Carrie Smith Debt-Free
You, Too, Can Be Debt Free
If you have ever felt like you were financially treading water, running on a treadmill, or stuck in quicksand, you are not alone. Many of us have financial lives that are out of order and we simply need a better plan to turn things around.
Carrie Smith was nearly $15,000 upside down one year and debt free the next. She shared the secrets to her success with the Huffington Post.
In case you are thinking that Smith was independently wealthy and just had bad luck, she also shared her gross income. She was not wealthy and had to work to make ends meet each month. She brought home $3,496 each month.
The first thing Smith did was attack her credit cards. In her case, the credit cards met both of the two main debt-relief …show more content…
She realized that now having the payments hanging over her head not only gave her financial freedom but afforded her opportunities to spend her money on travel and other things that she wanted. When she started to "see" herself debt free she was inspired to stay with the plan.
According to Smith, there are four steps to replicate her success:
Step 1. Build a timeline that is hard but still doable. If you don't give yourself a definitive start and end time you may never get going or not take things seriously. To help her get going, Smith used the free site "ReadyForZero" to create her payment plans and set goal dates. When she started to see the success of her efforts, she made her targets even harder to hit so she could be debt free even faster.
Step 2. Making sacrifices. You have to be willing to give something up in the short-term to receive your benefits in the long-term. What made it slightly easier for Smith was working extra hours to bring in extra money. Since her free time was spent working, she could give up some of the extras she had been spending her money on like cable TV, tanning and salon visits, going to the movies, a gym membership, and frequent dining
If you have ever felt like you were financially treading water, running on a treadmill, or stuck in quicksand, you are not alone. Many of us have financial lives that are out of order and we simply need a better plan to turn things around.
Carrie Smith was nearly $15,000 upside down one year and debt free the next. She shared the secrets to her success with the Huffington Post.
In case you are thinking that Smith was independently wealthy and just had bad luck, she also shared her gross income. She was not wealthy and had to work to make ends meet each month. She brought home $3,496 each month.
The first thing Smith did was attack her credit cards. In her case, the credit cards met both of the two main debt-relief …show more content…
She realized that now having the payments hanging over her head not only gave her financial freedom but afforded her opportunities to spend her money on travel and other things that she wanted. When she started to "see" herself debt free she was inspired to stay with the plan.
According to Smith, there are four steps to replicate her success:
Step 1. Build a timeline that is hard but still doable. If you don't give yourself a definitive start and end time you may never get going or not take things seriously. To help her get going, Smith used the free site "ReadyForZero" to create her payment plans and set goal dates. When she started to see the success of her efforts, she made her targets even harder to hit so she could be debt free even faster.
Step 2. Making sacrifices. You have to be willing to give something up in the short-term to receive your benefits in the long-term. What made it slightly easier for Smith was working extra hours to bring in extra money. Since her free time was spent working, she could give up some of the extras she had been spending her money on like cable TV, tanning and salon visits, going to the movies, a gym membership, and frequent dining