Inspiration

kickuptheasstime

Hi everyone,
I've been an on-and-off member of MSE for a number of years, and when my motivation is high I can pay off some quantities of my HUGE personal debt. Unfortunately, I slip very easily into bad habits. I have been in debt for as long as I can remember since going to Uni nearly 20 years ago, and I am very good at burying my head in the sand. I am lucky enough to be earning a good salary, although approx. £800/month goes on debt minimum repayments.
I'm a grown up, and I know all of the things that I should be doing to minimise outgoings & financial waste, however I simply cannot imagine being without this debt! There is always something, isn't there??
Anyway, the reason for my post here is to help focus my motivation on sorting this debt out once and for all - and the key for me I think is 'Inspiration'.
My question to all of you lovely DFWs is what inspires you to keep going on your incredible debt-busting mission? How do you stay motivated? What do you focus on when circumstances intervene and try to make you spend money that you don't have?
I look forward to your thoughts TIA

sourcrates

Hi there,
It can be extremely difficult to curb the temptation to spend, and to keep the motivation to live within your means, in my case, i opted for an IVA, so I had to stick to my budget, i had no choice, the only other option was complete failure and possible Bankruptcy, that tends to focus the mind somewhat believe me.

You just have to focus on the end game i suppose, getting rid of your debt is a great feeling, but its also important to change your ways, so that you budget correctly, and continue to live within your means when you do become debt free, don't use credit unless you can trust yourself to be able to clear it every month, without incurring interest.

kickuptheasstime

I think my problem relates to the fact that I try to think of what I could do with the money I pay in debt repayments, then I get down & end up spending money to cheer myself up! I'm such a fool!

Flumpybutton

My inspiration is to get debt free and enjoy the jangle of coins in my purse and the feel of a ten pound note and think "Yes that's all mine!"
Good luck with your journey to Debt Free Land, there are some wonderful people on this forum and when I am having a wobble I read through the posts and it reassures me that if I need advice I have somewhere to go.

spendaholic1986

I would also be interested to hear how fellow dfw's stay motivated in the long term! For the past year I have been making improvements and reducing spending but I find myself often talking myself in to doing something/buying something that I shouldn't!

Although I do find the snowball calculator very motivating!

gfplux

Inspiration.
Well if £800 a month on debt repayment PLUS falling for "there is always something" does not give you inspiration I think you are not really understanding what £800 a month really means.
£800 a month
£9600 a year
£96000 after 10 years
£192000 after 20 years
Nearly £200000 say that again...... Nearly £200000!!!!!
What could all that money buy YOU.

Just back up to one year £9600. For some people to have nearly £10000 in their hand they would think themselves RICH.
YOU on the other hand just throw it on the floor.
Do you really want to be rich, aren't you feeling inspired to be rich?
Yes or no.

sugarcube84

For me it's thinking about the things I want in life that motivate me to get rid of it. So in 12 months time when I should be debt free I will first be looking forward to shopping for a holiday, then it will be save, save save to move house and at some point save for maternity leave as I would like to have another child.


It will also be nice to be able to afford a few family days, out to the zoo etc. I could afford it at the minute but it is very hard to justify spending £40 on a day out when that could go on an overpayment for the credit card!

pineconesjay

For me, it's knowing that I want to move house next year.
Looking at rentals in the area that I want to move to, and knowing that I can't afford to do it yet, and that I could have that nice house, if only I weren't in debt right now.

Think of one thing that you really want. Maybe a nicer car, or a holiday to someplace nice. Keep it in your mind, look at a picture every week, or whenever you feel tempted to buy something you don't actually need. Every time you're tempted to buy lunch rather than make it at home.

And shred your cards! Don't let your hard work to pay off your debt go to waste. I am guilty of this too... it's too easy to feel you "deserve" a splurge. There will always be something to catch your eye and make you spend... if you don't have the cards, then you can't buy it unless you have saved some cash for it!

andyfromotley

Check out MR Money Mustache,

He has definitely helped me look at the way i view money, possessions and to a degree happiness. In a fairly short period i have been turned off the idea of accumulating more and more stuff and the idea that spending will make me happy.

Go take a look.

FatVonD

Worry (of having no money and losing my house) keeps me motivated not to accumulate any further debt. As to getting out of the debt I already have, I feel like I'm just treading water at the moment to be honest. I am the major wage earner with a 17-year-old son to support (I've also been made redundant twice going from a £43,500 salary to £30k to now £34k) and, whereas a few years back I could overpay my CCs by around £300 I can't afford to do that any more. I have <£2,000 on a 0% CC, the fact I don't know exactly what the amount is should tell you all you need to know about my (lack of) motivation and <£7,000 as a bank loan. I am making the payments on these at the moment and saving an emergency fund for when my contract ends at the end of October as then I will be freelance and there may be the odd week with no bookings. If I am lucky enough to be fully booked then I will use the fund to pay off my CC.

When my son was born I sold the large (mortgaged) house I owned and bought a flat for cash with the equity. I can clearly remember the feeling of security knowing that, whatever happened, that flat was mine.

I then however moved to get my son into a better school taking on a mortgage again and then again to a house rather than a flat so my mortgage is now the £10,000 higher than the one I got rid of 17 years ago.

My plan now is that I want that feeling of security again so I am planning (sometime this summer and after a couple of false starts) to sell my current house and get rid of all, or at least a sizeable chunk, of my mortgage. I will still be left with the bank loan (and possibly the CC) but, to me, it is more important to be mortgage free than debt free whereas I think other people tackle it the other way round.

Sorry for the ramble, in answer to your question, my motivation is financial security and while getting there is going to be a slow process I am 100% sure that I will never again take on any more debt.

jim8888

Goal setting (with realistic, achievable goals!) has worked for me. A good book on this, maybe the definitive one, is Goals by Brian Tracey. In a nutshell, you should set some goals, write them down (writing them is important) and review progress against them. They needn't and shouldn't all be financial, and you should be prepared to find that some won't be achieved, but it's amazing how many can promote a change in behaviour even if the original goal becomes elusive. And although Inspiration is key, Discipline is what keeps you on track!