Comments on: Call for Submissions http://momadvice.com/blog/2006/07/call-for-submissions Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:30:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mommies Tees http://momadvice.com/blog/2006/07/call-for-submissions/comment-page-1#comment-16411 Mommies Tees Sat, 15 Jul 2006 23:03:00 +0000 http://momadvice.com/blog2/?p=1614#comment-16411 Not to advertise, but Dave Ramsey (http://www.daveramsey.com) was a Godsend to us prior to having our first (and only if the upcoming surgery takes!) child and our drop in debt (read "payments") meant I was able to barely stay home with my new boss. You don't have to buy the books and tapes and all the things they sell in order to get the concept and motivation. His radio talk show hammers on several simple tips that really helped us out.<br /><br />1 - Stop digging. Cut up the cards. Yes, even that "just in case" one you were about to hide in the undies drawer. It's amazing how much this helps.<br /><br />2 - Do whatever it takes to build up a $1,000 emergency fund. Sure enough, just as you start to try to pay down that big credit card bill, the water heater goes out. The fund handles that stuff so you can focus on killing the debt.<br /><br />3 - Debt snowball. Don't the the mathematical thing and go after the "highest interest rate" or the "highest credit card balance". You won't see results quick enough. If you attack the lowest balance with everything you can, you can eliminate it faster. First, you'll have one of those debts checked off the list and second, you'll be able to take the amount you were paying on that and add it to the next lowest balance payment. It starts picking up steam and pays that one down that much faster.<br /><br />That's about as far as we got, but paid off three credit cards before we got preggy and ended up having that debt reduction go towards a safe "mommy mobile". We're not piling on any more, and we're now where we can start ticking away a little bit more at it. And we've changed our lifestyle to our new income so that when I go back to work, we'll get it knocked out in less than a year with all of my income going to debt payoff! Not to advertise, but Dave Ramsey (http://www.daveramsey.com) was a Godsend to us prior to having our first (and only if the upcoming surgery takes!) child and our drop in debt (read “payments”) meant I was able to barely stay home with my new boss. You don’t have to buy the books and tapes and all the things they sell in order to get the concept and motivation. His radio talk show hammers on several simple tips that really helped us out.

1 – Stop digging. Cut up the cards. Yes, even that “just in case” one you were about to hide in the undies drawer. It’s amazing how much this helps.

2 – Do whatever it takes to build up a $1,000 emergency fund. Sure enough, just as you start to try to pay down that big credit card bill, the water heater goes out. The fund handles that stuff so you can focus on killing the debt.

3 – Debt snowball. Don’t the the mathematical thing and go after the “highest interest rate” or the “highest credit card balance”. You won’t see results quick enough. If you attack the lowest balance with everything you can, you can eliminate it faster. First, you’ll have one of those debts checked off the list and second, you’ll be able to take the amount you were paying on that and add it to the next lowest balance payment. It starts picking up steam and pays that one down that much faster.

That’s about as far as we got, but paid off three credit cards before we got preggy and ended up having that debt reduction go towards a safe “mommy mobile”. We’re not piling on any more, and we’re now where we can start ticking away a little bit more at it. And we’ve changed our lifestyle to our new income so that when I go back to work, we’ll get it knocked out in less than a year with all of my income going to debt payoff!

]]>