Snowballs are Great

I’ll start this post with a little history. When I was young I was terrible with money, my sister, great with money, I was the polar opposite, mounting up a mass of debt and not knowing what to do with myself.

It took years of desperation to find snowballing. This is the process of paying off your debt then as one debt clears “snowballing” that payment into the next debt instead of buying a new PlayStation.

When I took my debt by the scruff of the neck , I was paying off £15k at about £100 per month. That’s about 15 years when you take into account interest. Not a good look at the ripe old age of 21. 36 before being debt free.

Thank the heavens for the Internet, I found a couple of sites that I liked from the millions I found in my searches, namely http://www.daveramsey.com and http://www.fool.co.uk, I joined the forum of The Fool and stole ideas from Dave. Both sites are different now, this was 2001, a lifetime ago.

The £100 was split evenly between about six debts with differing interest rates ranging from nothing (family) to 34.9%. Depending on who you listen too you can arrange in a couple of different ways, smallest debt first, highest interest first, it’s what ever floats your boat.

“Compound interest – the greatest invention of man” – Unknown

“You can get a great deal done from almost any position in an organization if you focus on small wins.” – Roger Saillant

I decided to do both of the above, take a small debt first, then switched to highest interest through the rest of the plan. This allows me to get the energy boost of seeing a small victory but then reduced the lifetime of the debt.

Long story short, I managed to pay off all of my debts in 7 years under half the original estimate. Don’t get me wrong, I still have debt but it’s what I consider to be good debt, a mortgage, the wedding and a car. The key here is its planned and manageable, I’m happy with my debt not controlled by it.

Now I focus on a different kind of snowball.

If you would like any help with your situation don’t hesitate to get in touch in the comments below.

Thanks for listening and I’ll catch you all soon.