How to Pay Off Your Debt Fast | As Someone Who Paid Off Over $10,000 of Credit Card Debt in a Year

There have been very few things as impactful to my life as my credit card debt. And, honey, I had a lot of it. And as someone who prided themselves on having been financially savvy for the large majority of my life, finding myself in $10,000 of credit card debt felt like a hit to one of my core values. I no longer felt confident in my ability to manage my finances. All the sudden, I felt like I was a failure and a disappointment to myself just because of my debt.

            But debt doesn’t make someone a failure. Debt happens. And it happens for a million different reasons. For me, in the wake of my brother’s sudden death, I turned to my credit card to give me therapy. All the sudden, I had Amazon packages showing up on my doorstep every single day, a flight booked every single month for a whole year, and eating out, eating out, eating out. And let me tell you, that debt crept up scarily fast.

            I couldn’t even tell you how it started, but I can tell you how it ended. And it ended with me being terrified thinking about how I would pay this debt off and how long it was going to take.

            And I’m not going to lie; I spent some time wallowing about the debt I found myself in. And honestly it started with me addressing the reason I got into debt in the first place. Getting into therapy (thankfully covered by insurance) to talk about my grief was the first step in paying off my debt even though I didn’t realize that at the time.

            I don’t know why or how you got in debt, but I can tell you that you absolutely have the ability to get yourself out of it. I understand if you’re scared and not knowing what you should do first, because I have been there before too.

            I want to help you!

Here are Seven Steps to Pay off Your Debt Fast:

1.     The Debt Snowball Method (Credit to Dave Ramsey)

If you’re looking into how to pay off your debt, you are probably no stranger to the Debt Snowball Method, courtesy of Mr. Ramsey. And let me tell you, I am a huge advocate for this method.

Here’s how you do it on the most basic level – look at all your various lines of debt and order them from smallest balance to largest balance. Then, going forward you will pay the minimum payments on all your debts and put as much money as you can towards the smallest of your balances. Once that’s paid off, you move onto the next.

This method worked for me because it has the quickest gratification. Seeing your balance goes down and go away as quickly as possible was almost addicting and made me crave more. Watching your account get closer and closer to zero is so gratifying and motivating to keep going.

I highly, highly recommend you research more into the Debt Snowball method from Dave Ramsey himself, because it truly is fantastic.

2.     Take an Honest Look at Your Finances

This is going to be the most important step to getting out of debt. You have to look at how you are spending your money and decide which areas you need to cut down on or cut out completely. When I did this, Uber Eats, Starbucks, and Amazon were the three biggest offenders on my credit card statement. Uber Eats, as someone who loves to cook but just got into a lazy habit of not doing so, was the first thing to come out of my budget. I made a new year’s resolution to stop ordering food for delivery the year I paid off my debt. To be honest, I definitely wasn’t perfect at first. But once I got serious about paying off my debt, I deleted the app and through a lot of self-discipline, I did not download it again.

Starbucks was the same, I found myself at the overpriced coffee shop far too often out of convenience. It was right next to my apartment and the app made running in and grabbing coffee on my way out far too easy. So, I committed myself to only going to Starbucks when I had a gift card.

And finally Amazon. The holy grail of convenience when I was spending money without any care. I also deleted the app for a long time in an effort to force myself to actually go out and get something if I need it. This eliminated a lot of my unnecessary spending. If I didn’t want or need something enough to go out and get it, then I didn’t want or need it enough.

Find your problem areas and commit yourself to cutting them out. No matter how much it’s going to suck. You’ll thank yourself later.

3.     Create a Budget and Let it Be Tight

The next step is to take what you’ve learned about your spending habits and create a budget. And don’t be afraid to make your budget tight. Paying off your debt is not going to be easy. In fact, it’s really going to suck. Once I started to pay off my debt and realized how long it would take to cut it down, I totally spiraled. But creating a budget and deciding how much to pay with each paycheck is going to be how you start to chip away at it.

There are a couple things to keep in mind when you sit down to create your budget. Yes, you want it to be tight, but it also needs to be realistic. Because the last thing we want is to continue spending outside our budget. So, yes, you need to have enough money in your budget to cover groceries, household expenses, and the occasional, mindful night out with your friends. But, getting nails done every three weeks, bi-weekly tanning, and multiple vacations a year can probably take a breather for a little while as you get your finances under control.

The other thing to keep in mind is just how tight to make your budget. Figure out the number in each category that would be comfortable for you and then cut it back to the point that starts to feel a little uncomfortable.

I prefer to use excel when making my budget. If you don’t know where to start, Pinterest or Etsy are both great places to look for budget trackers that you can download.

4.     Track, Track, Track

If you’re going to do this, I want you to fully commit. Don’t create a budget if you’re not going to stick to it. And don’t create a budget to check the box and never look at it again. If you want to pay off your debt fast, it will require a lot of attention and focus until you do.

I personally like to update my budget in the morning as part of my morning routine, and I strongly recommend you do the same. Checking your budget in the morning will quickly throw you into habit of having more financial awareness. Updating your budget regularly will ensure you know how much money you have left for the rest of the pay period and therefore eliminate overspending.

5.     Throw Everything to Your Debt

I’m going to say this with my chest. If you want to pay off your debt as quickly as possible, you have to throw every cent you can towards your balance. Gift money, work bonuses, raises, side hustle money, budget surplus. Every extra cent you have needs to go towards paying off your debt.

I’ve said this so many times during this post, but you really have to commit if you want to pay your debt off fast. So that means any extra money you have needs to be put towards debt. Watching your balance go down is completely worth missing out on the nice dinner or skipping the amazon order.

6.     Consider a Side Hustle

But make it something you will also enjoy. This isn’t absolutely necessary, but it is something I did. I decided to spend a year and a half coaching a travel softball that practiced a couple times during the week and played games on the weekend. I started coaching, not specifically to pay off my debt, but every paycheck I got did go towards my credit card balance.

Side hustle money is a great tool for paying off debt because it is completely separate from primary income and can go totally towards goals. Just be mindful of any taxes you might need to pay depending on the type of side hustle you choose. I saved roughly 40% of my softball income just to be safe. But after tax season, I took the money that I didn’t need to pay in taxes and put it right back to my credit card.

7.     Frugality is Habit… Learn it.

This is my last and final piece of advice. You are capable of living frugally and below your means. You just need to learn where that line is and practice staying below it. Giving up the convenience of Amazon, adding all the trendy items to your cart, skipping $100 bar trips with your friends, and making coffee or dinner at home rather than ordering it isn’t easy at first. But once you get out of the habit of spending money you don’t have, you realize how unnecessary your spending has been.

I challenge you to spend a month living as painfully frugally as possible and see how you feel afterwards. I challenge you to skip checking out of your current Amazon or TikTok shop cart for 30 days. After those 30 days, do you even want what you were going to buy? Give it a try. You might enjoy it more than you think.

In conclusion…

Paying off debt is extremely difficult, but I promise you that the work and the sacrifice are worth it. As someone who was making pretty hefty payments towards my credit card every month and wanted to cry every time I saw my balance, the relief I have every time I open my credit card statement and pay it off in full is palpable. Living without the stress of debt has improved my life and made my relationship with money so much better.

You might start, try, fail, learn, and try again, and that is 100% okay. I did the exact the same thing for months before I finally figured it out. You’re not going to be perfect at first, but you are learning and that’s okay. I believe in you!