With all of the guides on how to get out of debt quickly, there’s always one question looming large over all of these, is it possible to get out of debt quickly? This is quite a tricky question to answer, but in short, yes it is possible. But it requires a lot of self-sacrifice in combination with the right payment strategies, so let’s go over some of the strategies you may be aware of but also some hidden gems.
Forget About The “Minimum Payment”
We all think about just paying the bare minimum off our credit card balance to tide us over in the meantime, but with a credit card balance running in excess of thousands of dollars with the standard APR percentage around 15%, it could take you nearly a decade to pay this off! And if you added to your current debt, it would mean an even longer period of financial stress.
It’s always beneficial to have a look at ways of consolidating your debt on sites like repair.credit, but if credit is your downfall, then you may want to start thinking about debt consolidation methods especially if you have a big collection of credit cards. But the first thing to do is to pay more than your minimum payment as this will stop you chasing your tail.
A Second “Career”
If you want to get out of debt quicker you need to earn more money, this is complete common sense, but a lot of people don’t think about getting an extra job on the side because they don’t have the time. However, with the freelance approach to living in the modern world a lot of people pick up and put down jobs on the side of their full-time career or even make a living out of being a freelancer.
There are plenty of websites where you can do an odd job or even do something from home, and it doesn’t need to necessarily be something you have to have skills for. There are plenty of online surveys that pay, making sure that you are utilizing any spare moments to earn some extra money. And by putting that money towards paying off your debt, you’ve still got your full-time income.
The “Snowball Method”
This is a process that can help you to speed up paying off your debts and gather momentum. The idea is to list all of your debts from smallest to largest, and by using your excess funds to pay off the smallest balances while continually making the minimum payments on your larger debts.
This will mean that once the smaller balances are paid off, you can then transfer your funds towards the next debt up from that. You do this until all of the debts are paid off. Not only does this free up more cash over time, but it also has a positive benefit on your well-being because you are seeing these debts being paid off. It’s giving you more motivation to keep going rather than to continually paddle in your debt pool.
With these three methods, this should help you to navigate your way out of debt quicker than the average person. But don’t forget, it’s all about knowing that there is a way out! You don’t need to think about selling your home, resorting to cheap tactics, and above all else, wallowing in debt for the rest of your life!