Do you know the day you will be out of debt?
You should.
A specific date gives you a specific goal. It’s not some wishy washy goal about getting out of debt. If you have a specific guideline to help you see that there’s only so much time and so much work to do you’ll be more inclined to start doing it today.
A good goal: I’m going to be debt free by September 2012. Come hell or high water, I am working towards that goal. I have 749 days to get to that goal. If I don’t work today on doing something that gets me closer to that goal, then I’ll only have 748 days if I slack off and do nothing. I writing another article here in the hopes of helping you see that you need to start to get out of debt today, and it’s going to be a long haul but do something. Realize now that today could be the day that starts your debt free life.
A bad goal: I’m going to be debt free someday. The problem with this goal is that someday never comes. ever. Believe me, I know. It’s only the work you do today that counts for what happens tomorrow. Think about it: all the good stuff in your life didn’t happen overnight. You got an entry level job, then one that’s a bit better and so on and so on. Or you started college and day 1 was nothing more than fun but you had to buckle down, go to the classes you loved and the ones you hated too and then before you know it the years went by and you had a diploma, and the reason you had a diploma is that you had a plan. And you need one for debt freedom too. You need a debt freedom plan.
But don’t think that this plan of yours will happen overnight. Nope, it starts out small and somedays it might just be that you resisted one cup of coffee from starbucks and that lousy two bucks can go to the debt. It won’ be much when you total today up but if you did that every day you’d have over $700 saved . Even if you failed and only managed half of the time to resist the coffee impulse you will have more and more money and more debt paid off over time than if you didn’t.
Get out a calendar, pick out a date you want to be debt free and figure out what you have to do to get there. If you owed $500o on credit cards and you’ve decided that that’s enough. Do the math and figure out what you have to do to get rid of the $5000 debt. If you worked one day on the weekend extra at a part time job and made $50 for your efforts after taxes, that’s $200 a month. If you applied the $200 a month to your debts for two years that debt would be gone, or real close. Everything that’s good costs in some way. For you to be out of debt in 2 years you need to find $50 a week extra. Then every day you wake up you’re one day closer to becoming debt free.
That’s it. Thats’ all you have to do. Pick a date and figure out what you have to do to get there, and stick to it.
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