My Plan to Live Debt-Free - Progress Report - September 2009
About two weeks ago, my life turned upside down. I am on my own again, with a single income and a child to support. I began to stress as money is extremely tight and there is still my debt to deal with. I began to panic because I was so afraid that I would fall right back into the same spending habits.
Good news - I haven't. And I have not given up on my dream to become debt free. It is just going to take longer and which means I must have stronger resistance. And not be proud to accept hand-outs. What also helps is that I have been doing a lot of research of credit card debt in this economy. Reading Suze Orman and Jean Chatzky. Listening to Dave Ramsey. Doing a ton of research methods and crunching numbers, which is something I am good at. Asking advice from friends. Doing some soul searching.
So you might ask, what is the new plan. Here it is.
1) List all my credit card debts with interest rates, statement dates, due dates and minimum payments.
2) Prioritize them in order I want to pay them off and set goal for each quarter.
3) Determine a fixed amount to pay based upon minimum payments plus an additional amount.
4) Compare pay schedule against due dates and statement dates.
5) Set up schedule to pay card upon RECEIPT of statement.
6) Use the Snowball method to pay each down.
7) DO NOT USE CARDS UNLESS IT IS AN EMERGENCY! (sorry for the yelling... :D)
In addition:
8) Upon tax refund time, apply 25% of refund to debt and place remaining into savings.
9) Re-review progress in 12 months.
And finally.... say it with me...
DO NOT USE CARDS UNLESS IT IS AN EMERGENCY!
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