Debt is Normal - Be Weird

One of my favorite Dave Ramsey's quotes and regularly heard on his radio show, normally said when someone has come to do their debt free scream (which is one of my life goals). But to 'be weird' your debt needs to be gone! Being debt free is something I've wanted for a loooong time and our family has gotten to the point that we're mad at the debt and ready to say good bye and good riddance!

We've tried to get rid of our debt in the past but haven't been successful (obviously, right?). This time we're really determined and so I'm doing every little thing I can think of to help keep us motivated. Earlier this week I created a debt snowball thermometer to help us SEE our progress.

After doing it and showing my husband, he commented that he'd rather show the balance going down rather than the total dollar amount of debt paid off going up (did that make sense?!), so I'm going to wite-out the numbers and re-do that part.

Here's a shot of it hanging up in our dining room, which is also our home school area, so we will see it ALL THE TIME!

Here's some other ideas from around the web to help you visualize your debts and stay motivated to pay them off.

Software tools and debt calculators

I think the most exciting thing to see, is how quickly you could pay off your debt if you were deliberate with your money. To do this I use Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Software where I can input our income and expenses and the software does the math, showing me how much I have leftover. I can then take that number and input it into the debt snowball. I don't believe Dave Ramsey has that software available anymore on his website but I was able to find another FREE resource HERE. It only does the debt snowball portion of things but it has an added bonus that Ramsey's software doesn't include; the ability to add snowflakes to your debt snowball. What's a debt snowflake? Basically it's one time extra cash you sometimes get; birthday money, rebates, tax returns, bonuses, etc. Those snowflakes can sometimes really get your snowball rolling!

Debt Chains

For this one, make a paper chain to follow your debt free voyage like this one. Each link represents a set amount of money (however small or large you decide). As you make those payments, you remove a link. Your chain gets smaller and smaller as your debt gets smaller and smaller, until, finally!, your last debt is paid!

I also like the analogy here - debt really is like chains weighing you down and holding you back from being free.

Other Debt Thermometers

This debt thermometer at Doctor in Debt is so cute! Much nicer than mine but I can just see my kids making a mess of it!

HERE you can get a free download of a thermometer template from the Dave Ramsey community forums, it includes a pdf and a jpg, as well as an excel file to calculate all the percentages for you.

Debt Wall