Pay Off Debt and Get Rich Slowly

photo credit: pfala

A recent J. D. Roth guest post at Zen Habits might go over familiar territory of the best steps to take in paying off debt, but there’s probably always something new to learn if you’re in a position of debt and want to recover from it. The main tips that came out of this article include:

• Stop using all credit cards or financing options immediately.
• Stop any recurring payments - like health club memberships (unless you really, really use it), subscriptions, DVD clubs and so on.
• Ask your credit card companies for a better deal.
• Save up an emergency fund of at least $1,000. Put it in an account that makes it available when you need it but is not too easy to access.
• Make a plan to pay off your credit card and other debts. Rather than paying the highest interest debts first, Roth advocates the snowball method where you pay the minimum balance on everything then as much as possible into the debt with the lowest balance, so it will be finished as fast as possible.
• Spend less money - live frugally.
• Try to increase your income by selling possessions or working another job.
• Start all of these steps now - not tomorrow!