Knock down your debt
Debt is something most of us will experience at some point in life. Debt can appear for good reasons, and other times there are hard lessons to be learned in how we deal with our income and outgoings to ensure we stay within our means.
Whilst there are many different techniques to smashing down your debt, here’s my top way to eliminate your debt and enter positive society:
Imagine the scene - You have a bowling ball in your hands, all smooth and shiny; and ahead of you the bowling lane, freshly waxed, glistening against the faint dim of the lights above. Ahead of you, instead of the usual rack of pins, each pin is lined up one by one, spread out down the lane. The first one is smaller than the rest and they gradually get bigger until the biggest of all sits tucked right at the back.
The pins represent your existing debts, one by one, ordered with the smallest at the start and increasing in size to the biggest at the back. The outstanding debt is scribbled up the side in big red letters.
You are going to roll your ball down the lane and one by one knock down your debts, or in other words start to pay them off, starting with the smallest debt first and working your way pin by pin to the very end.
This is about momentum, with a healthy dose of behavioural psychology in there. Sure, there may be higher interest rates further down the lane, but the evidence shows we as humans are much more effective at debt repayment when we can see results as soon as possible. By clearing the smallest debts first, we can get those early quick wins (oh that didn’t seem so bad did it!) which in turn gives us added motivation to go and knock down the next one, and the next one, until you eventually become debt free.
Automate the process/ be ruthless and consistent/ make the hard choices now and move yourself away from negative society into positive society. Once your there, don’t look back. You’ve got this.
Keith Boyes
Chartered Financial Planner
Managing Director
Spentwell
Photo by Blend Archive on Unsplash