The Easiest Way to Pay Off Debt

Do you know the fastest, easiest way to escape debt? The best strategy to abolish your debt is with
what's called a debt snowball. I can tell you -- from my own experience -- that it's possible to pay off
tens of thousands of dollars per year. A debt snowball is a streamlined technique to pay off the debt
you have in a specific order. A debt snowball will organize your debts to be paid from smallest to
largest in balance, and the interest rates are ignored.
Getting out of debt is difficult; if you have more than one bill it can feel hopeless. Have you ever felt
like you can barely meet the minimum payments? Most people have enough trouble following which
bill is due and when. This is where the debt snowball comes to the rescue, especially with the way it
keeps you organized so you can consolidate the debts easily.
It's actually pretty simple: You begin by making a list of debts, from lowest balance to highest. Then,
make a note of the required minimum payment for each debt. Add it all to find the total. Now consider
your income and figure out how much leftover money you have every month which can be spent only
on debt payments. Your snowball is this amount of money. Spend your snowball on the smallest debt
first. Trying to cut corners a little, like on entertainment, will only make it easier to disintegrate that
first debt.
But here's where the snowball comes in. You need to meet the minimum payments on all of your
debts, then use your extra snowball money and put it against your lowest balance. Stick to it every
month until that balance is gone. Then use all the extra money that was going toward that debt to pay
off your next smallest balance. When you think about how much that is, including the minimum
monthly payment, you can add a good chunk of repayment every month. With each debt paid off,
your snowball gets bigger. Before you know it, you're debt-free!
Use the snowball like this to tackle a few of the smaller debts, then there are fewer debts to worry
about. Plus, you'll have more money to apply to the remaining debts, hence the snowball effect. Being
that's based mostly on discipline, it really does work. Many people, myself included, have tried some
similar alterations, like starting with highest balance first and going backwards. Do whichever will
keep your morale up and give you a sense of progress.