There are few things in life more spirit crushing than significant financial debt. The constant fear of family and coworkers discovering your shameful secret taxes your energy. Not to mention the hopelessness you feel as your situation spins out of control with outrageous interest payments and additional fees. Then there is the dread of opening your statements every single month.
I know this with certainty because I experienced it in my twenties just as many of my friends did. But rather than running up my own bills, I had unknowingly married into 40k in credit card debt. Ouch! And rather than bail on the new marriage, in spite of the King Kong sized red flag, I chose to stay and help my future ex-husband pay off this enormous liability. What can I say? Love is blind.
Admittedly, this is an unusual way to fall into a money pit. However, whether it’s from reckless spending or a medical situation or a divorce, debt is debt. It is the thief of dreams and opportunities, and I loathe it. So we formulated a plan to knock out this balance within two years.
As ridiculously lofty as that goal sounds, keep in mind that forty thousand dollars back then is about sixty-three thousand today. Now we’re talking crazy ambitious, right?
Given our household income was approximately sixty thousand dollars per year, we knew the cuts in expenses would be drastic and uncomfortable. Even so, we pressed forward and managed to wipe out our obligations in twenty-four months. Do you want to know how?
1. Food and Drinks
For the sake of being thorough, I will include a few ‘no-brainers’ within my list.
Well, those are the painful methods I used to erase 40k in credit card debt quickly. Implementing these tactics was frustrating at times, but ultimately successful. I vividly remember sending off the last instalment. There were tears of joy in my eyes and pride in my heart. Trust me; it was worth the sacrifices.
Have you ever experienced crushing debt? If so, do you have any suggestions on how to pay it down rapidly? Please share your tips in the comment section below. Life is better when we lift each other up.
About the author:
Jen Monks is a business writer, serial entrepreneur, and steadfast optimist devoted to helping women over forty create companies and encore careers they love.
With the snowball method, you pay off the card with the smallest balance first. Once you've repaid the balance in full, you take the money you were paying for that debt and use it to help pay down the next smallest balance.
To pay off $8,000 in credit card debt within 36 months, you will need to pay $290 per month, assuming an APR of 18%. You would incur $2,431 in interest charges during that time, but you could avoid much of this extra cost and pay off your debt faster by using a 0% APR balance transfer credit card.
In terms of saving money, a debt avalanche is better because it saves you money in interest by targeting your highest interest debt first. However, some people find the debt snowball method better because it can be more motivating to see a smaller debt paid off more quickly.
The debt avalanche is a systematic way of paying down debt to save money on interest. Individuals who use the debt avalanche strategy make the minimum payment on each debt, then use any remaining available funds to pay the debt with the highest interest rates.
National Debt Relief is a legitimate company that has helped hundreds of thousands of people negotiate their debts. The company's debt coaches are certified through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA). National Debt Relief is also a member of the American Fair Credit Council (AFCC).
1% of the balance plus interest: It would take 29.5 years or 354 months to pay off $10,000 in credit card debt making only minimum payments. You would pay a total of $19,332.21 in interest over that period.
The debt snowball method is a debt-reduction strategy where you pay off debt in order of smallest balance to largest balance, gaining momentum as you knock out each balance. When the smallest debt is paid in full, you roll the minimum payment you were making on that debt into the next-smallest debt payment.
The simple answer to this question is yes, you can get your credit card debt written off — at least in certain cases. But as you may imagine, there's nothing simple about that process, which often includes negotiations with credit card companies and debt collection agencies.
To pay off your balance of $3,000 in 12 months, you will need to make monthly payments of $262 and make no additional charges to your card. If you make monthly charges of $0 and monthly payments of $100 you will pay off your balance in 34 months or 2.83 years.
It will take 47 months to pay off $20,000 with payments of $600 per month, assuming the average credit card APR of around 18%. The time it takes to repay a balance depends on how often you make payments, how big your payments are and what the interest rate charged by the lender is.
1% of the balance plus interest: It would take 29.5 years or 354 months to pay off $10,000 in credit card debt making only minimum payments. You would pay a total of $19,332.21 in interest over that period.
1% of the balance plus interest: You would pay off $5,000 in 285 months. That means it would take nearly 24 years to eliminate your $5,000 balance if you only make minimum payments. During that time, you'll pay a total of $9,332.25 in interest for a total payoff cost of $14,332.25.
Introduction: My name is Velia Krajcik, I am a handsome, clean, lucky, gleaming, magnificent, proud, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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