Here’s my little Happy New Year gift to you. Each day in January, I’ll bring you a simple, concrete and easy to put in place tip to fuel your efforts to Save Money, Pay Off Debt, and Be Awesome this year. Looking for a quick plan? Well this might not to be the right place for you. Most things down well take time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t begin to implement systems in your life that will help you achieve your goals. I’ve said it many, many times before. Paying off debt isn’t complex. It’s just not easy. You have to punch the clock daily and do the hard work. Here’s another way to make that happen.
Day 9: Dream On
Want to Kick Debt in the Teeth this year? Dream On.
I don’t mean dream on in a “you’ll never do it, so why even try” fashion. I don’t even mean dream on in the Kermit the Frog, “The Rainbow Connection” manner. No, to pay off debt, you need to dream big.
Dreams motivate us. They light a fire under our rears to motivate change. They give us a piece of the future to hold onto when the present seems scary or too difficult to bear. Dreams fix our eyes on the not yet present, but potential awesome that our futures hold.
If you want to pay off debt, you need to begin thinking through all of the things you could achieve without interest and payments. If you didn’t have that car payment, what would you do with those dollars? If that student loan wasn’t hanging around your neck like a bad gold chain, where would those funds go?
Would you vacation more? Save up to buy something big? Put more toward retirement? Help fund your children’s college? What awesome experience is out of your reach because you don’t have enough money? What change could you bring to the world if you weren’t stretched so thin?
How will you celebrate when finally you are free from debt? Where will you go? What will you do?
Yes personal finance is filled with hard cold facts. Columns, balances, numbers – all are difficult to mix with dreams. But visualizing your future can be just as vital as crunching numbers in your present. If you’re married, sharing those dreams with your spouse can motivate you both, as you move toward a goal together in unity instead of fruitlessly fighting over your current situation.
Dream big, Money Saving Lords & Ladies. It will help you kick debt in the teeth.
Have you missed other 31 Ways Posts? Check out:
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Quit Eating at Restaurants
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Read a Book, Why Don’t Ya?
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Change Your Mind About Budgeting
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Plan Yo’ Meals
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Use CA$H
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Sell, Baby, Sell
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Stop It
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Introduction
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I’m so looking forward to sharing this month of challenge and inspiration with you. Together, we can show debt who’s boss and give it a swift kick in the teeth this January and throughout the year in 2014. Away we go!
Gain inspiration to pay off debt! Check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free
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I definitely have those dreams! At some point, John will need a new-to-him car. I’m 99.9% sure that his 250K Honda hatchback will make 2014 its last year. We looked into the whole “save a dollar a week” thing in which you add a dollar each week, but I think I need something more aggressive than that.
Without dreams, our goals are pointless. Instead of a dollar each week, I’d go for a percentage of each freelance check you get. We take 10% out of our sporadic income for our car fund. You could push the percentage if 2014 will be the end of the road (get it?!) for your car. 😉 I take out percentages for taxes, tithe, retirement, car, college, health, vacation, Christmas, Family gifts, clothing, and dining out (all equaling to 100%) of every “extra” check hat we get, as soon as it clears. Admittedly we have a gazillion different savings accounts but it’s the only way I can keep the funds from being eaten alive by our checking account. 🙂
That’s a great idea. Right now, every “extra” check (anything other than my salary from my full time job and John’s job) goes into a “savings” checking account that is used when we need to cover purchases that weren’t anticipated, such as car maintenance, dog vet checks, gifts for birthdays and holidays, etc. Our regular checking account is where our salary checks are deposited and it pays our regular bills. What’s left over after each pay period gets moved into that other savings account. It’s just as complicated as what you mention but being able to visually separate my “bills” money from my “savings” money in Chase makes it a lot easier for me. Now that we have to get Brandy’s second TTA surgery scheduled, we’ll have to pull from those extra checks more, but I like the idea of taking a percentage out of them. Sometimes the checks can be used for savings, but just thinking about percentages instead of whole amounts makes things easier.
Yep, I like the percentages. I does take some time & extra effort but it actually builds up savings for things that I might remember to save for or even put that much toward. So the vacation budget is only 7.5% of each of those “extra” checks but it does add up over time. Of course if there were a true emergency, we could liquidate it all and put it toward the that need. We have a 3-6 month emergency fund, too. Last year, that helped us pay for a new car. All of the other savings were paused until it was refilled to the amount we were comfortable with. Right now, the Christmas fund looks puh-retty sad but at least there are 11 more months to build it up. Thank goodness I’m a last minute shopper. 😉