Sharpening the Saw: Staying Motivated To Be Debt Free

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OK, you’ve decided to get out of debt, but what’s the best way to pay it off? Snowballs, highest interest first, etc—there’s all kinds of theories, but the one we can all agree on is that faster is better when it comes to getting out of debt. It really isn’t much fun!

It helps to have a goal. Some people have a wedding to plan (ahem, Debtkid… looks like you’re making plans…congrats!), others are inching towards debt freedom because they think they should. In my house, my husband says he’s not agreeing to another adoption until it’s done cash–and there’s no debt. (He sure knows how to light a fire under me… I’m a planner, so I know if I want any more kids in the next half-dozen years, this has got to be tamed like yesterday!)

The trick is to pay as much as you can, as fast as you can, however you can!

After a few months of that, you realize that it really is no fun at all. You’d like to go out to dinner. It would be nice to get the car detailed. You really miss the local coffee shop. You may even indulge some of these off-track behaviors…

How do you stay motivated?

The trouble comes when you start to loose your motivation. I know myself well enough to that in the fall and winter, I just can’t maintain the energy through the lousy Seattle weather. The part of me that cares goes a little numb, and then I come out of it in the spring in a terrible panic. This year, between some goal-tending strategies and FPU, I resolve to stay on track—I’ll be debt-free by the end of winter if I do.

Here’s some strategies for staying motivated

Create rituals. I know, it sounds strange, but burning the credit card or the statement after you pay it off and close the account, is a LOT of fun. I put my old statements in my worm composter as bedding. (It makes me happy to see them gobbled up by worms and old potato peels).
Review your goals and progress to goals. When I revisited my goals and realized that we likely have six more months to go on this journey instead of the planned three months, I could have cried. Wondering if we’d had a setback like this before, I pulled out some old records and realized that already this year we’ve paid off about 4x what we have left to go. It’s the home-stretch, and I didn’t even realize it.
Draw a chart. If you’re visual, draw or otherwise create a chart—watch your progress evolve! PS. Don’t forget to celebrate! A friend draws a cartoon and then colors in parts as he reaches his goals.
Write down your goals for after you are complete. Like dieters have their goal outfit, you should plan for when you’re debt free. I was thinking of starting to save for a Magic Kingdom vacation, but the kids want to go to the Great Wolf Lodge water park (closer and cheaper, score!)
Create a visual reminder. Put M&Ms in a jar (there’s about 1,000 per cup, so one cup per thousand dollars of debt). If you send your creditor a $200 payment, treat yourself to a couple-hundered M&Ms. Share with the spouse and kids–that gets them excited about the goal too! I read somewhere the recommendation to create a paper chain, with a circle for each dollar owed. I did a little math and determined that if you have 1″ circles and a 12,000 debt, your paper chain will be 987 feet long. That particular exercise could be fun (especially in the home-stretch) but might be really tough to explain to the neighbors over and over.
Find a support network. This blog is a great support network–get to know the writers and commenters. For me, I listen to Dave Ramsey podcasts on the treadmill. Podcasts are an indulgence of mine as I find I can’t listen to them while teaching the kids or writing, so I only get to turn them on during “downtime.”

I hope you find these tips helpful this fall as you continue on your journey to debt-freedom. If you have additional ideas, please add them in the comments–you never known when you might inspire someone else!

Credit Guy

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