The snowball method worked for me and my family. We were over 30 years old with good paychecks and jobs, but still somehow living paycheck to paycheck. Nothing ever got saved, we owed on two cars, school loan, and a bunch of unsecured credit card debt.
Snowballed worked for us. Something about getting aggressive and paying one all the way off - that feeling of winning - got exciting. So it was easier to go after the next one, and the one after that.
Pretty soon, we were out of debt and started to slowly build our nest egg.
I’m not a church kind of guy, but Dave Ramsey’s financial peace university was worth every penny. Just ignore the preachiness if that’s not your think.
I 100% agree. I usually recommend avalanche, but if money is super tight, getting those payments down can really have an impact.
I know Dave Ramsey isn’t super popular on Reddit PF, but I’ve seen it work for a coworker and I like listening to success stories from time to time. I don’t like his investment advice or his opinions about credit, but by the time you need to worry about that, you’re already winning.
That’s EXACTLY how it went. His basics/ 101 got us out of debt and on the same page as a couple. Those concepts provided a solid foundation to grow from. We don’t use cash anymore. We use a credit card and we use an “envelope” app so that we can see what’s left and stay aligned. We pay of everything every two weeks. His investment advice is just dumb, but I have to give him credit for giving us the tools that finally worked.
A blow money envelope and being able to shift money around after having a budget meeting was THE game changer.