07/22/2022
Yep, I want you to pay off debt as quickly as possible, but I want you to make sure you go about it in a wise way. Please don't take from any existing retirement investments. It may seem like that money is just sitting there waiting to be used, but what it's really doing is growing. If you withdraw it early, you'll owe a ton in taxes and fees, not to mention what that investment would have grown into.
You also need a $1,000 emergency fund set aside BEFORE you begin paying off debt. Keep that seperate and use it only for true emergencies.
Also, don't use things like HELOCs or debt consolidation. Long story short, those only move the debt around and keep you in debt longer.
DO make a strict budget, and stick to it! Keep an emergency fund in place, find other sources of income, and sell things you don't need. Throw all of that extra money at the debt and use the debt snowball method to speed up the process. (If you're not sure what that is, just Google "Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball".)
Debt is a TRAP. Without a ton of payments, you can make your own decisions about what to do with your money. Without payments, you get to make your own decisions about what to do with your LIFE.
