Have you ever tried to pay off your debts? I have. Many times. Nothing I tried worked. After many years of overdrafting my checking, paying rent late, crying, panic attacks, and asking for loans from my family, I finally decided enough was enough. Once I followed the steps laid out below, I had more money and more financial freedom.

1. Identify your  money story.

A money story is the story of how we are with money, and we didn't create it on purpose.. It's something we learned through hearing the stories of others around us as we matured, when we were little and as young adults. These other stories unconsciously formed a narrative about what money is like for us. 

When you decide to consciously create the money story you want, everything you do with money will be the way you want. Including debt.

2. Get neutral about debt

How do you feel when you think about or see your debts? Angry? Anxious? Sad? This will naturally change after you’ve written your new money story. On your journey toward a better money story, we want to take steps. One of the steps is to get neutral about debt. By neutralizing it, it’s easier to erase.

In order to get neutral about debt, you first need to DECIDE that it is neutral. Following that choice, every step from there will include the fact that you’ve decided that debt is neutral. You will see your debt as time goes on, and a great tool I always used was to check in with myself before opening up my credit card apps. I would remind myself that the amount of debt is just a number, it is neutral and I am ok and I got this. By checking in ahead of time, you will have paved the path for neutrality before you even arrive there.

3. Get clear about your money

Once you are fully stepped into your new money story, it’s time to get clear. Down to every dollar, how much money do you have coming in and how much money is going out? Be honest, but still show yourself kindness.

4. Snowball your debts

Follow these steps to snowball your debts.

Step 1.

List out your debts smallest to largest (ignoring interest)

Here is an example set of numbers someone’s debt might be.

1. $750 ($30 minimum monthly payment)
2. $1000 ($40 minimum monthly payment)
3. $3000 ($120 minimum monthly payment)
4. $5000 ($200 minimum monthly payment)

Step 2.

Set all but the smallest debts to automatic minimum payments every month. Using the example above, you’ll go into each of those accounts and make sure the minimum payment is set on B ($40), C ($120), and D ($200). It’s best to set these on automatic so you don’t have to think about them much until it’s time for Step 4.

Step 3.

Pay more than the minimum payment for the smallest debt, A ($30). Instead of paying the $30 minimum, you can add an extra $25 a month toward it, making your new monthly payment $55 a month. Your goal here is to pay off the smallest debt first, so anything extra you can put on it the better.

Step 4.

Once the smallest debt, debt A, is paid off, roll over that $55 monthly payment to B ($40 minimum). Now you’ll be putting $95 a month toward debt B!

Step 5.

Once debt B is paid off, roll over that $95 to debt C ($120 minimum). Now you’re putting $215 toward debt C.

Step 6.

Once debt C is paid off, roll over that $215 to debt D ($200 minimum). Now you’re putting $415 toward debt C.

Step 7.

Continue this process of rolling over (snowballing) monthly payments until all of your debt is gone!

When you sit down with your snowballed numbers, break them down all the way till the date you’ve paid off all of your debts completely. Maybe it’s all paid off 8 years from now, or 35 years, or 6 months? The length of time doesn’t matter. What matters is that when you do this, you are directly tapping into the person who has all of those debts paid off completely! Take a moment and soak that in.

5. How are you going to allocate it?

How much are you paying toward debts right now? With the example above, $390 a month is going toward debts.  So when all of your debts are paid off, you’ll have an extra $390 a month to live with! How exciting! Congratulations!

Where are you going to allocate that $390? Get clear on this. The budget you may have for your current life, copy and paste it and create it as if you have no debts to pay and an extra $390 a month coming in. This is fun, and very important. Once you get clear on where that money is going to go, more of the things you want will continue to show up for you.

6. Manifest more money to pay off your debts quicker

There are lots of techniques to manifest more money, they’re all out there on the internet waiting for you! Or… you can join Manifest $10K or Pay After You Manifest to manifest more money.

That’s it! So now, not only are you excited when you think about debt, but you are manifesting the things you want.