[The Best Approach] To Eliminate Financial Debt Before You Die

By | August 12, 2019

A grisly thought, however, the best approach to eliminate financial debt before you die is achievable. You don’t have to put off retirement and work until you are eighty-nine years old! Hey, it can be done! You have to have a plan and make adjustments to your budget now. Are you ready to change your future?

 

10 Things To Stop To Eliminate Debt.

10 Things to Start To Eliminate Debt.

Grow Your Income, Or Lower Your Spending

The Best Of Both Worlds

Conclusion

 

Eliminate Financial Debt

10 Things to Stop to Eliminate Debt

You know, we all have a tendency to put things off and wait until later to tackle the problem. You are no different from anybody else. I too had a tendency to put things off until later. But later caught up to me faster than I expected, so let me tell you how I eliminated my debt.

Back when I wore a younger man’s shoes, times were good. I started working in 1975. I was just a helper on a printing press and making a whopping $2.35 an hour. Gasoline was only 32 cents a gallon. My house payment was only $75 a month. I could out-earn my stupidity by working overtime.

Today there isn’t enough time in the week to out-earn your stupidity. You have to live smarter. That is why I made a list of things to do in order to eliminate debt. It is 20% arithmetic and 80% behavior, meaning that the math is simple, it is the human behavior that has to be changed.

  • Temporarily suspend contributions to a retirement account and use all this money to pay down debt. Once you’re debt-free except your house, then you can start contributions to your retirement account. The reason for this is that whatever your focus is, paying down debt, will become so intense that every dime you can squeeze out of your budget will be spent to pay off debt.
  • Stop going to the movies every week Ideally, you won’t go to any movies. But if you must, limit the times you go to the movies and what you spend at the movies.
  • Stop going on vacations until you are out of debt.
  • If you must drive to work, consider using Uber once or twice a week. You will save on gas and wear and tear of your vehicle.
  • Don’t go into a restaurant, fast food, etc unless you are working there part-time. Consider making lunch at home to take to work.
  • Don’t get a credit card, ever. If you have one, get plastic surgery (cut credit card up). Stop buying on credit. You can’t eliminate debt if you continue to borrow money. You can’t borrow yourself out of debt.
  • Don’t borrow money for any reason.
  • Stop paying whole Life Insurance premiums Get term life insurance instead. (Note: If your health makes uninsurable, then don’t cancel an existing life insurance policy. Get term life insurance first before canceling any whole life insurance plan that you already have).
  • Don’t listen to broke people because they think they have a better plan than you. Their plan will not work for you to getting out of debt. Just the same don’t listen to what fat people say about how to lose weight, or how to have a good lasting relationship from a person that has been divorced six times. Consider the source.
  • Don’t except extended warranty plans on anything. This insurance is extremely expensive, like 300%. There is a better way. Read the next list to find the answer.

In Proverbs, the Bible says that the borrower is a slave to the lender. The faster that you can eliminate financial debt, the faster you can build wealth. By not having any payments like a car, student loans, credit cards or even a mortgage, just think what you could do with all that money?

10 Things to Start to Eliminate Debt

You must get control of your money to make it behave. This next list is the things that you can do to earn more income. With more income, you can pay off your debt faster. For more information, you can also see How To Earn Passive Income Working From Home.

  • Start a budget and live by it. A budget will give you permission to spend money when it is available. If you set aside $400 for food a month and in week three you have spent all the money in your food budget – you go hungry for a week. Either you didn’t allow enough money for food, or you overspent. A budget tells your money what to do.
  • Build an emergency fund first. I would build an emergency fund of at least $1000. The emergency fund will cushion those emergencies that life brings you, like the AC not working, or a car breaks down. This will keep you from borrowing money or resorting to a credit card.
  • Start a debt snowball to pay down debt. A debt snowball (what Dave Ramsey refers to) is placing all of your debts smallest to largest in a list. Attack the smallest debt with a vengeance. Pay minimums on all other debt until the smallest debt is paid in full. Do the same with the second debt, attack it with a vengeance (since first debt is gone, take that payment plus the minimum you were originally paying on the second debt, combine the two payments to pay off second debt. Faster). Do this until all your debt except your house is paid for.
  • Convert to cash instead of using a debit card. (It hurts more to spend money than using plastic).
  • Live on 80% of your income The 20% that you have leftover, the first 10% can be used for tithing to your church, the second 10% you pay yourself, which can go into a savings account. The faster you get out of debt the faster you will start building wealth.
  • Start a home-based business in Affiliate Marketing. It is free to sign up to affiliate programs and get paid a commission for every product that you sell from your link. This will increase your monthly income significantly that can supplement, if not totally replacing, your current salary. You will also save thousands in taxes! To learn more about starting your own business, please see How To Start An Online Business Free In Your Spare Time.
  • Have a garage sale. Sell anything that you haven’t worn or used in the last year. You will be surprised at how much junk you have accumulated that can be sold for cash. Sell on Craigslist or on Facebook marketplace. Do odd jobs for your family, neighbors, friends, etc, like babysitting, walking their dog, mowing their lawn.
  • Become an author and sell your information. At Smashwords.com, they will publish your book for free and distribute it to all the major book stores. You only pay a small percentage of any sales. This is a great way to get started in publishing your own books with no investment.
  • Start a Youtube channel and sell anything you want. This is a great way to enter the affiliate marketing category and there is no limit to the money that you can make.
  • Rent out a room in your house or even join Airbnb and rent out your house. If a sports’ event has people traveling to your city to attend the event, you could rent out space in your house for the event for easy money.

Grow Your Income, Or Lower Your Spending

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the shortest path to wealth is in your income. To maximize that income you must not have any debt. If you have debt, you will have very little left over after paying your bills to save any money. This is why living within your means is so very important.

How do you know if you have an income problem or a spending problem? The first way is to divide a sheet of paper with a line. On one side of the line lists all the necessities that you must have, like shelter, food, utilities, etc. On the other side of the line list the things that are conveniences, like cable TV, smartphone, car, gym memberships, etc.

Total each side of your lists. If your necessities side is only 1/4 of your take-home pay, then you have the income to pay off debt. If your necessities list is more than 1/4, then you need to supplement your income with extra money.

Consider your options for making supplemental income. Delivering pizza at night and weekends, in a big city, can fetch as much as $1500 a month. Drive for Uber or Lyft at night. Get a part-time job.

I live in a smaller city so the above solutions don’t apply to me. Instead, I chose to start a home-based business on the Internet. I am paying for Internet service anyway for free WiFi, so why not utilize my expense to make money?

I knew I needed to learn the skills necessary to make an online business successful so I joined the Wealthy Affiliate University to teach me everything I needed to know. Included in my membership are many online tools and an unlimited number of websites that I can have.

There are two membership levels, free forever and premium. Everyone joins for free, and you can remain a free member forever if you wish. You get two free websites as a free member. You also get a free keyword tool and ten training lessons that get you started online.

Premium opens up many more opportunities, like more training, an unlimited number of websites, SSL certification, SiteSpeed, over 4700 choices of WordPress Website Themes.

The benefits far outweigh the small monthly membership fee I pay for the premium level because I have the potential of earning an unlimited amount of income! To learn more about the opportunities that are open to everyone – and join for freeclick on the button below!

 

Wealthy Affiliate University

The Best of Both Worlds

Having the income to build wealth and becoming debt-free is definitely the best of both worlds. Since I am nearing retirement age becoming debt-free is very important to me. I’m getting started a little late in my life – but it is never too late to gain freedom from debt!

The level of stress most people have to live with, including me, are enormous when tackling debt. Which one do I pay off first? I prefer the approach that Dave Ramsey preaches in the Debt Snowball – listing debts smallest to largest and attack the smallest with every dime that can be found. Pay the minimums on the rest of the debts while throwing all money to pay off the smallest debt first.

Then attack the second debt the same way. Soon, all debt is paid in full. No More Payments! Just think if you didn’t have a mortgage payment? Instead of giving that money to the mortgage company, you put it into an investment account for the next twenty-five years? You would have over a million dollars in that investment account!

Conclusion

It is within everyone’s benefit to be debt-free. It just takes discipline and hard work. For some, it will be an uphill battle – BUT – it can be done. For me, I choose to be debt-free. Lynyrd Skynyrd had a motto – Live Simple Live Free. This is the way I choose to live!

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my article and found the information not only helpful but inspiring. If you know someone who struggles with debt please share this article with them. If you have any comments I would love to hear from you. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, I want to know about your thoughts as well.

Exceed Your Vision

10 thoughts on “[The Best Approach] To Eliminate Financial Debt Before You Die

  1. Judy

    Thanks for a great article that’s loaded with really good helpful information. Debt is one of the biggest problems that people face and you’ve got some really appropriate ways and solutions to make it go away permanently and to create extra income. 

    I really like the Dave Ramsey snowball system that starts with paying off the smallest debt first. It really makes sense to tackle it that way and to then structure a plan and keep making progress. You’re so right that until you’re debt-free you really are a slave. And the cost of living keeps going up so you really need that backup plan for income. It does make sense to create more income. Thanks again for an inspiring post! 

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Judy, the concept of creating wealth starts by paying off debt first. To can’t be free being tied down with debt. With the cost of living going up, up, and up, it becomes even more important to continue earning an income, which is why I recommend learning the skills to be your own boss, working from home.

      Reply
  2. Jordan Smith

    Great post! A lot of great practical advice. Paying down debt can be life-changing and I like the simple points summarized in this post. I’m definitely going to work on these points. I have tried to start that road myself a few months ago, but then, I got caught up on the bills I am behind on. It is hard to pay off credit cards when you just don’t have that much extra money coming in. Thanks again for these tips, I will be putting them into practice. Wish me luck.

    Regards!

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Thank you, Jordan, for reading my post and I hope you are able to get out of debt with the tips I have written. I wish you much good fortune in finding your path to financial freedom.

      Reply
  3. JJ

    Kenneth, yes that debt thing ! I was doing some good investments and getting reasonable returns, until someone pointed out that the credit card debt was eating up my money at a faster rate than the increase in investment income. Thank you for your fine article that presents all these useful suggestions. I am 60 and I needed this information. 

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      JJ, I tried to do both, investing and paying off debt. It was after seeing how much interest I was paying in a year that showed me you can’t do both and come out ahead. When I tried just paying off debt and seeing the balance get smaller and smaller it helped me get more intense because I could see the improvement. By earning extra income online my debt balance is going down fast. Thank you for the reply.

      Reply
  4. Wayne

    HI, Keneth.  Great material and I know it will help many IF they chose to be honest with themselves and their debt load and really WANT TO TAKE ACTION.

    I remember so well when I was younger and stupider living from paycheck to paycheck, and in debt.  The only way for us to get out was to consolidate our debts (we thought at the time) and get rid of our cards.  We weren’t hugely indebted ($12,000), well, I guess we were in those days, the mid 70’s.  

    Somehow we did get out for the most part but saving for retirement still was not forefront in our thinking.

    Anyway, when I married my second wife, 25 years ago, (the first wife passed), it was a huge blessing from God.  Left to my own I would have really had a problem, I think but she was a CGA.  She not only rescued me but we have been mortgage-free (for the last 5 years) and almost $0 debt-free.

    WE pay off credit cards every month, never letting them get beyond what we can handle.  Now that we are retired, budgeting is even more important.

    All these tips (one of those wish I had known what I know now, back then, moments) Would have helped me so much in my early married years.  I hope many will read these and implement immediately.  They will reap the benefits for their future a whole lot sooner if they do.

    If more people could get on board with this and get rid of debt I think it would go a long way to helping the debt of the nations as well.  

    OH, and the Affiliate Marketing?  Working on that too.  Going to need it,

    WA is the best,

    Wayne

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Hey, Wayne, I am so glad that you were able to get your finances in shape and remarried at the same time. Spouses do make the relationship better, especially when they can help us maintain our sense of logic.

      Reply
  5. RoDarrick

    Wow! Interesting article you have written here concerning approaches to eliminating debt. Sometimes getting into debt can be inevitable especially if it has to do with urgent needs, but going by the information you provided on this article, I have learned about the attitudes one needs to fight against to overcome debt. I think getting to start with a home business would help a great deal in stacking up more cash to supplement daily financial needs and also help to raise money to pay off debts. I like your approach to handling debt and I’m ready to give it a try.

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Ro, sometimes a person has to get sick and tired of being sick and tired about being broke all the time. There are so many people today that make really good money but they are living paycheck to paycheck. Why? Because they never learned how to make money behave and work for them, instead of the other way around.

      Reply

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