Closeup image of a woman holding and choosing credit card to use
What’s your secret to paying off debt? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Nicole Lapin, NYT best selling author and host of Money Rehab podcast, on Quora:
Being in debt is one of the most stressful experiences I’ve ever gone through, and I’ve jumped out of a plane on a first date.
I knew that the only way to get rid of the icky feeling of having debt hanging over my head was to rid myself of it once and for all. “There’s no time like the present,” I thought. It was a Wednesday, in the middle of the month. Rather than wait until the first day of the next month, as some people might have done, I jumped right in. No excuses.
Here’s what I did in four steps.
You may be surprised by the most common mistake people make when paying off their debt. It’s not that people consolidate their debt in the wrong way, or make mistakes when submitting payment: the biggest mistake people make is that they don’t get started. So put some time on your calendar this afternoon to tackle that debt monkey. Let a friend know that you put this time on your calendar, so that you have a bigger chance of staying accountable.
This question originally appeared on Quora – the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
About Author
