Journey 35 · Adultingrecoveringgrinding
Get Out of Debt
“I don't even know how much I owe in total. I've been avoiding adding it up.”
You become: Someone with a plan instead of a knot in their stomach
Face the total, understand what each debt actually costs, pick a method and stick to it, and learn which debts can be negotiated. No lectures about coffee.
Understand
What each debt costs and which to attack first.
Practice
Facing the number, calling creditors, paying in order.
Create
A dated payoff plan.
Evidence
A total that is smaller than last month's.
Face it
The avoidance costs more than the debt does.
- Practice1h
List every debt, with its interest rate
Every card, loan, financed purchase, buy-now-pay-later plan, and money owed to family. Balance, minimum payment, interest rate. This is the hardest hour in the journey and everything else depends on it.
You’ll have:A complete list with rates and minimums.
- Understand30m
Work out what each debt costs you a year
Balance × rate. A $4,000 card at 24% costs about $960 a year just to exist. Put that number next to each debt. It reframes them from 'things I owe' into 'things charging me rent'.
You’ll have:An annual interest cost per debt.
- Understand40m
Separate the debts that behave differently
Federal student loans have protections and income-driven plans that no other debt has. Medical debt is negotiable and treated differently by credit scoring. Payday loans are their own emergency. Tag each debt with its type — the strategy differs.
You’ll have:Each debt tagged by type.
7 more actions · 4h 10m of work
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Pick a method and commit
Both methods work. Switching between them every month does not.
- Understand45m
Compare avalanche against snowball on your own numbers
- Create25m
Choose one, and write down why
- Create35m
Automate every minimum, then attack one
Get help where help exists
More of this is negotiable than anyone tells you.
- Practice40m
Ask for a lower rate — it works more often than you'd think
- Understand40m
Learn what a nonprofit credit counsellor actually does
- Practice45m
Negotiate any medical bills on the list
- Evidence20m
Record the total, and again next month
Tools this journey uses
Several actions above run straight through these. All free, no signup.