To make this plan work, the bottom line is that all you have to do is not borrow money again. Don't get loans and especially don't use credit cards. It's been a while since I've mentioned credit cards so I'll probably have to do a post on them soon. Credit card companies are getting more predatory every day. You have to free yourself from them.
If you don't want to make the sacrifices that we've made, you don't really need to. We put all our extra money toward our debts but you don't have to do that. You can spend it on anything you want. If it scares you to go without, then don't go without but only buy what you can afford.
The thing about going without for a little while and putting the money toward your debts is that you free up more cash on a monthly basis. Think about how much more money you would have each month if you didn't have any credit card bills. What if you didn't have any car payments? What if you didn't have a house payment?
My wife and I are probably going to take a couple months off from paying things down as quickly as possible after we have paid off the student loan and the car. All we'll have left to pay off is the house and we're going to reward ourselves by seeing what it's like to live without the debts that we've paid off and have the extra cash just laying around. Then we'll get to work on the house because there is going to be so much freedom for us when that's paid off.
The other benefit to going as quickly as possible is the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars that you save in not paying interest. The less interest you pay, the more money YOU have. A simple fact that most people just don't seem to realize.
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By popular demand, I have started a new blog about events in my life. The first post is about a chat I had with Don Rickles and can be found at http://successwarrior.typepad.com/chronicles