How to Get Out of Debt Quickly: 5 Ideas from a Millionaire

My husband and I recently went to a business and life training / coaching session called First Steps to Success. This is an event run by Dani Johnson and her team and was a total game-changer for me.

She talked about many, many, many areas in life and how to increase your skill and improve them all.

One of the major areas Dani addressed that people struggle with is money. Money, money, money. That’s all we all ever think about, right?

How can we have more of it?? It’s never enough!

 

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Some interesting notes about money that she mentioned

1. Getting rich has nothing to do with how much money you make.
This is is really, really important. You can make tons of money. And then spend it all. You’re not rich. This was a total mind shift for me, personally.

2. Money is seed.
Don’t eat all of your seed. Plant it in fertile ground. (In other words, invest your money instead of spending it all.)

3. It’s extremely important to invest in YOURSELF – for life.
She means with education and coaching so that you can continually increase your skills and your value.

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Here’s an Interesting Exercise We Did.

We calculated the money we made last year. Then, we figured out how much money we made in the last 5 years, which was a pretty staggering amount. And then we added how much we have in the bank. (A very small amount compared to what we made!) And how much we have left after subtracting all of our debts, including the cars and mortgage.

You know what we have left? -$345k. Yea, that’s a minus sign.

Try it for yourself and see what you have.

Where does all the money go? Is it going to stuff? Stuff that just drags you down and doesn’t provide happiness or contentment? It just sits around your house and creates clutter and a place for dust to settle. Sad, isn’t it?

I know where our money went. We did what 98%’ers do and ate all of our seed. 2%’ers are frugal and plant their seeds. But we ate ours. Like most people. Do you want to be like most people? With debt up to your eyeballs? That’s not the way to live.

In fact, I truly believe it’s our DUTY to get rich. Because it helps more people with more opportunity. And it helps more people and organizations who truly, truly need the help.

So being in debt is not helping ANYONE. Especially not you. It’s stressful, right? Life is not about being stressed and broke. In fact, here are the 8 areas that Dani said are ALL important and ALL lead to a life of contentment:

1. Health. This includes physical, mental, spiritual and financial.
2. Marriage (if you’re married)
3. Parenting / Kids (if you have kids)
4. Extended Family
5. Work (for provision only. It’s NOT your life. It’s just ONE part of the 8 areas)
6. Fun & Adventure
7. Charity
8. Legacy. What you leave behind when you’re gone from this life. Are you leaving a legacy of debt and struggling? Or are you leaving one of financial freedom and contentment?

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How to Get Out of Debt Quickly – 5 Ideas

Ok, we’ve established that we’re in debt. Now, how do we get out of it? And fast! Here are 5 ideas that I learned from the training.

1. Use a system.
You probably have seen the system that she mentioned. You pay off your smallest debt first. And then you use the monthly minimum that you’ve now saved, plus the money you normally use to pay off the next most expensive debt. And then you do that again and again and again, ever increasing your monthly payments to eventually pay off the biggest debts like your cars and your house.

Obviously, your credit cards need to go first because the interest rates are strangling you to death and because you can’t liquidate them for cash like you can with your cars or house.

2. Use 70% of your paycheck.
Use 70% of your paycheck to live off of. Split the other 30% in this way:
– 10% to debt
– 10% to savings / investments
– 10% to charity
(Yes, charity is THAT important. When you get into a giving environment, you allow more money to FLOW to YOU.)

3. Cut the FAT.
What are you wasting money on right now? What can you cut out or adjust so that you spend less overall? This is the FAT. Here are some ideas:

• Expensive shampoos / conditioners
• Pink Himalayan Sea Salt instead of regular sea salt Dani loves this example! Here’s a video where she talks about this. She talks about it at the 3:54 mark.

• Groceries in general. Do you spend a lot at the store? I probably spend about $1200-$1500 a month. It’s insane. Insane. And unnecessary.
• Cable. Cable eats up about $200 every month. And I think we watch 2 shows. Plus, think of the great things you can do with your timeout without so much TV.
• Gym membership. Staying physically fit and active is important. But I know that my gym membership is expensive. And I’m not more fit than I was when I ran outside and used at-home videos like FitnessBlender.com.
• Alcohol, Starbucks and eating out. I know. I know. I like these too. But they are huge money wasters. Not to mention they are all bad for your health. Even if you don’t cut them out completely, cut way down on them. Way down. Watch your health, your waistline and your paycheck improve.

Can you think of areas of your life where you can cut the fat so that you have more of your paycheck to work with?

4. Sell your stuff.
Stuff piles up and collects dust. That’s what it does. Stuff is a burden. A prison. It gathers around you and doesn’t even make you happy.

Obviously, some things are necessary, and some things are useful and maybe even fun. Like, my son likes to bike ride. Is his bike a necessity? No, but he uses it non-stop and it adds to his life.

But what we’re really talking about STUFF. That STUFF that you bought that you don’t even use. Or STUFF that your kids had when they were little and now outgrew.

Sell that and put it towards your debt. You can do yard sales, eBay, or even local online yard sale sites. There are lots of options. And it’s a win-win. You get rid of it to someone else who can use it, they get it at a lesser price, and you get money back for it.

5. Words are seed. 
I know this is a strange one, but it’s important. I went to listen to You Are a Badass at Making Money author Jen Sincero talk yesterday (here’s a blog post about that), and this is a big one she mentions also.

You are what you talk about.

Your words control your reality. 

If you’re walking around talking about how you don’t have enough money, guess what? You will be shown the evidence of that.

So what if you decide to change that and say to yourself – using Jen’s mantra now – “Money flows easily and freely.” Once you get into the habit of saying it to yourself over and over, you’ll be shown the evidence of that. When you start to believe it, you’ll start to see it. It has to happen. It’s a law of the Universe.

Another thing Jen said was to DECIDE to pay off your debt. Make a firm decision that it’s going to happen by a certain date. A FIRM decision, (Important information that Think and Grow Rich discusses.) and you will be shown people, opportunities and circumstances to get it done.

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What do you think?

Are you ready to break free from the debt that is holding you back from achieving greatness? Do you have other strategies that you’re using to get it done? I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment below and tell me what  you’re doing to get out of debt.

Even better, tell me your FIRM decision on when it’s going to happen for you!

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