Snowball Your Debt

I am, by no means, an expert at money.

I warned you from the start, I'm not an expert in anything.

I just know what works for me and want to share with you!

While hubby is deployed, I have a goal to pay off our credit card debt.

I've seen this snowball method mentioned here and there

and decided I would give it a try.

I really like it. 

Its kind of fun. 

lol

There are two ways you could do it:

Pay off your highest percentage rate first.
{Most effective option for your money}

Pay off your lowest balance first.

{Most rewarding and motivating option}

I chose to go with the highest percentage rate first since I'm

already pretty motivated and I want to do what's best for my money.

I created a chart similar to this one to keep track.

Note: This is not my actual financial information, I just made it as an example!

 

I listed the cards from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate.

This will be the order in which I pay them off.

After you make your chart, HIDE YOUR CARDS!!!

Cut them up.

Burn them.

Put them in a safe.

Put them somewhere where you will NOT have easy access to them.

This will not be effective if you continue using your cards in the process.

 Ok, now that you don't have any cards to use, this is how you pay them off...

Say you have $400/mo to dedicate towards your cards.

Pay ONLY the minimum payment on all the cards except the one you are paying off.

Using the example above:

Pay Capital One: $50

Pay Target: $15
Pay Chase: $40

and you have $295 left to pay Visa.

Continue making payments this way until Visa is paid off.

Then snowball it to the next card:

Pay Target: $15

Pay Chase: $40

and you have $345 left to pay Capital One.

And so on and so forth until you have reached financial freedom. 

Sounds good right?

I love using mint.com to keep track of my expenses. 

I just thought I'd throw that out there.

It feels a little risky at first, putting all your financial info into one website.

But I know this website is highly recommended and secure.

I hope this helps at least one person out there :)