Okay paying off debt isn't an easy thing to do. It takes discipline, hard work and
commitment to say the least. Now when I graduated from college in 2015, like my
peers I had student loans and the six months after graduating I started to pay
them back but I wasn't aggressively doing it you know I was simply paying
the minimum and then just forgetting about it. Until this past year when
something just hit me. I remember looking at my balance and seeing that I still
had $23,000 left and knowing that all the payments I made the last three and a
half four years barely paid off anything and not to mention on top of that
because I was "paying on time" my minimum was actually lowered right so okay here
I am thinking so my original student loan payment has barely paid off
anything and now my minimum payment has actually been lowered. It seems like they
really want me to be in debt for as long as possible huh
No thank you right! So here's what I did to pay off my student loans in one year
and the first thing I actually did was I changed my mindset and I talked
specifically about this in the last video I posted and if you haven't seen
that I'll make sure I leave a link to it in the description box down below so I highly
recommend that you check that out. Now the second thing that I did is I educated
myself about money and about paying off debt. I listen to podcast, I read books
but mainly I went through Financial Peace University and let me tell you
that in itself is a game changer. Now if you don't know what Financial Peace
University is or who Dave Ramsey is you should and I'll leave a link to all of
the information down below as well but basically Financial Peace University is
a nine week lesson or course about money and how to create financial peace and
Dave Ramsey is simply just full of wisdom so I definitely highly recommend
it that you check him out. Number three is budgeting now let me
tell you it's impossible to know how much extra money you have or where your
extra money is going until you write a monthly budget and personally I had a
jaw-dropping moment when I wrote my first monthly budget. Not because I was
spending a lot of extra money but because I had a lot of extra money that
did not have an assignment. As an example before doing anything else right just
writing my monthly budget I realized that I was able to quadruple my monthly
student loan payment with just the extra money that I had at the end of the month.
So to be completely transparent with you my original monthly payment for my
student loans was two hundred and thirty-some dollars right so take that
times four. That new number was the number I was using to pay my student loans
monthly right so in a nutshell this increased payment plus some money that I
had saved up was how I was able to pay off $23,000 in
one year but it was more than just making payments right so the fourth
thing that I did was I learned how to stay disciplined through the hiccups.
Meaning over the course of this last year while I was paying off my debt I
had a car problems on more than a few occasions that I paid cash for. I traveled
to stand in my best friend's wedding that I paid cash for. So with cash going
to other places I still managed to stay focused, to stay disciplined on my
journey, on my goal of paying off my debt in one year.
Number five is I had an accountability partner who happened to be my real life
partner Lexi who many of you know and a really quick because I know she's going
to watch this I've never met someone more confident, determined and
disciplined than her I mean the amount of hiccups she's had thrown her way that
don't even compare to mine right but to see her to continue to attack, keep her
confidence and still cut her debt in half
in one year is amazing and I'm so proud of her for that. Now before I share the
last thing that I did in order to pay off my student loans in one a year if
this is your first time tuning in and you're enjoying this video, if you're
feeling motivated to pay up your debt and you want to join this community, make
sure you hit that subscribe button down below and tapped the bell so you're notified every
time I drop a new video. Number six is that got creative
after budgeting and telling my money exactly where to go I had to get
creative with what was left right and to be honest some of the most fun and
enjoyable times I've had during this last year involved not spending money so
just think about that. If you enjoyed this make sure you give it a thumbs up for me.
Again if you felt motivated by this let me know in a comment section down
below. If you're new make sure you hit that subscribe button and always remember to
stay true to you and I see you in the next one peace!