How to pay off debt - tips and resources

How to pay off debt. Tips and resources to guide paying off debt. How my husband and I paid off over $50,000 using the Dave Ramsey plan.

So many people believe that there is no way to live without debt.

My husband and I were no different.

As a couple, we lived together for 5 years not realizing that debt freedom was even a thing!

3 years later we have embraced the lifestyle and are walking representations of how it can be done.

Making the average $100,000 salary we were able to become debt-free in just 22 months.

How did we do it?

First, by finding Dave Ramsey.

There is a lot to learn about money but as Dave says it is 80% action and 20% head knowledge.

It’s not always about how much money you make it’s what you do with it.

My husband and I were doing it all wrong.

Paying our bills on time and having cash in the bank did not mean we were financially stable.

I learned quickly that we were not good with money and we needed to get out of debt.

I can’t even say what our exact starting debt number was.

My debts included a car loan and student loans totaling about $16,000.00.

We both had just taken out a $20,000.00 loan for our wedding and my husband had his car and student loans as well.

You can read more about the beginning of our journey here but in total, we had at least $64,000.00 worth of debt.

That was the moment reality set in.

We were mad enough to do something about it.

Secondly, I started by reading the Total Money Makeover.

This was the perfect guideline for learning how to get out of debt.

The book by Dave Ramsey is a quick read and easy for any non-money person to understand.

His principles made me believe that debt freedom wasn’t out of reach and the steps seemed simple.

I begin by doing what the book said.

I added up my debts and I created a budget.

This did take some time and it wasn’t always pretty.

Realize your first budget won’t be perfect nor will your last.

But you will get better.

A budget is essential for debt freedom.

Instead of wondering where my money went every month each dollar was assigned a purpose.

I choose to budget on a spreadsheet but there are so many references out there to help get you started!

Every dollar is a great recourse and recommended by Dave Ramsey himself.
You can also search the #debtfreecommunity because there is a whole world of people that sell budget templets for pennies on the dollar.
Google sheets is also a great FREE place to create your own!

Third as couple we also changed our mindset.

There were a lot of changes we needed to make including our attitude towards money.

It was no longer about if we could afford something it was about necessity.

A lot of what is purchased today is based on guilt, pleasure, comparison, gratification, and very little on need.

If you want to become debt-free you need to start living like it.

We started practicing contentment and learning how to say no.

Our money now had a purpose and that purpose was to get us out of debt.

That didn’t mean locking ourselves in our house 24/7 we just spent our money intentionally.

We quickly learned what was important to us and what we were just mindlessly wasting money on.

What really got us out of debt was consistency.

Consistency means always checking your budget, learning how to say no, tracking your spending and allocating your money.

All of the time.

If you eat healthy sometimes you will not lose weight, if you watch your spending sometimes you will not win with money.

If you put money towards debt sometimes but not all the time it will be hard to see any progress.

For sure there were months that were not perfect but most months we were hitting our goals.

We also never gave up.

I can’t tell you how many people I have tried to help when they ask how did you do it.

I have listened to and heard so many people say they have tried to get a handle on their money and failed.

There will be plenty of days you want to give up.

My husband and I found that even in the toughest months we still needed to focus on the goal.

Even if we put only $1,000.00 to debt (for us that was low) it was still something.

If there is a month you can’t put any money towards debt that is fine as long as the next month you try again.

The path to debt freedom is already paved you just have to choose it.

I had never heard of living without debt until I found Dave Ramsey.

My parents have debt, my friends have debt, my coworkers have debt, everyone I know has debt.

Today I admit that my husband and I are weird people.

As a couple, we no longer believe in loans and are a part of an amazing community that feels the same.

I encourage you to take the step to financial freedom and do the same.

Not only did I create this post to show you how we paid off our debt, but give you the belief that you can too.

Tips and resources to becoming debt-free

Read: Total Money Makeover, Simple Path to Wealth, Choose FI, Love Your Life, Not Theirs, Broke Millennial. These are all great starting points.
Watch youtube videos. There are a lot of financial YouTubers out there giving out free information on getting out of debt and the Dave Ramsey plan.
Analyze your spending before you start anything. Find out how much debt you have. Find out where your money is going.
Build a basic budget. Remember you will not get this right the first time. Just track your spending it is very important.
Don’t overwhelm yourself. If your main goal is to get out of debt, don’t get too far ahead.
Listen to podcasts to get up to date information.