If one of your financial resolutions is to become debt free, you may be looking at a pile of bills and fretting over how you’ll pay them all. Well, don’t despair. There are many techniques you can use to help eliminate your debt this year—even if you have limited funds.
Try the following five strategies to wipe out your debt and get yourself on the road to financial health.
Strategy #1: Tap into “extra” cash coming your way
Now before you start thinking: “I’m broke! I don’t have any ‘extra’ money, so this strategy isn’t going to work for me,”… just hold on a quick minute.
Before you say you’re completely broke, consider three potential sources of funds:
1. Are you getting a raise this year? If so, use that “extra” money to pay down your debt. According to the consulting firm Mercer, the average employee received a 3% pay raise in 2013. And you likely will get one, since only about 2% of employers said they implemented pay freezes last year.
2. Do you typically receive a tax refund check? If so, start planning to file your income taxes so you can use that money to reduce debt in the year 2014. In 2013, the IRS says the average federal tax refund check topped $3,000. Couldn’t that go a long way in paying your credit card debt?
3. Do you have items in your house that you no longer want or use? If so, sell those things (on eBay, a yard sale, a consignment shop or wherever) and use the cash to help eliminate debt.
In other words, don’t just be a “hater” or a “negative Nellie” who can’t think creatively about how to use this strategy to your benefit. Naysayers and doubters will just stay in debt. Optimists and doers who keep an upbeat outlook and act positively will get rid of their debt sooner rather than later.
