 6-month-old, a new $500 a month student loan payment, and an introduction to what it means to pay tithes faithfully. These three things stacked with one less income source led to the decision to become debt-free.
Let’s just say I knew what my why was. I no longer wanted to live paycheck to paycheck, I wanted to honor God with our first by paying tithes and I wanted to put my family in better place financially.
Is it really that deep? Maybe not for you, but for me it was and for others, it will be. Whatever is moving you to kick debt to the curb, write it down and remember it when things get tough.
2. You Don’t Have a Plan
Maybe you’ve figured out why you must get out of Debt and from there you are just winging it. Ummm. No. First of all, let’s get out of the habit of just winging it. Especially when it comes your finances. Have some sort of plan, and when things go left then wing it…maybe.
It takes 15 minutes to grab a sheet of paper, write down all of your debts, interest rates on the debts, and your income and outgoing expenses. From there it probably takes another 5 minutes to decide how and what you are going to do to pay all of this off.
The day I sat down with my husband, I explained to him that it was two things I was sure of. One was that I wasn’t going back to work any time soon and the other was that I wanted to get us out of debt. He may have rolled his eyes, don’t quite remember, but the reality of it all was that I was leaving a major burden to him to get us out of debt and to provide for every need of his new family.
Knowing he would probably be overwhelmed with everything I also brought to him a plan. I showed him what he brought in every month, what are new expenses were, and showed him where we could cut things out. I promised him that as a Stay at Home Parent I would do my part to be intentional with spending, prepare as much as I could using what we had, and monitor our money closely .
With a plan, he was much more at ease. He could see I was dedicated to making this work and that I wasn’t just talking about it, but being about it.
You will get nowhere in your journey if you aren’t willing to sit down and come up with a plan. This leads me to the next point.
3. You Refuse to Create A Budget
The thought of creating a Budget may make you break out in hives. Grab you a bottle of Benadryl then.
I don’t know anyone who has changed the trajectory of their finances without creating a budget. A budget is simply a plan that tells you where your money is going. I’m pretty sure that’s a Dave Ramsey definition. A budget is essential to not only becoming debt-free but also becoming wealthy.
Most of us have no idea where our money goes each month. We don’t know that we are spending $200 a month on Starbucks because we don’t track it.
Once, I thought I’d got too good for budgeting. I started to wonder where the heck our money was going. After doing some backtracking I realized we’d spent $900 that month on eating out! How Sway?! That shook me. I started budgeting, tracking, and eating at home immediately.
Budget or find yourself wondering where your money went.
4. You Are Accumulating More Debt
It’s hard to beat debt if you are still charging things on your card. This is the easiest way to sabotage your financial success.
Whether or not you’re good at paying off your credit cards, the act of using your card while in the middle of paying it off is a rotating door. That means you are going around and around in circles. It’s like walking up the down escalator.
Self-control is the name of the game. My husband and I fortunately never had problems with credit cards. While we did find ourselves paying interest every once in a while, for the most part, we only charged what we could afford.
Sometimes its all we can do to not charge up a credit card during an emergency. If this is the case I recommend you stop paying off debt and build a 2- 3-month emergency fund before you continue paying off debt. It’s better to be prepared on the front end than to pay interest to your credit card company.
Having trouble swiping? Try cutting up the card or the least put it in a plastic bowl of water and freeze it.
5. You are doing too much.
One of my favorite things about myself is being hyper-focused. I can laser focus on something for a long time, driven to get it done. The debt was one of those things. This is the number one reason I believe I was successful in the process.
I am a firm believer that multitasking with your finances is an easy way to stay stuck in all of your financial goals.
You want to save an emergency fund, pay off debt, and invest all at the same time. You can do that, but your goals will suffer.
If you want to grow your emergency fund, do that. If you want to pay the debt, do that. Figure out what your main goal is and go at it with all that you have.
You can always pause one to do the other, but trying to do too much at once causes frustration, making you want to give up all together.
To sum it up..
So let’s quickly remind you of the 5 things you will and will not do during your journey. You will not wing it. You will step up with at least a monthly budget. You will not accumulate any more debt. You will find your why and keep it at the forefront of financial journey and last you will focus on one goal at a time.
I hope this was helpful for you. What have you done to sabotage your debt free journey?
