It’s toast. It never stood a chance. Overmatched.
My friend Jackie Beck is over at The Debt Myth is on a crusade to destroy debt. I love a good crusade, but she doesn’t even need me in this fight. Her goal is to get 100 bloggers to write about why debt doesn’t have to be forever. My guess is that she’ll have more than 120.
On the Debt Myth blog, she writes:
“You might hear people say that you’ll ‘always have debt’. I automatically bought into that notion myself, believing I had to borrow money for emergencies and to pay for big ticket items.
But after paying off over $147,000 in debt, I now know that you CAN break free of debt’s grip and live the life you love.”
The concept is simple: Debt is not forever. There is no “always” when it comes to debt. 2015 is the year to pay it off. It’s nearly a couple of weeks since we saw the ball drop in Times Square… a perfect time to renew those vows.
Read my lips: “No new debts.”
I think I got all the clichés out of my system. So it’s time to be blunt. I believe there is a big difference between good debt vs. bad debt. I have a 0% interest rate on my Subaru Forester, so I’ll happily carry that debt for 5 years. I took on more debt to buy solar panels as it will save me more money in the long run.
When it’s well-planned, well-designed, and productive debt, it is okay. Unfortunately, this kind of debt is in the minority. More often it is credit card or something else with a high interest rate. That’s the debt that we NEED to get rid of if we are ever going to be financially free.
So how do we get rid of debt? We can talk about it until the cows come home, but Jackie’s got an action plan. I’m going to liberally steal from her blog post, but not use exact quotes (I don’t think she’ll mind). Here it is:
- Share your why – Take a photo of something that shows YOUR reason for getting out of debt. Then post it on your favorite social media platform(s).
- Take a stand – Write down a self-affirmation statement (she gives some examples) and take your picture and share that.
- Spread the word – Share it with your friends and tell Jackie about it on her blog.
You can probably tell by now, but 90% of the get-out-of-debt game is half mental. (I stole that from the great Yogi Bear Yogi Berra.) The idea is to make yourself accountable and motivate change. I love the idea.
There are two other things that I want to mention. There’s a giveaway involved. For one person that will kickstart that debt payoff, right? The other thing is that Jackie sells a mobile application to help you pay off debt. I’m sure some of you are thinking, “A ha, there’s the marketing gimmick.” Maybe so, maybe not. She didn’t mention the app when telling me about her goal. I only know about the app because we go back 7 years or more as personal finance bloggers.
I have no problem with one person can make a couple of dollars here and there helping people get out of debt. Sounds like one of the best moves one can make all month.
I don’t write about debt very often. I’m simply not in that place and further down the road to financial freedom. So I want to close this article out by mentioning another debt blogger that I love: Melanie from Dear Debt.
When it comes to debt, the more weapons you have at your disposal the better. Be like Jonny Gomes empty the quiver on debt:
