Pay Off Debt With a Strategy

Debt is a way of life in America.  It’s easy to acquire and everyone has got it.  The vast majority of people buy homes and cars with debt.  It’s almost impossible to go to college with no student loan debt, especially for any type of graduate or professional school.

People are comfortable with debt, even high interest credit card debt.  And that is a problem.  But that’s for another post.

The problem I want to discuss in this post is how people pay off debt.  And the big problem is that many people, even high income professionals, have no debt payoff strategy.  They usually pay the minimum and then maybe (or maybe not) throw some extra money once in a while at the debt.

This is very inefficient since there are certain types of debt that should be paid off first and there are certain debts that are actually okay to have around.  Some debts should take priority in being paid off over others.

Having a clear debt payoff strategy will allow you to get out of debt faster and, most importantly, minimize the stress associated with having debt.  A debt payoff strategy will allow you to know how much you will end up paying in interest payments and how long you will be paying the debt off.

Here are three debt strategies to consider:

Strategy #1:  Pay the minimum and pray

This seems to be the strategy favored by most Americans.  Safe to say I don’t recommend it.

It can be soul crushing to just get by paying the minimum payment while knowing there are decades of debt in your future.  Probably why most people just try to forget their debt even though it’s eroding their wealth.

Let’s just move on to the next method.

Strategy#2:  Snowball method

The snowball method was popularized by Dave Ramsey and is perpetuated by his rabid followers.  I don’t agree with a lot of things Dave says (such as not having credit cards), but the snowball method is one of the good things he’s put forward.

(Quick tangent:  I’m not a big fan of these finance “icons” or “gurus” like Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman.  The reason is that they are not genuine.  They did not get wealthy by doing what they tell their followers.  Things like “save up a $1,000 emergency fund” and “get your 401k match!” is good advice, but it’s not how Dave Ramsey got rich.

He got rich by putting all of his energy into growing his business.  He got rich by selling products and building his empire, not by creating an emergency fund.  And I’m pretty certain he laughs at the idea of an emergency fund.  Same goes for Suze and any other larger than life finance guru.

They’re business people and they got wealthy by focusing on that.  I would respect these guys a lot more if they were sincere in helping people.  But all they do is create books and courses for the “working man” that have the same old advice in a shiny new package.  Rant over.)

The snowball method is simply making a list of your debts by balance, and focusing on paying off the one with the lowest balance.  Obviously, you make the minimum payment on the rest of the loans to keep them current and avoid late fees.

But then you throw everything you can at the loan with the lowest balance.  When that is paid off, you roll (like a snowball!) the minimum payment of the paid off loan into the loan with the next lowest balance.  And proceed to obliterate it with all you have.

I used to dismiss the snowball method because technically it’s not the mathematically best way to get out of debt.  But money is so much about psychology that having a system like this that propels you forward is much better than being discouraged by debt and not having a strategy at all.

Seeing those low balance debts disappear does have a positive effect on your psyche and will keep you in the fight.  For debt payoff novices especially, I would recommend the snowball method.  Just put your head down and plug away at the lowest balance debt and move on to the next.

Strategy#3:  Avalanche method

The absolute mathematically quickest way to get out of debt is the Avalanche method.  It’s the method I use and it has saved me tons in interest.  I’m not sure who coined the term, but I like the idea of an avalanche destroying my debt as opposed to a snowball.

With the Avalanche method, you list your debts in order from highest interest rate to lowest.  Every month you would pay the minimum on all your debts, and focus on eliminating the debt with the highest interest rate.  Then you turn that minimum payment around into the debt with the next highest interest rate.

This is the quickest way to get out of debt.  There’s no argument about that.  But it does require some more upfront work with no apparent payoff in the form of more money.  But once you eliminate the first few higher interest debts, the rest will be engulfed in the avalanche in no time.

The best method

Too many people are in denial about their debt.  I see this a lot regarding student loans.  Doctors and lawyers usually have very high student loan debt.  We’re talking six figures easily.  This kind of debt can seem crushing and it would be easy to turn a blind eye and just make the minimum payment month after month.

That’s a surefire way to pay the most interest possible over your lifetime.  Having a debt payoff plan at all would be great progress for a lot of people.  So using either the snowball or avalanche method is fine by me.  But I think the best way to pay off the debt would be a hybrid version of the two.

How this would work is focus on paying off the first couple of low balance debts to get some progress under your belt.  Once you do that, shift your focus to your highest interest debt to really attack that total balance.  So start with the snowball and switch to the avalanche.  It’ll feel much better to be out of debt in a few years rather than a few decades!