Motivation April 25, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Budgeting, Credit cards, Saving, Student loans.trackback
I was reading a post from this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction about motivation, and I figured I’d mention a few ways I manage to stay motivated.
1. I like seeing progress. When I log into my credit card account online each week and see a lower balance, it reminds me how great I’m going to feel once I’m not putting almost half my salary toward paying off debt.
2. To take advantage of that, I have an Excel spreadsheet set up that has each week’s payments, plus interest charges, new balance and weeks to pay it off. I spend a little time each week considering how I can increase the weekly payment, then running the number to see how much earlier I can pay the balance down. That also helped me decide that eliminating my United Way donation next year isn’t worth it - I’ll be fairly close to paying it off, so the extra $10 a week only cuts a week or two off - but that getting rid of internet at home might be, depending on how a couple things develop at work, including my annual evaluation/raise.
3. I pick up the free real estate section we publish every two weeks and look at houses. Planning to buy a house is ultimately what pushed me to get serious about paying off debt, and window shopping reminds me how good it will feel when I can finally pick up a copy and plan to buy one of the houses inside it. A new(er) car also is on my list, so I try and plan at least one route a week past the dealer.
4. I try and build in little indulgences that make the bigger sacrifices not so painful. For example, my cereal comes out of the dented bin at Kroger (89 cents a box last week!), but I splurge on Republic of Tea for my office tea collection so I’m not tempted to run out to one of the many downtown coffee shops.
5. My 401(k) balance is available online, and when it finally got higher than my student loan balance, I celebrated. It should be higher than my credit card balance by the end of next month, which is another benchmark to celebrate. And I’m looking forward to the end of the year, when my net worth should finally be positive.
6. I blog about my progress and keep one friend up to date. Knowing I have to publicly own up to backsliding makes me much less likely to do it. 
Consider checking out the Simple Living discussion forums. The link is on my blog. I think you have to register to see the posts, but there are some inspirations there. Not that I buy into (no pun intended!) the whole environmentally pure and non-consumer perspectives, but I do find myself cheered by some of the others’ experiences.
[...] My post on Keeping Motivated also struck a chord with a fellow personal finance blogger at Debt $ense. Check it out for some more tips on how to keep motivated. [...]