Most people think becoming debt-free means putting life on hold , but there’s a smarter way to do it.
Transcript:
TIFFANY ALICHE: Getting debt free should not be this core focus. You should kind of. Set it and forget it. So I learned this lesson when I was paying off my credit card debt. I was a victim of a scam that left knee $35,000 in debt in my 20s, and I struggled. I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t save anything for 2 and 1/2 years. And I finally paid off that credit card debt. And I was so happy for about 10 minutes. And then I looked and realized, but you still have $50,000 of student loan debt. And I thought, do I have to take another 4 or five years to have no life? It was a light bulb moment that went on that like, Yes, you should be paying your debt, automating it, paying more than the minimum, but honestly kind of setting it and forgetting it and then working on the rest of your life. And so deciding from your budget, this is why budgets are so great. How much money would you really have accessible to pay down debt. And then what are you going to leave leftover for savings and honestly enjoying life too? Because I don’t believe just because you’re paying off debt, that you shouldn’t set aside some money for enjoying life. I think that you should be looking at your finances holistically, and so I think you should be doing both.
The truth is, is that sometimes people either have a spend too much issue or don’t make enough issue. And so sometimes people will come to me and say, Tiffany, how can I save more? I look at their budget and I’m like, honestly, you can’t save more. You’re not going out. You’re not getting anything. You’re not, you’re not, you know, spending money on grooming. You’re not. There’s just not extra money here. If you look at your if you don’t have enough money at the end of the month, right. And you look at your budget and most of your money is going to your bees and bees, your bills and utility bills, then you probably have a don’t make enough issue. If most of your money is going to your keys, your cash expenses, then you probably have a spend too much issue, right? So if you have a spend too much issue, then it’s just going line item by line item and saying what things here are really choice expenses that I can really cut out. You know, literally looking at some of your subscriptions, cutting those out one by one. But if you have a don’t make enough issue, there is no more cutting back to do. You’re going to have to ask yourself, how can I make more income? You know, does that look like asking for a raise at work? Does that look like side hustling? Does that look like finding a job that’s actually going to pay me more? Sometimes we have to make those hard choices, but there’s only so much cutting that you can do. Everyone is not being irresponsible with their money. Some people just don’t make enough.
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