The seven things you need to pay off large amounts of debt

In a recent YouTube video, I talked about a hypothetical $10,000 debt.

Now, for many people, this sort of thing isn’t hypothetical at all. In fact, it’s painfully present, in the form of your monthly payments.

Paying off debt is hard, so you need all the help you can get.

Now, I wish I could say that by the end of this post you’ll be all paid off, but I can say that by following the steps below, you will have all the tools you need to get there.

Get mad

$10,000 is a lot, and it’s big enough that you can’t be neutral about it. You can’t just say, “ oh, paying that off would be nice. “

You need to get mad.

You need to stand up and say, “ no more! I hate this weight on my shoulders. I want it gone, and I want it gone now! “

Getting fired up allows all the other steps to become more easily accomplished. This is a big project, and you’re settling in for a big fight.

And yes, it is a fight. It’s a fight between your conflicting behaviors, the one who wants things now, and the one who wants to have bigger and better things later.

If you’re not fired up, nothing else is really going to make a difference.

You can help yourself get fired up. Think about how much money goes to debt payments and interest each month. Think about how that money is being taken from you, month after month,

No more. That stops now.

Stop accruing debt

It seems like such a cliché to trot out the phrase “you can’t dig your way out of hole” but it’s never more accurate than here.

You can’t pay off $10,000 in debt if you’re still pulling out your credit card.

So that needs to stop right now. You need to take your credit card out of your wallet. Put it somewhere else. Encase it in a block of ice and put it in your freezer.

Is your credit card number stored in your Amazon account, or where you pay your bills? Well, that stops too. Remove your credit card number from all of your online sites. Replace it with a debit card.

I don’t care if this one credit card is one you pay off at the end of each month. You’ll already have paid it off if you never use it.

Know how much you spend

Some people use credit cards because they’re not sure if they’ll have enough money to pay for all the things that they buy.

But what if the answer is that they don’t? Then they are just going to accrue more debt. (See the point above.)

So you need to learn how much you are spending. You know your income (most likely), and you can figure out your monthly bills with a little bit of effort, but how much are you spending on Postmates? Gas for your car? How much do you spend with Amazon? It’s time to find that out.

Sign up for my list and you’ll get my free worksheet on how to figure out your spending. Follow the instructions and you’ll be all set.

Read the rest on Empathic Finance…