Written by: Kristina

Whether it’s credit card debt or student loan debt, debt is horrible and is something nobody wants lingering around their life. Unfortunately, as the years go on debt continues to rise more and more. According to NPR, national debt is expected to reach $28.7 trillion by 2029.

Although debt can be a burden, there are some ways you can relieve yourself of debt more quickly. (And no, one of these tips is not to take classes for the rest of your life so you never have to pay off loans!)

Pay More than the Minimum

Let’s say the minimum for your credit card payment is only $50.  Having a credit card in the first place probably means you have a decent income in order to have gotten approved. If possible, try paying more than that $50 to reduce the debt faster. Even doubling this payment to $100 will significantly reduce the amount needed to be paid.

Not only will this help with debt, but it will also help with interest rate. Most credit cards include an interest rate and the longer you don’t pay something, the more interest you will collect ultimately paying more than you would have in the beginning. An awesome tip when dealing with credit cards is to only use it if you know you can pay it off right away. This can almost completely avoid interest all together and keep you out of as much debt as possible.

Focus on the Debts with the Highest Interest Rates

The goal here is to be debt free, but to do that you’re going to want to start paying off the debts that are accumulating the most interest. This sounds like common sense, right? Rather than allowing more interest to add up, just knock these out first. This is not to be confused with the debt snowball method. This method suggests you should start with the smallest payment and slowly move up. Though this may sound like a good idea, in the end I’d want to insure that I paid the smallest amount I had to.

Get a Side Job

In the end, if nothing else works for you, you may decide it’s time to just get a side job. This can be something temporary just to give that extra push to pay these off faster. To discover new ways to make some money on the side check out, Finance Buzz.

While there are so many things you can try to pay off debt faster, these are just a few to help get you started.

Edited by: Victoria

#debt #studentloans #personalfinance