Debt, and how to pay it off and become debt-free, are very much on the agenda. Debt freedom lessons offering wisdom and inspiration are like rain after a long, dry summer. While we still can only guess the size of the economic fallout of the Corona pandemic, it is clear that many experienced unprecedented financial hardship and could cope only by increasing their debt.
It is time again to look at your money because it nourishes your life (when used correctly).
Hence, it is time to have a look at your debt and start tackling it appropriately.
You can use this post as a resource – I have summarised the blog posts by fifteen UK bloggers during Debt Awareness Week (22-28 March 2021).
I have started with an article where you will learn how to work out whether you are in a money place, allowing you to pay off your debt (and change your situation if you find out that you cannot).
After that, you will find blogs sharing debt freedom lessons, information, wisdom, ideas, and inspiration.
Take advantage – we, a group of UK money bloggers, collectively spent approximately two days creating this gift for you. Surely you can spend a couple of hours learning and feeding your resolve and motivation.
(And if you want to learn more or need to clarify something, you could always get in touch.)
Here are the posts.
Can You Pay Off Your Debt? Here is How you Know for Sure
Can you pay off your debt?
Yes, there are situations when you may want to tackle your debt, but you don’t have the money to do it. From this article by me (Maria at The Money Principle), you will learn how to work out whether you can pay off your debt and what to do if you discover you cannot do it.
(I also recently published a book on how to pay off debt fast and live debt-free forever – ‘Never Bet on Red’, which offers a novel approach to set you on the road to debt freedom and empower you to achieve it.)
“How I got myself out of £35,000 worth of debt.”
Marie Ellis from brokegirlinthecity.com shares her inspirational journey to debt freedom – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Great for inspiration and helpful tips. My favourite is where Marie shares five lessons from her experience with debt – especially the fourth one. Want to know what it is? (Tip: go and read the article.)
Become Debt-free: 5 things you can do
Emma from Bee Money Savvy offers five tips to help you pay off debt. All are savvy, and some are unexpected.
8 Best Ways to Pay off Your Debt
Offered by Ruth from Money Savvy Mum UK, these tips move between the strategic and practical. I like number four.
Let’s Talk About Debt: Debt Awareness Week March 2021
The Reverent offers a very personal viewpoint on debt. He had his ‘debt crisis’ in 2010 and got serious about paying it off. After three decades in debt, it took him three years to pay it off.
7 Simple but Effective Ways to Pay off Debt Faster
A combination of a personal account and tried and tested personal finance tips.
5 Amazing Debt Charities That Give Debt Advice
A selection of debt charities from Collette because everyone needs help sometimes, right?
10 Steps to Get Out of Debt
More tips on how to pay off your debt – and I loved that ‘make more money’ comes before ‘spend less money’.
How I paid £12.000 debt in 2 years
Here is a compelling and inspiring personal account (with lessons and tips). “Paying off debt takes organisation, dedication, and commitment. There is still around £8k to pay off, but there’s no longer any pressure on me to manage it all. My husband took out a loan to pay off the remaining credit cards, which were now attracting interest, and it was taking too long to pay them off. Now we have one monthly payment.”
What can a debt adviser do to help?
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash
“The thing is that debt advisers are actually legal experts specialising in the debt law. They know about the legal and regulatory frameworks surrounding lending money, enforcing payment of debts, and the protections that people in debt have against being driven into unreasonable hardship. They also know the codes of practice lenders claim they stick to and can spot when they’re not doing that and hold them to accountable. That means that they can find solutions that you or I wouldn’t necessarily know about.”
Embracing Frugal Living to Pay Off Debt
Savvy tips for paying off debt by Jane from Shoestring Cottage emphasising frugal living.
Let’s Talk About Debt…
Lynn from Mrs MummyPenny offers an honest personal account of an epic, and inspiring debt journey. “Two years on from paying that debt, I am still credit debt free. I have a car on finance, that is due to be repaid in full during 2021. “
How to get out of debt on a low income
Whenever I talk about paying off debt, people ask whether the same rules apply to people on low, middle and high incomes. This post offers clever tips for people on low income.
How Debt Affects Mental Health
Sejuty from The Subtle Investor draws attention to the ‘human’ aspect issues of debt. Most of us break down psychologically under its weight and its stigmatisation helps little to solve this matter. People in debt need support and understanding, not blame and demonisation.
Drowning in Debt? 9 Ways to Build Yourself a Life Raft
I loved the tips in this post – they are (mostly) fresh, make you think, and bring in your mentality. A life raft, indeed.
Debt-free the easy way – a course you may wish to check out
A practical course on becoming debt-free by Joanna Ladocha. She takes your hand gently and guides you through the steps you must take to pay off your debt.
Debt freedom lessons: final thoughts
Now you have read these posts, you are equipped to start your debt freedom journey.
You must change your thinking.
You must learn more.
You must start acting on paying off your debt.
Go for it! You may be ordinary, but we help you achieve extraordinary things. Like paying off your debt.
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash