Debt Hacks: Tips and Tricks To Pay Down Your Debt Faster

When you look at your debt, does it feel overwhelming? Do you feel like you’re going to be paying it down for the rest of your life? Is there no relief at all on the horizon? Perhaps you make your minimum payments every month, or even a little more so you can see your debt decrease each month, but it still seems like it’s just going to take forever. How do other people manage to pay down their debts so fast?

The answer is simple. Some people hack their debt.

The key to paying down your debt faster is not going through the motions and just making your minimum payments each month. Instead, you need to get guerilla with your debt. We need some extreme action here. You’re not going to see your debt significantly reducing until you’re ready and motivated to tackle it. Here’s how.

Snowball

List all your debts from largest to smallest amounts owed. Then, beside that list, enter the minimum payment for each debt. Now, limit your monthly payments on all your debts to just the minimum payment. Except for your smallest debt. With the smallest debt, make the biggest payments you can manage, using every extra cent you have until you’ve paid it off. Now, take what you were paying to the smallest debt, and add it to the minimum payment of your next smallest debt. Again, pay every cent you can manage each month to the next smallest debt until it’s paid off. Once that’s done, take the money you were paying to that second smallest debt each month, and add it to the minimum payment you’re already paying to your third smallest debt, and so on and so forth, until you’ve paid them all off. By the time you get to your largest debt, you should have pretty significant payments being made each month, and be able to knock that debt down as fast as you did the first.

Extras

When you get a sizeable tax return, a gift from your long, lost Uncle, an insurance settlement, or any other sort of sudden influx of money, don’t spend it. Instead, put it all towards your debts. Sure, it’s not as fun as a new wardrobe or a brand new iPad. But it will ensure you have the ability to buy new things in the future if you stick to the debt reduction plan.

Find an income booster

It’s really not that difficult to make a few extra bucks in this day and age. Even just looking on the internet, there are opportunities to make some dough. Figure out what you love and what you’re good at, and do it. Write a blog with ads on it. Make crafts and sell them. Clean other people’s houses on the weekends. Whatever you choose, use any extra money you make to pay down your debts.

Purge

We know you have a lot of stuff. No need to deny it. We all do. We seem to accumulate stuff faster than we can pack it away in boxes in the garage and never see it again. Pull out all that old stuff you never use and sell it. Selling it all one by one on something like Craigslist is going to earn you more cash, especially for the big ticket items. For everything else, hold a garage sale.

Interest

As you pay your debts down faster, you’re going to see an improving credit score. Use that to your advantage and swap your high-interest credit cards in for low-interest rate cards. This is worth doing, as the savings can truly make or break your monthly cash flow.

Cut back

If you’re a yoga lover and you pay hundreds a month for yoga classes, consider doing them at home for a while instead. YouTube has tons of instructional videos you can use for free. If you love going to the movies, why not cut the amount you go in half? Find ways to lower your grocery bills by cutting out the unnecessary junk. Stop going to bars and invite your friends over instead. Cut out fast food and restaurants. Etc, etc. Every one of us has at least one way we can cut down on what we spend. Find yours, cut it down, and use the savings to pay down your debt.

These are some of the most effective ways to pay down your debt much, much faster, but the bottom line always comes down to one thing: you must put off instant gratification in order to secure a better future for yourself. Every tip, trick, and hack related to debt repayment is going to be related to this in some way or another. It takes self-discipline and motivation, but that’s it. There’s no special skill, no fancy salary required. Just a human brain and a willingness to get the job done.

So, go out there and hack your debt, and you’re going to feel like a million bucks.

If you're struggling to pay down your debts and it's having a negative impact on your credit score, Refresh Financial can help! We have programs to suit all lifestyles and budgets. Check it out!