The Wanderlusting Penny Pincher

Alright y'all. Listen up. There's about to be some major truth-bombing real talk happening up in here! As you already know if you have read any of my previous posts, I am a big fan of making sacrifices to achieve my financial goals. It is how I became debt free after all! I have heard countless people (true story) talk about how they are tired of being broke and wanna get outta debt. I've heard people say this through their iPhones while they are wearing Abercrombie and Fitch and watching cable TV. Oh and the day before they went shopping and are now sporting a new $300 watch and a $100 Halloween costume (and the list goes on and on). The frivolity and irresponsibility honestly blows my mind! When put like that, the problem and solution seem painfully obvious, yet it doesn't seem to dawn on many of these people that they need to change their habits. The "answer" is always, "I just need more money." Yeah...no you don't. With those habits and t

If you have read any of my previous posts, you already know that I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey, whose teachings helped me eradicate my debt. Fast.  A common misconception about paying off debt is that you have to attack the largest balance and/or interest rate first, but depending on the balance, that could take quite a while, especially if you are making payments on several other debts as well. What you want to do instead is attack the smallest balance first by applying every extra dollar that you can squeeze from your budget while making only the minimum payments on all of your other debts. Because it is a smaller balance and you are attacking it aggressively, it will get paid off much faster than a larger balance would. Then you can attack the next smallest balance. Everything that was applied to the previous balance can now be applied to the next one as well as every extra dollar that you can squeeze from your budget. Repeat this cycle until your debt disappears! Mr. Ramsey cal