There are many reasons as to why people get into debt. Maybe they got stuck with a lot of expensive medical bills. Maybe they were reckless with their new found credit card in college and they racked up quite a large balance on that card buying silly stuff (like I did). There are a myriad of other reasons as to why people get themselves into debt, but no matter what the circumstances are that got you into debt, there are definitely good ways to get out of debt and finally erase debt for good. It does take hard work, focus, and dedication, but it can be done and you can truly be debt free.
The first thing that you need to do is to organize your debt. Financial planning gurus have different takes on the way to organize your debt for the purposes of paying them off. Some schools of thought use the snowball method, and organize the debts from smallest balance to highest balance. That way, you’ll pay off actual debt sources quicker because you’re starting with the lowest balance items first. This is thought to give you momentum to continue paying off debts. The problem is though, if your highest balance card has the highest APR (or a higher one) then you’ll be accruing more and more finance charges since you aren’t tackling that one first.
That is why most experts recommend starting with the credit card or debt source that has the highest APR. If one credit card has a 2.9% APR, one has a 14.99% APR, and one has a 25.99% APR, then definitely start with the 25.99% APR one. That will allow you to eliminate the higher finance charges, and ultimately save more money that can be put towards paying off even more debt.
No matter which method you choose to erase debt with, you just need to choose one and put all of your focus and extra money into paying off that debt.