Each of us lives only now, in this brief instant. The rest has been lived already. So make the most thoughtful choices you can today that will lead to a better future.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Stop drifting and hoping a magic solution will appear. Instead, you can participate in rescuing yourself. Find peace by pursuing facts through trusted advisers and research rather than the blind trust of salespeople trying to sell you something by almost any means necessary.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Make decisions to deal with your debt with logic and facts, not assumptions, and worry about what other people will think. People who judge you will soon be forgotten. Nobody thinks about anyone that much.
Steve's Thought of the Day
The world is nothing but constant change. Your life is only a perception. Choose a way out of debt based on facts, not assumptions. Do what is best for your future because those that judge you will not feed you.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Do you have a greater responsibility to repair your financial past or your financial present and future? Make good choices that allow you to tackle your debt and immediately start building your emergency fund and saving for retirement. Tomorrow will be here before you know it. Lost time is a sin.
Steve's Thought of the Day
There is no sense in wasting a perfectly good financial mistake. Instead, learn from it and do better moving forward. The past is gone. Turn and face the future now.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Those who judge you for past financial mistakes are not your friends. So don't make choices about your future out of fear of what they may think. Instead, make choices based on truth, fact, and what is best for you moving forward from today.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Don't believe everything you think. Challenge your assumptions about getting out of debt. Do what is best for you, not others.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Is it less moral to file bankruptcy or to not take action that leaves you old, broke, hungry, and dependent on others?
Steve's Thought of the Day
If bankruptcy is so bad, why did our Founding Fathers specifically include it in the U.S. Constitution as protection for financial difficulties?
Stop listening to people that say bankruptcy is a last resort. It is neither first nor last. It is a tool like credit counseling, debt settlement, and others. For the best result, you need to use the right tool for the job.
Steve's Thought of the Day
People that tell you to avoid bankruptcy want to sell you something else are repeating something they heard or do not know what they are talking about. Get the facts and then make your own decision. Don't let an unskilled script-reading commissioned salesperson make life decisions for you.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Debt problems are like fingerprints. No two are alike. A one-size-fits-all solution will give you a one-size-fits-all result. You deserve better.
Steve's Thought of the Day
You are not your debt. Your value, self-esteem, and existence should not be defined by the money troubles you may be facing right now. Debt problems are solved with proper action, not guilt, self-hatred, and disgust.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Debt is nothing more than math wrapped in emotion. The math is easy, the emotional part leads us to do impulsive things. Not the right thing.
Steve's Thought of the Day
What type of money personality do you have? It is important to know. Take my online test now and discover how you unconsciously deal with money, credit, and debt.
Steve's Thought of the Day
How much retirement savings are you willing to throw away by dealing with your old debt instead of preparing for your financial future? Find how much you will lose by making the wrong choice. Use my online debt repayment calculator now.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Does it make more sense to ask for life-altering debt advice from an unskilled and untrained commissioned salesperson in a call center or an experienced debt coach like Damon Day that provides a customized solution for money troubles?
Steve's Thought of the Day
How Can I Save Money and Get Out of Debt at the Same Time? – Rob
I read an article that said if you want to pay down your debt quickly, it is ridiculous to try to save money at the same time . You should put all available funds into debt reduction so that you can snowball your payments and get out of debt faster.
The conventional wisdom is to build your emergency fund up as you pay down your debt. That way you don’t have to pull out the plastic when an unexpected bill arrives. I agree with this strategy because my personal experience has been that you keep getting thrown back into the debt cycle without an emergency fund. In fact, I think an emergency fund is the core to all sound financial planning. Using credit cards for those unexpected bills is the surest way to be shackled into a life of debt slavery.
What is a better strategy, to focus all available funds into debt reduction or to build an emergency fund at the same time?
Rob”
Dear Rob,
Thank you so much for sending in your question. Really!
I agree with your approach Rob, if you simply throw all available money at reducing the debt an unexpected event will catch you unprepared and in order to pay for it you’ll just use the plastic again. This strategy is the all or nothing approach which isn’t smart nor logical.
I much prefer to see people open a boring old savings account and start paying themselves first. It might be $50 or $100, but put that away first and then use remaining dollars to pay down your debt using the debt snowball approach.
Most people set themselves up for failure by overreacting and punishing themselves by sending every penny to the creditors. That approach is not safe, nor is it sustainable over the long period of time it takes to dig yourself out of the debt trap.
Trust you gut Rob, you’ve got the right idea here. Heck, i should have asked you to write the answer. LOL.
