Live A Life Without Debt – It Feels Amazing!

It has been a little while since I was debt free, but occasionally I manage to pay off all of my credit cards, loans and short term debts through using some of the tips I provide on this site.

The feeling of being debt free is above and beyond any other feeling I get – it feels great to know that my hard work and persistence has paid off and I am content in knowing that my savings account is actually working hard again for me (as I don’t have any other debts sucking the life out of my money and interest earned).

This article is by no means a deep one; it is merely a reflection that by a bit of hard work and a little bit of persistence, debt can become a thing of the past.

Around 5 years ago I gained the mentality of ‘pay now on credit and deal with it later’ and very quickly learnt that this method of thinking is not sustainable and one of the more sinister things you can do with your money. I quickly had credit card debt that rivalled a small car loan. That was not a good feeling when the reality sunk in about having to pay it off and work towards my home purchase and other more stable investment goals.

I hopped around from credit card to credit card as I tried to avoid paying interest. This did dodge a fair share of interest payments, but was still a living concern for me.

I finally got serious about it and started contributing VERY large numbers of each pay cheque towards my credit card debt.

After a year and a half of doing this, I had brought my debt down to a very manageable number. I was proud of my hard work and decided to start decreasing the amount of money I paid towards the debt in order to help save money towards things I wanted to achieve (such as my house deposit, future nest eggs and rainy day funds).

I now deposit regular amounts of money towards the credit card debt and have some exciting news to break;

I am officially credit card debt free

That warm fuzzy feeling has now descended and I just paid my last $200 of debt onto my credit card. I am feeling so good about this I have already authored a letter to my bank to close the credit card and ensure it will be shut down within the next week.

I still have a credit card I use responsibly for managing my money, but no longer do I have any kind of debt on these evil (yet handy) little pieces of plastic.

So how exactly do I feel about paying my credit card off?

• Proud
• Happy
• Excited about the future
• Motivated

These are just a few of the feelings that are going through my head at this moment.

The reason of this article?

Get into YOUR credit card debt. Get motivated, get excited and charge forward to pay off your debt. Buy a whiteboard if you have to (not on credit) and list your debts you have on credit card. Each payment, rewrite the new number owing – start counting down towards this feeling that I speak of.

The feeling you have will be amazing, I encourage you to share that feeling on this post when you have made that last payment!

Related Posts

• Big Debt, And Should We Learn To Live With It?

  For most of us, big debts have become a normal part of life. Mortgages, student loans, credit cards- we live with them all. But should we?

• Inspiration to become debt free and start your savings

  There is a lot of discussion about saving money here at Savings Guide, but not enough discussion about a key problem to many peoples financial situation, that being ‘How do I get motivated and really get stuck into my financial goals?’. Inspiration needs to come from within your heart and from a deep desire to [...]

• A quick guide to good debt versus bad debt

  Something I learnt very early on was that debts can be good and bad. Some people will say a debt is a debt and as long as you have it, it is costing you money you would otherwise be saving. This is not true, debts can range from good to bad to in between. Also, [...]

• Getting help with your Credit Card Debt

  Credit card debt can be crippling, it can create a lot of stress for young people, old people, couples and businesses. The debt on credit cards can rapidly increase, as most require you to pay a minimum amount – but if you can’t meet your minimum payments, they will slap a penalty onto the bill [...]

• Using a budget to get out of debt

  Debt is something that a lot of us have learnt a hard lesson about, living for the now rather then budgeting our money to avoid debt and live debt free. Looking back at the debts I have had and the problems that it has caused made me realise that budgeting is the key to reducing [...]