Class #1) Making Your Decision

Start with your temporary debt. Take the lowest total you owe and pay it off first while paying the minimum on the others. Once it's paid off, go to the second lowest. After a while, you'll see an improvement.

My wife and I paid our HOUSE off in February of this year. It works if it is applied correctly.

 

Awsome choice. I have loan and overdraft debt, im moving so will look for job to pay off overdraft and start saving for van to live in. If get fulltime can do this in 6months then can live in the van! Ill proberly work for awhile and pay off $9000 loan slowly, but also save cause i wont a kid in next 2yrs, (if i find a doner!). Living in a van and not paying rent apart from ocasional stays at a campsite is so atractive! Easy way to save. Dont know how ill be if i get partner and children but interested in eventualy working 6 months on 6 months off every year, so can travel etc, and wont do job hate! If i had a craft thatd be awsome but ohwell! I will never own a credit card! At the moment im getting rid of things i dont need and wont to sell my computer.

 

This is debt that will keep us slaves to the system. Even if we own our house taxes are still due each year. Utilities cost money each month more to heat and cool.

 

That is what I have done as well. It works. What I am curious about is the tecnique, very similar to this one, where you pay off the one that has the lowest payment and pay it off first. I guess it's a balance between what the payment is versus what the interest is. If you pay the minimum on a credit card that may have among the highest debt load on your finances, the interest can eat you aline. But if you pay the minimum on those that have better interest while paying double or triple on that wuith the highest.... see what I mean?

Something I did that helped a lot is double payments. I would pay a little bit above the minimum payment and then a week later make an identical payment applied to principle debt only.

Because in the first payment the majority of the payment is applied to the interest first, and then principle. You can actually take a 10 year debt and cut it down to 2-1/2 to 4 years.
BTDT.

 

I am 18 years old and currently have no debt. I just got a job working with my uncles landscaping and home remolding company. In class I have worked up my own budget so I could live on minimum wage happily. I plan on joining the military for a few years to save up money to buy my own land and live with as little impact on the environment as possible. Until we build our underground house me and my fiance will live in a mongolian yurt. Also get a book called the scavengers manifesto. It is an interesting read and has much information of freeganism. For example one can get free fruits and vegetables from grocery stores if they are oblong in shape that the store just throws away. Same thing with can foods 1 day past the "best by date". There is a charming little thrift shop which actually lists the full retail value of items, so I know exactly what I can get for them when I resell them (example ceasars palace casino craps table sold for 800 at the store, sells for 3500 dollars) as well as selling avon products, and other things to suppliment my income. Once I start my homestead I can also sell my live stock (milk goats sell for 300) And then there is also my aspiration of becoming a tattoo artist, and writing. So I think I can live very freely.

 

So far this is awesome, I will continue reading. I just wanted to say Thanks for the schooling, I am more then ready to go off the grid. My temporary debt is quite high though, not due to credit cards and such, just unpaid loans.

 

Stay that way, too. Incurring debt is bad.