Comments on: How I Got Out of Debt: Part II

By: Does Debt Control Your Life? | Master Your Card

Does Debt Control Your Life? | Master Your Card — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:06:06 +0000

[...] part two of the series on how I got out of debt, a reader made an interesting comment that got me [...]

By: Mr. NtJS

Mr. NtJS — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:08:09 +0000

@ Kristy – It’s choosing to put your debt first that makes it possible to be out of debt that much faster. “Your treasure is where your heart is” and thus where your money goes pretty well speaks to what your real priorities are. Had it been a larger priority for you, based on the budget you show above, you could have easily doubled the amount going to credit card debt and been out of debt much faster.

Now that’s not to say that I totally agree with BM’s comment of putting life on hold, but clearly we see what was top of their list. We were throwing HUGE sums of money at our debt when we did our snowball, but we still had fun. In fact, I would say we were far happier and enjoying life more while getting out of debt and spending less.

Fun and socializing =/= spending money

Interesting series!

By: Slinky

Slinky — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:52:25 +0000

Definitely true about people not revisiting them often enough. Anytime something changes, I go update my budget right away. It can get overwhelming if there are a lot of changes needed because you haven’t updated in a while. I also really hated the period after college, but before I got all my work benefits set up because it was so hard to work with all the unknowns.

Graduating does indeed feel amazing! Now to get rid of all those pesky loans. :)

By: Kristy

Kristy — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:37:39 +0000

@ Dawn – Yes, learning curve is important. No one is perfect the first time around with this, unless they’ve had serious coaching, but even then, I think there’s a curve! It’s unfortunate that people quit just because they’ve fallen down once.

@ BM – I disagree that everything else in life takes a backseat to being in debt. Sure, getting out of debt is important and I’m not suggesting you go out and blow money just to blow it. But having fun and building relationships is what life is about. Being in debt doesn’t change that, it’s someone choosing to put debt first in their life that makes them feel everything else should take a backseat.

@ J – I figured you’d like this one! ;)

@ Slinky – I agree. The think about budgets is that they are constantly changing to meet our needs, so we’re always relearning to make them work to our advantage. Where most people get in trouble is that they don’t revisit the budget when something changes for them – like you leaving school. Congrats on graduating, though! Must feel amazing! :)

By: Slinky

Slinky — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:26:09 +0000

I second J, all hail the budget!

There definitely is a learning curve to budgets. I just revisited the budget learning curve after graduating college and basically doing a complete revamp of my budget. Everything was so different it was almost like starting over! It takes a while to find that equilibrium and for your spending to start feeling right.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:53:06 +0000

all hail the budget ;)

By: BM

BM — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:03:26 +0000

Couple of years ago I paid off all my debts other than mortgage, it took us about 18 months to pull it off. One thing that I learned during that time, is that debt puts your life on hold. Everything else in life takes a back seat when you are under debt, family life, retirement planning, career planning, college funds, emergency funds, hobbies.

At the same time, I also consider myself extremely fortunate and blessed like to have a good steady source of income at that time to make all this happen.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:58:53 +0000

I think the advice about the learning curve is excellent! I think a lot of people get started with all the best intentions and then don’t do as well as they expected or whatever, and it causes them to stop trying.