I’ve fallen a few days behind but there will still be 3 more weeks worth of money saving and debt slaying tips coming your way through the 31 Days to Reducing Your Debt Series.
Day 10: Line ‘Em Up
One of the first steps we took in repaying our debt was to actually get a good handle on what it was exactly that we owed. If you’re anything like me, you knew approximate individual balances of what you owe but not a total number. I also had no clue how things ranked in order of largest debt to smallest debt. Again, I had approximate guesses, but no hard solid facts.
So gather your statements . . . medical debt, student loan debt, car debt, credit card debt, small loans, home equity loans, anything you make regular payments on from furniture to braces, and stack them in a pile.
Now begin to stack them in order of the smallest lump sum debt to the largest big ‘ole bad boy scary debt (that’s Sallie Mae for us).
Now I’m going to ask you to do something that goes against your mathematical brain.
Ignore the interest rates and percentages.
It made no sense to me but I figured since Dave Ramsey knew a little something about what he was 
Lining your debts up in order from smallest to largest will be the key to your success. It will give you momentum to pay off more and more. Plus it will make you feel like you’ve accomplished something in your debt slaying journey AND it will create “found” money in your monthly budget to be able to pay off more debt.
Once you have a good handle on what you owe, you’ve cleared the tears out of your eyes, and eliminated the lump in your throat, get on with it. Remember that simple step of forgiving yourself, you should do that. This is what you owe. This is your dragon to slay. Own it. Don’t let it own you.
You can create a spreadsheet or simply scratch out the specific numbers on a sheet of notebook paper like we did. Someday, you’ll look back at that sheet with pride, wondering how you ever paid it all off and how you ever survived with that many payments and that much debt. I promise.
Tomorrow, what to do once you’ve got that list in your hand to begin paying off your debt.
