But, there is hope! With your desire to work hard to overcome your debt obstacles coupled with these 10 tips to help you stay on track with your debt plan, you’re likely to succeed this year!

Cut Up Your Credit Cards

Seriously, this is an oldie but a goodie because it works. Either cut them all up or keep one just in case you need it for an emergency (if you don’t have the cash on hand). You don’t have to close all the accounts, but you won’t be tempted to spend or increase your debt without credit cards in your wallet.

Build Your Payment Into Your Budget

For a debt plan to work, you need to have a place for your monthly payment in your budget. If you have to search for money every month to pay down your debt, you’ll likely never make any progress. Work your payment into your monthly budget and cut out other expenses where necessary to make room for your pay off plan payment.

Be Patient

It’s easy to get into debt, but it’s difficult to get out of debt. It takes time, hard work, and patience. Once you have your plan in place, be patient and stay consistent with your debt payoff plan. It’s the long-term patience and consistency that will help you achieve debt freedom.

Find an Accountability Partner

You may have gotten into debt by yourself, but you need help to get out of debt. Find an accountability partner, such as a financial counselor, to help you create your plan, review it and hold you accountable to avoid increasing your debts with frivolous spending.

Look for New Opportunities

Who says you have to stick with your current debt plan. Throughout the year you may have opportunities to apply extra payments to pay down your debt by way of work bonuses, tax return money, etc. You might even have the possibility to sell some things or make quick money to pay off your debts.

Remember Your Reasons for Getting Out of Debt

If there isn’t something beneath all your desire you’re going to fall back into debt as soon as you get out of it. If you’re a Christian, it may be because of your desire to be a good Biblical steward. For others, it may be some life related value that motivates you. Whatever it is, don’t forget about it on your journey!

Visualize Debt-Free Living

Along the same lines, don’t forget about your vision. What does debt free day look like for you? What do you plan to do with the extra money? Will you save more? If so, how will that savings make a difference for you and your family? Keep your vision in mind so you have something to charge towards when the going gets tough.
As I mentioned, cut up those credit cards, but there are more temptations that can impact your spending habits. If you like to spend money at the mall, avoid going. If magazines make you want to buy things, stop looking at magazines or switch to new ones. Figure out your spending weaknesses and guard yourself against them.

Shield Yourself Against Temptation

It’s important to review your debt payoff plan and progress each month. In fact, why not make a poster that graphically helps you track your progress. You can display it for your family members so that everyone can see how close you are to your goal.

Celebrate Wins

If you have more than one debt you may have wins along the way to becoming completely debt free. If so, find ways to celebrate. There are plenty of ways you can have fun without using a credit card and going into more debt. Take the family to your favorite park or rent a move for entertainment, call all your friends and tell them you just paid off a credit card. Whatever the celebration is, make sure you can have some fun and allow the time to pat yourself on your back.

How do you plan to stay on track with your debt plan and pay down your debts? 

This is an article I originally published for Perkstreet Financial.

Do you want to get out of debt but are having difficulty getting organized and setting up a debt payment plan?  Maybe you don’t even know the total debt you owe, the interest rates, minimum payments, due dates, etc.  Would you like to know when you can be debt free whether you pay the minimum towards your debts or pay extra each month.  There are different ways of paying off debt. Will paying the smallest debt first or highest interest debt first be best for your situation?  DebtGoal helps you solve all of these problems.

DebtGoal is not debt settlement, credit counseling, debt relief or debt consolidation.  In fact, that’s why we like it. It’s for people who can make payments on their debts and are motivated to pay them off.   Research shows if you don’t have a well-defined plan for reducing your debt, you’re likely to make minimum payments.  Of course you’ll pay extra from time to time, but it’s typically easier to make minimum payments.  DebtGoal is a planning tool that steers you away from making minimum payments and debt consolidation.  The tool will help you reduce extra costs from the interest and decrease the amount of time you spend in debt.

How it Works

Getting started with DebtGoal requires a few simply steps that only takes a few minutes.

1.  Sign up for an account and get started for free!

2.  Add a debt.  You can automatically link an account from your financial institution or add your account manually.  Automatic linking updates your accounts in DebtGoal as they change.

3.  Enter the information for the debt such as the type of debt (credit card, mortgage, car, etc.), interest rate, payment due date, etc.

4.  Create the DebtGoal SmartPay Plan.  You’ll choose between making minimum payments constant until the debt is paid off or a custom amount each month.

5.  Choose your debt pay off strategy which includes:  Debt Stacking (highest APR first), Debt Snowballing (lowest balance first), or your own customized strategy.

6. Finally, confirm your plan.  You now know  the total interest you’ll pay, your debt free date, monthly commitment, and have a strategy.

Benefits

Debt Free Date - Knowing your debt free debt is motivating!  It helps you realize you can accomplish your goal of becoming debt free. You can also adjust your plan to see how making extra payments can impact your debt free date.

Track Progress - DebtGoal does a nice job of helping you track your progress.  You can view your balance over time graphically and view a summary of your progress which includes your balance and payments made.

View Your Savings – The bottom line is debt costs you money.  Someone is charging you a fee for the loan whether it be a credit card or a home mortgage.  DebtGoal helps you save money and get out of debt sooner and it shows you how much you’re saving in interest payments.

Organized Payment Plan - Everyone’s situation is different.  You might choose to use Debt Stacking or Snowballing or a combination of the two.  The important thing is DebtGoal provides the flexibility to choose the strategy best for you with an organized payment plan.

Accelerator Actions  - Accelerator Actions are recommended steps you can take outside of your debt plan. By following these actions you can modify your debt plan with a one – time payment or increase your monthly payment. One example of an action is negotiating credit card interest rates. DebtGoal will provide recommended steps to take associated with each action.

Final Thoughts

The first step of setting up a debt payment plan is getting everything organized. This is the hardest part for most people.  DebtGoal definitely helps you solve this problem as they take you through the process step by step.  The only drawback of DebtGoal is the monthly subscription cost after the free 7 day trial is over which is $14.95 per month.  I initially thought this amount seemed high, but considering the interest savings people see in creating and following a debt payment plan, the fee is minimal.  If I had a lot of credit card debt or other debt I wouldn’t question paying the fee. The benefits and savings of DebtGoal far outweigh the cost.

Have you had any experience with DebtGoal?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments.