Debt Archives - Page 3 of 34 - Making Sense Of Cents

The Best Debt Payoff Stories – These Six People Paid Off Over $400,000 in Debt!

June 16, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 34 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I want to share some amazing stories about families that have learned how to become debt free. These are some amazing debt payoff stories that will motivate you to become debt free!

Do you want to learn how to become debt free? Here are 6 great stories about how families reached debt free living and learned how to get out of debt fast. According to the Motley Fool, the average American family has $7,630 in credit card debt, $11,244 in student loans, $8,163 in car loans, and $70,322 on a mortgage.

However, if you think these amounts seem low, these figures also include those who don't have any debt. For example, when you only factor in those with a credit card balance, the average amount shoots up to over $15,000.

By reading other people's debt payoff stories and learning how to become debt free, I believe that you can find motivation to pay off your own debt, learn new ways to become debt free, and realize that paying off your debt is possible.

Learning how to become debt free can lead to many positives, such as:

You may finally feel less financial stress.
You can stop living paycheck to paycheck.
You may be able to use that money towards something more important, like saving for retirement.
Reaching debt freedom may allow you to pursue other goals in life, such as traveling more or looking for a better job.

[Read more…]

Financing Furniture- A Disaster Waiting to Happen

June 5, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 32 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Offers for financing furniture are everywhere these days. You’ll see commercials on TV, offers in stores, signs on streets, and more.

Financing furniture is usually a bad idea. Having a home furniture payment through furniture financing is bad news as it can wreck your finances! Having a home makeover doesn't have to make you broke - you can DIY a living room, find affordable ideas, and more! I see them all the time, and I can't believe the “deals” they are promising people.

To be honest, I have never once seen a good deal on furniture financing.

I've seen offers for bed frames at $100 a week for a year, computers at $50 a week for a year, and so on. The low monthly payment is what pulls people in, but when you think about how long you will be making that payment, financing furniture and electronics becomes pretty unrealistic.

Side note: Of course, there are always exceptions when it comes to financing and credit. If you know how to take advantage of certain financing offers, then you may be able to come out ahead. However, if you know that you are not good at handling debt (which is probably the majority of the population), then it may be best to avoid offers like this completely. [Read more…]

6 Important Questions To Ask Yourself Before Buying A Home

May 15, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 51 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

The spring and summer months are usually the most popular months for buying a house. And, buying a house is probably the largest purchase a person will ever make.

Before buying a house, you should ask yourself questions. These questions are for first time homebuyers, or even those who are on their second or more! According to Zillow, the median U.S. home value is $195,300 and the median price of homes currently listed is $234,900.

Nearly everyone says that a house is a good investment. Many people will even go as far to say that doing anything other than owning a house would be a complete waste of money.

However, I don't agree with that at all.

Buying a house isn't for everyone. You shouldn't jump at the opportunity to buy a house, especially any ol' house. And, you should think about all of the factors before deciding that buying a house is the best and only decision for you.

Deciding to buy a house is a huge commitment, and problems may arise if you don't fully think about how this big purchase will affect your life.

There are many questions to ask yourself before you buy a house, and not everyone will have the same answers. This is why it's important to analyze your situation first.

Whether you are a first time home buyer or if this is your second or third house (or more!), you should still ask yourself these questions. [Read more…]

The Danger Of Normalizing Your Debt – Stop Living Like Everyone Else

May 3, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 55 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Instead of living debt free, we're currently in a debt crisis, and I'm not being political when I say that. I'm talking about a personal debt crisis in which the average person pays for many purchases, both small and large, with money they don’t actually have, therefore taking on more and more debt.

The average person has a lot of debt and due to that, we are currently in a personal debt crisis. However, you should start living debt free ASAP! And, the scary thing is that many people consider debt to be normal, so they have no problem taking on debt to pay for things. But, just because everyone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean you need to as well.

The average person has a lot of debt – in fact, the average U.S. household has over $10,000 in credit card debt alone. Between high mortgages, disastrous credit card bills, student loans, car payments, all the way to loans for furniture and weddings, there is just too much debt.

There are loans for everything, and sadly, many only look at the monthly payment to determine whether or not they can make their purchase.

Some look to debt as a way of affording things for the rest of their lives. Instead of being more realistic with their finances, many people even “budget” debt well into their future. Think I'm joking? [Read more…]

How This Couple Paid off $204,971.31 in Debt

April 24, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 35 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Recently, I decided to start a new series where I interview people who are doing extraordinary things with their lives. First up was JP Livingston, who retired with a net worth over $2,000,000 at the age of 28. Today’s post is about Claudia and Garrett, who paid off a crazy amount of debt and are now living debt free!

This couple sold their 1,500 square foot home, sold 80% of their stuff, side hustled, paid off $204,971 in debt, and are now enjoying debt free living. Claudia and Garrett sold their 1,500 square foot house, downsized to a 500 square foot home, sold 80% of their belongings, side hustled like crazy, and were able to pay off $204,971.31 in debt.

Yes, they paid off over $200,000 in debt!

Due to that, I thought they would be great to interview for my series. Paying off that amount of debt and being debt free is no small feat.

Related articles that will help lead you to debt free living:

I asked you, my readers, what questions I should ask Claudia and Garrett, so below are your questions (and some of mine) about living debt free. Make sure you're following me on Facebook so you have the opportunity to submit your own questions for the next interview. [Read more…]

How To Pay Off Debt Fast and NOW!

April 3, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This blog post is part of the Pay Down My Debt (PDMD) blog tour, sponsored by US Equity Advantage. PDMD is a solution that accelerates debt payoff and helps consumers monitor their credit and make smarter purchasing decisions. If you’re looking to pay off debt find out how they can help. [Read more…]

Cutting College Costs: Understanding The Cost And Value Of Your Degree

March 27, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 49 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

There's a myth that expensive colleges are always better than the cheaper ones. As if higher college costs means that you'll automatically get a great job, you'll have an extremely high salary, and more.

Are colleges with higher college costs always better? Here are some other things you'll want to think about when paying for college and college tuition. Well, that's not always true.

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal:

From the academics [who have studied whether students from elite institutions outperform their peers or not] we know that in terms of future earnings, 1) your choice of field matters more than your choice of college, 2) after controlling for ability, the earnings differences of graduates from elite and non-elite institutions are small at best, and 3) any earnings advantage that may emerge over the long run is difficult to concretely tie back to the effects of one’s college choice.

According to Forbes, tuition for an in-state public college averages around $28,000. Private college tuition was double that amount at an average of $59,000.

For a four year elite university, the cost jumps to $68,000. [Read more…]

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