Mastering Debt Reduction with Claire Murdough

Listen Money Matters - Free your inner financial badass. All the stuff you should know about personal finance. - A podcast by ListenMoneyMatters.com | Andrew Fiebert and Matt Giovanisci

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Many of us have debt. Claire Murdough tells us how to pay your debt as quickly and efficiently as possible. You can enter your debt account information and how much you are paying on each. RFZ will generate a graph showing how long it will take to pay the debt, what interest you will incur, and show you how much more quickly you can pay the debt off by adding money to your payments. The site is free but there is an upgrade that allows you to monitor your credit score and to make payments through RFZ. The site has recently added a feature that will allow you to manually enter debts for things like the $200 you borrowed from mom last month. Snowball vs stack method. The snowball method advocates paying off your smallest balance first. The benefit being psychological. You did it, you paid off that Target card! The stacking method requires paying off the highest interest rate debt first. Both methods employ the same tactics of paying only the minimums on the other debts while paying off the prioritized one and once one is paid off, you use the money you were paying towards it, on the next debt down the list. Each has their fans and like everything, finance is individual so use the method that makes the most sense for you. As long as you are paying off your debts, you’re good. Some of Claire’s best advice is to take your ego out of the debt repaying equation. The job you get might not be in the field you’re educated in, but it’s still bringing in money. A second job doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you’re doing what needs to be done so you can be debt free. And make some time and a budget for fun during your debt repayment. And when you reach a milestone, treat yourself to something small. A bouquet of flowers or a llama ride! Remember, there is life after debt. Show Notes ReadyForZero.com: A website that helps to manage your debts. Debt Snowball Vs. Debt Stacking: An explanation of snowball vs stacking for debt repayments with pros and cons for each. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices