How to stay motivated?

yorpington

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking these forums for a few months now, and find reading them to be a real inspiration, every day. I am full of admiration for all the people here who are working so hard to get out of debt, especially the long haulers who have so much determination it's amazing! :T

My husband and I had our LBM a while ago and as you can see from my signature we have made some pretty good strides in paying down our debt. We have a solid budget in place and hope to be out of debt by this time next year so that we can start saving for a deposit on a mortgage.

As our remaining debts have the highest balances (but lowest interest rates), it's obviously going to take longer to pay each one off completely (we do one at a time with min payments on the others) and get that rush of success when something is completely gone.

My question is, how do you stay motivated when the 'wins' get further and further apart? I'm especially concerned about this once we've paid off our final overdraft and are focused on our big loan, which is more or less the same as all our other debts combined! That's going to take the best part of a year to pay off, so if you have any advice on how to stay motivated and focused during that time, I'd love to hear it!

SeduLOUs

Keep reading the forums. I come here whenever I'm feeling down about my progress just to see that other people are in the same boat or substantially worse. Whilst I don't mean for a second that I enjoy seeing that other people's lives are harder than mine, I mean it's a good reminder of why I had to have my LBM because these things just get worse and worse until you get on top of them.

Keep a spreadsheet of your debt levels. Whilst it's disappointing that you can't scratch one from the list every month, it is motivating to watch the numbers drop. Always keep your original figure somewhere easy to locate, i.e. the top of the spreadsheet or your forum signature, so if you're having a bad day you can see at a glance just how far you've come.

Good luck and keep it up!

mildredalien

I got really excited about paying off debts too at first, but as I got into the groove and settled into my new DFW lifestyle, it's not quite so exciting on a daily basis However, I still do things regularly that keep me motivated. I have a monthly spreadsheet to tally up my incomings and outgoings each month, to make sure nothing leads to a debt crisis. I check by these forums quite frequently too - when I'm looking for a cheap meal plan for the week, or want to figure out the cheapest way to buy something, or when I just realise I need a bit of a DFW boost! I keep a diary on the forums as well, I'm not updating that regularly any more but I check in every week or so and it keeps me accountable - to myself mainly! It really helps me to keep checking back at my SOA and budget and remember how much I've paid off since I started really trying to tackle the debt.

Learning2Budget

I come on here for inspiration. The NSD gang really help keep me going!! We are also sorting ideas of things we want to do when we are debt free.....new sofa (saved up first so we can buy it outight), a holiday, etc.
The time will fly by and you'll be on the debtfree roll of honour before you know it!!
I agree that keeping your original debt in your signature keeps u motivated. i see mine each time i post and it spurs me on.
Good luck L2B.x

yorpington

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Keep reading the forums. I come here whenever I'm feeling down about my progress just to see that other people are in the same boat or substantially worse. Whilst I don't mean for a second that I enjoy seeing that other people's lives are harder than mine, I mean it's a good reminder of why I had to have my LBM because these things just get worse and worse until you get on top of them.

I understand completely, and that is great advice, thank you.

mildredalien and Learning2Budget Thank you very much for your advice, too. I am definitely going to keep my former debt total somewhere easily accessible - I think being able to tot up the percentage I have paid off etc will be a motivator even when I can't scratch off a whole debt.

I'm going to look up your diary now, thank you so much! :beer:

DominicJ_2

My question is, how do you stay motivated when the 'wins' get further and further apart?

Well thats not completely the case.
Because if you think about it, every time you clear the smallest debt, another "minimum payment" ceases to be a monthly issue, so your final mountain is the tallest, but its also the last one you have to climb.

You are 9 minimum payments a month better off than you were when you tackled your first loan.
Not to mention, the amount you pay in interest every month drops, that in itself is a win.

Mort

yorpington wrote: »

My question is, how do you stay motivated when the 'wins' get further and further apart?

Congratulations on your progress. I was in a managed DMP paying pro rata amounts to the creditors, my advice is to "enjoy" watching the balances coming down.

rugbychick81

Hi!

You have paid off approx 28% of your total debt ... try for 30%! The little goals keep me focussed

DominicJ_2

You could also work out how much you pay each month in interest, and how much is capital.
That will improve every month.

If I meet my target, my mortgage interest drops by £5 every month.
Thats £1200 over the 20 year term

A penny paid is several pounds earned

yorpington

DominicJ wrote: »

You are 9 minimum payments a month better off than you were when you tackled your first loan.
Not to mention, the amount you pay in interest every month drops, that in itself is a win.

:idea: I hadn't thought about it like that at all. That's great, thank you!

Mort wrote: »

Congratulations on your progress. I was in a managed DMP paying pro rata amounts to the creditors, my advice is to "enjoy" watching the balances coming down.

I will do! Thank you! And congratulations :T

rugbychick81 wrote: »

Hi!

You have paid off approx 28% of your total debt ... try for 30%! The little goals keep me focussed

Ooh, I like percentages! That is a great tip. I am going to make a graph on my spreadsheet

DominicJ wrote: »

You could also work out how much you pay each month in interest, and how much is capital.
That will improve every month.

This is a great idea! SO many new ways to stay motivated, I am excited to try them all out! Thank you very much for replying