I worked hard for the past 8 years to get out of consumer debt. I finally paid my last car payment last year. *raises glass* Here's to everyone in their journey to get out of debt and stay out of debt. It is one of the best feelings in the world. YOU CAN DO IT!
I appreciate the video (Avalanche/Snowball is great), but what about a Safety Net while paying off debt? It's great to pay down/off debt, but you need to keep some money back as security or it will go right back on the debt that you're trying to pay off.
I'm not really knowledgeable in finance, but lemme brainstorm a bit. Maybe you could treat that savings account like another debt, in the context of snowball/avalanche? In Snowball, treat a payment into your savings as another minimum payment on a debt, acting like it's the biggest debt you have. That way once you pay off all the 'other debts', you can put the whole snowball into savings (or adjust the amount and spend more money elsewhere). In Avalanche, do the same, but treat it as the debt with the smallest interest. Alternately, make a budget and handle savings separately. Treat a monthly/weekly/etc payment into a savings account as an expense, like groceries or rent that comes before the "extra" that gets put into the snowball/avalanche for your debt.
If you read anything by Dave Ramsey, who is a big proponent of the snowball system, baby step 1 is to save $1000 for an emergency and then baby step 2 is to start snowballing your debt. That number is definitely something that you could adjust to your liking to then keep going. I am reading " Stop Overthinking Your Money" by Preet Banerjee and he had some helpful suggestions for this too. I forget what explicitly as it's not something I need to worry about but I remember thinking , hm yes that makes sense
When making a budget it is good to first ensure that you have an emergency fund (most people recommend 3 months to a full year of living expenses be saved), but you can also make savings a part of your budget when you draft it.
Debt in general just feels like a massive trap to ruin people's lives. If I'm in a stable financial situation, I can avoid most small loans by saving up for things instead. If I'm in a position where I need to take a lot of loans, that's because my finances are _not_ stable, but taking more loans means incurring more debt via interest, trapping me in that nightmare forever. Am I wrong? Because that's what it feels like. Especially for medical debt in the US, where if I have massive payments due to an issue that will last my whole life, I'm basically screwed forever.
I'm not sure about the entirety of your situation, but you'd probably be better off trying debt settlement as a last resort before bankruptcy. With your degree, you might be able to find a job in your field to pay off your debt over time and build your credit score. Also, before you graduate, take advantage of any services your school can provide. A lot of schools provide financial counseling that can be tailored to your particular situation. -Sarah
Avoiding debt is a very nice idea. Most debt that people carry are from student loans, car loans, credit cards, or housing though so unless you have finances from a young age or parents who have the finances to help support you so you can go into University debt free it is difficult to avoid.
Visit www.nationaldebtrelief.com/HTA to get a free report comparing all your debt relief options.
Could you guys do one focusing on paying off student loans specifically in more depth/detail?
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I worked hard for the past 8 years to get out of consumer debt.
I finally paid my last car payment last year.
*raises glass* Here's to everyone in their journey to get out of debt and stay out of debt.
It is one of the best feelings in the world. YOU CAN DO IT!
I appreciate the video (Avalanche/Snowball is great), but what about a Safety Net while paying off debt? It's great to pay down/off debt, but you need to keep some money back as security or it will go right back on the debt that you're trying to pay off.
I'm not really knowledgeable in finance, but lemme brainstorm a bit.
Maybe you could treat that savings account like another debt, in the context of snowball/avalanche? In Snowball, treat a payment into your savings as another minimum payment on a debt, acting like it's the biggest debt you have. That way once you pay off all the 'other debts', you can put the whole snowball into savings (or adjust the amount and spend more money elsewhere). In Avalanche, do the same, but treat it as the debt with the smallest interest.
Alternately, make a budget and handle savings separately. Treat a monthly/weekly/etc payment into a savings account as an expense, like groceries or rent that comes before the "extra" that gets put into the snowball/avalanche for your debt.
If you read anything by Dave Ramsey, who is a big proponent of the snowball system, baby step 1 is to save $1000 for an emergency and then baby step 2 is to start snowballing your debt. That number is definitely something that you could adjust to your liking to then keep going.
I am reading " Stop Overthinking Your Money" by Preet Banerjee and he had some helpful suggestions for this too. I forget what explicitly as it's not something I need to worry about but I remember thinking , hm yes that makes sense
When making a budget it is good to first ensure that you have an emergency fund (most people recommend 3 months to a full year of living expenses be saved), but you can also make savings a part of your budget when you draft it.
Debt in general just feels like a massive trap to ruin people's lives. If I'm in a stable financial situation, I can avoid most small loans by saving up for things instead. If I'm in a position where I need to take a lot of loans, that's because my finances are _not_ stable, but taking more loans means incurring more debt via interest, trapping me in that nightmare forever.
Am I wrong? Because that's what it feels like. Especially for medical debt in the US, where if I have massive payments due to an issue that will last my whole life, I'm basically screwed forever.
thanks for making adulthood easy to understand. 😺
thanks for eng subtitles, its very kind of you (:
That...was a fabulous debt video. It was both factual and empathic. Very well done!
Donna L. Snowflake!
I am graduating in 2019 with a large amount of student debt like 60,000 ish. Would settlement be a good option to look into for my kinda debt?
I'm not sure about the entirety of your situation, but you'd probably be better off trying debt settlement as a last resort before bankruptcy. With your degree, you might be able to find a job in your field to pay off your debt over time and build your credit score.
Also, before you graduate, take advantage of any services your school can provide. A lot of schools provide financial counseling that can be tailored to your particular situation.
-Sarah
How to Adult
Thank you! Your videos have been super helpful. ❤
How about a video on how to *AVOID* debt in the first place. Good debt is a myth.
Avoiding debt is a very nice idea. Most debt that people carry are from student loans, car loans, credit cards, or housing though so unless you have finances from a young age or parents who have the finances to help support you so you can go into University debt free it is difficult to avoid.
These strategies are great but just clicking on this video makes me want to be dead.