How to become debt free in 2023?

Debt Free status is a dream to achieve if you are in Debt.

If you are in Debt before the salary gets into the bank account these debts are waiting like a piranha to eat away your most of the paycheck.

Piranhas are merciless, they don’t relent. So does debt, it does not care about your situation in life. Its demands need to be met no matter how rough life is for you.

It’s a nightmare to be in debt.

On several occurrences, it makes us do mental math and sucks the energy out of us. It makes us overthink, takes away mental peace, and causes anxiety. It stops you from focusing on things that really matter to you.

“A borrower is a slave to the lender” – Proverbs

Check out My Journey to become debt free Click Here.

Debt steals your freedom

Let’s assume your income is 40000 rupees monthly and monthly EMI is 12000 rupees.

You are working 160 hours a month to produce such income. But it takes 48 hours of income to repay the monthly EMI. That’s more than 25 percent. Now can you see how our time is controlled by debts?

Let’s not argue about good debt and bad debt. Whatever category you put that debt into, it causes pressure, and stress and destroys peace of mind.

As humans, we long for freedom where time and money are in our control.

Because of the FIRE movement, retiring early themes have been popular these days. We want to use this freedom to do want we like. It could be a hobby, travel, business, etc.

Debt puts you miles away from achieving your freedom. That’s why it’s important to pursue a debt free living.

Being debt-free is an awesome experience! It is a foundation step to create wealth as well!

Want to know how the various of building wealth.

Click the link: How multiple income streams can build wealth for you?

4 steps to become debt free:-

Suppose You have 100000 rupees as debt, paying 5000 rupees as a monthly amount can take you 20 months to come out of debt.(as When you budget and save an extra 500, adding that money to pay the debt can reduce the number of months to 18. (Considering no interest is charged on you).

The first and second steps are really the foundation, once you get used to it. You will save yourself from getting into debt further.

The third and fourth step brings a disciplined approach in you to get out of the debt and helps you become debt free.

Tracking Expenses:

It is imperative to keep a track of what is your expenses in a day, week, and monthly basis. Without tracking your expenses, it is hard to remember where you have spent your money.

If you see every business whether its small or medium enterprise, it has an accounts department to keep a track of expenses and comes with a plan to cut costs on areas that are adding no value to its business, so the business can improve its profit or it can pay its loan quicker.

In our personal lives, we need to become the expert accountants to keep expenses track and cut unnecessary ones.

Use that extra money, to pay debts. You can download the expense tracker app from the internet, use an excel sheet on Laptops or PCs, journal to keep a track of it.

Budget:

Having a budget for a week, a month is useful. The beauty of a budget is you are allocating capital or putting aside cost to meet your expenses in advance.

You are foreseeing things before; it helps you to be better prepared. By budgeting, you can decide how much percentage of income you want to spend, save, pay the debt.

A proper budget can put you on a track to become financially wise & informed.

Debt SDP

Systematic investing plans have become a widespread concept these days to invest in mutual funds. SIP is used by investors to create wealth.

Why don’t we follow the SDP model to pay off debt? (Systematic debt payment)

Doing SDP on debt payments brings in discipline & gives you the motivation to pay as you witness the size of your debt shrinks.

Watching your debt getting chopped month by month on your bank account statement is truly a great feeling & rewarding experience. Trust me! I have been there & know what it is.

Debt SDP Top-up

Once you got the momentum towards debt repayment. Now you can add 5 percent, 10 percent increment on our debt repayment plan every six months once.  By taking this step, it will put you on a fast track to pay off the debts.

Debt free living is an awesome experience. I will be glad to know if above steps to become debt free helps you in some way. 

Please share your experience in the comments section.

Read more about: Why you need to prioritize emergency funds over investing?

Thanks for reading!