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Are you working to get out of debt? You’ve decided you are sick of handing all your hard-earned money over towards debt payments month after month and are going to tackle those loans with a vengeance, right?
Side note: a great resource for you would be The Total Money Makeover*. You’re welcome!
Well, that was the initial plan at least. When you made this decision and started this journey towards becoming debt free there was a feeling of incredible excitement. Those sacrifices you had to make at the beginning seemed like nothing compared to the dream of accomplishing your goal, right?
Now you are a few weeks, months, or years into the plan of reaching that goal and the extra effort of saving money is starting to wear on you. You are tired of saying ‘no’ to outings with friends, vacations, and eating out, you would love to splurge on your grocery bill just once, and you really could use a little time off from that second job you took on.
The rubber has hit the road and that dream of getting out of debt is seeming less and less appealing when the work it takes to reach it seems more and more difficult.
You’ve lost your motivation to pay off debt.
If you follow this blog, you’ll know we have been ferociously attacking the mortgage debt on our house. We started out in July of 2014 and have worked down half of the total debt, which puts us right on track to finish by the fall of 2017; a little over 3 years.
Halfway through this journey of our own, I totally understand what it’s like to lose your motivation for becoming debt free.
That is why I had to brainstorm and come up with some ways to stay motivated when paying down debt. Together we can do this!
Remember the Alternative
You can continue to work hard to pay off your debt as quickly as possible so that you can live in financial freedom….
Or….
You can quit and continue making those payments for years and years down the road. This is the alternative to giving in to the feeling of low motivation and not paying off your debt. You won’t get to keep the money you earn to “give, save, and spend” as you desire and you’ll never rise above the “norm”.
When you consider those as your options, it’s hard not to make an extra push toward becoming debt free.
Break Down Big Debt
If you are like us and have one big debt left to pay off, you’ll realize pretty quickly how hard it is to keep perspective of where you are and how far you’ve come to paying it off (as opposed to having many small sources of debt that you can knock off in shorter periods of time). Those big numbers don’t do much for your motivation, do they?
The best thing to do is to break it up into more manageable chunks and set short term goals based off of that. For example, if you owe $20,000 total, break it up into four $5,000 increments to be reached every other month. Five thousand dollars in two months seems much more obtainable, right?
When you reach those short term goals, have a little celebration! You are one step closer to your final goal!
Debt Thermometer
This may seem a bit childish, but it can be a huge game changer when you start to lose your motivation for paying off debt. Draw out a big, blown up thermometer and hang it on your refrigerator or someplace you’ll see every day.
Mark out those short term goals you came up with earlier along the side.
Now, every time you make a payment, color in the appropriate amount and watch the “mercury” rise steadily toward the top.
This is excellent because it gives you a strong visual reminder of your progress: how far you’ve come and how far you have to go.
Filling it in has become something of a family event in our house and gets the kids excited and involved as well. It’s been great to be able to set the example of financial responsibility to the next generation.
Dream Big
Nothing turns despondency into excitement like dreaming of your goals. Look away from the numbers for a second and think of the great things you’ll do when you are debt free.
Maybe you’ll go on a cash funded vacation and not worry about having a little extra fun.
- Perhaps you’ll finally get to give to that charity that touches your heart so much.
- Or, you’ll get to start putting a good amount of money away for your kid’s college and your own retirement so the future doesn’t seem so scary.
Constantly reminding yourself of the intrinsic value of becoming debt free will surely give you a huge boost in excitement and help you make an extra push forward.
Those are just a few ways that have helped us immensely in staying motivated for paying off debt. Reaching this goal of becoming debt free is no simple task and it’s probably going to require some extra motivation when the initial excitement wears off.
Remember not to lose sight of why you are doing this and what the alternative might be. Try breaking down “big” debt into smaller, more manageable portions, draw a debt thermometer to give yourself a visual of your progress, and remember to dream big. The day will come when you have made that last payment and can step into financial freedom and it will be awesome when you do.
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