How to Pay off Holiday Debt Fast (This Actually Works!)

• ListVerse – Get paid $100 to write a list article.
• Cracked – Humor site cracked pays $150 for your first four articles, and then $250 for each one after that.
• Transitions Abroad – Pays $75 to $150 per post for travel-related posts.
• A Fine Parent – A Fine Parent pays $75 for each parenting-related article.

Tutor people online

You could get paid to tutor people online. You can make money teaching students about a range of topics.

This is another at-home gig making it a flexible way to earn cash. Online tutors earn $19 an hour on average, but they can earn anywhere from $15 to $20 or more per hour.

Here are some places to find work as an online tutor:

Drive for Lyft or Uber

Make money giving people lifts as an Uber or Lyft driver. You can pick up work when you want to, making this an easy gig to fit into your schedule.

Pay varies depending on which company you’re driving for, and other factors, like how many rides you give, and where you live.

Uber drivers say they earn $15 an hour. Lyft drivers say they earn about $16 an hour, but they can make anywhere from $5 to $43 an hour.

Here’s where to sign up:

Rent out your car

If your car often sits in the driveway, consider renting it out. You could earn about $6,000 a year. How much money you’ll make depends on the market value of your car, how many days of the month you rent it out, and what company you rent it out through.

Here are some places to rent out your car:

Do some transcription work

If you’re a good typist, you could make money as a transcriptionist. All you need to do is listen to audio, then type or transcribe what you hear. Once you deliver the transcription to the client, you’ll get paid.

Here are a few places where you can find transcription work:

Transcriptionists make $16 an hour on average. Tapi, you can earn more or less than that, depending on the company you work with.

Sebagai contoh:

• 1-888-TYPE-IT-UP pays you $30 to $180 per audio hour.
• TranscribeMe pays you $15 to $22 per audio hour.
• Scribie pays $5 to $25 per audio hour.

Be a virtual assistant

Assistant work isn’t just for brick-and-mortar offices anymore.

Sekarang, many people hire virtual assistants.

Jadi, you could get paid to work as an assistant online.

Virtual assistants do all of the tasks that a regular assistant would do, like making phone calls, scheduling appointments, organizing meetings, and other administrative and organizational tasks.

The only difference is that they do all of their work online.

Here are a few websites where you can find virtual assistant work:

Virtual assistants earn anywhere from $10 to $29 an hour, and they earn an average of $15 an hour.

Be a freelance writer

Freelance writers make money writing everything from blog posts to books.

With freelance writing, you can take on as much or as little work as you want to – making this a flexible gig.

You can write for content sites. With these, you apply to the site, and if you’re approved, you can choose from a pool of articles.

Or you can work with private clients.

Private clients post jobs online that freelancers can apply to. If you apply to a job and are accepted, you work directly with the private client.

Here’s where you can find freelance writing work:

Freelance writing income varies.

It can pay per word, per hour, or per project.

According to PayScale, Freelance writers say they earn $23 an hour, and that their income can range from $10 to $55 an hour.

For per word pay, you could earn as little as $0.001 a word or as much as $0.06 per word or more in some cases.

For per project pay, this can range anywhere from $5 per article, to $500 per article.

Akhirnya, how much money you make from freelance writing will depend on the client or website that you work with.

Read these posts for more ways to make money

Above, I mentioned that we have a lot of posts on making cash.

Here are some articles to read for even more ways to make money:

Step 5: Choose a Method to Tackle Debt that Works for You

Okay, so now you should have started saving, and maybe you’ve increased your income a bit.

Once you’ve freed up some cash to put towards your debts, you can start paying them off.

Sekarang, there are tons of different methods out there for tackling debt.

I’m going to cover two of the main ones, which are:

• Snowball method
• Avalanche method

Benar-benar, it all comes down to what suits you.

Let’s take a look at these debt tackling methods and see which one best suits your needs.

The Snowball Method (good for keeping motivation high!)

With the Snowball method, you write down all of your debts in order of smallest to largest.

Let’s say you have $2,000 worth debt across three credit cards. Here’s what your list would look like:

• Credit card one: $200
• Credit card two: $400
• Credit card three: $1,400

With the Snowball Method, you focus on paying off the smallest debt first.

This doesn’t mean totally ignoring your other debts though.

You still must continue to make the minimum payment on your balances for all your debts.

You just focus on paying more to the first, smallest debt.

Once you’ve paid off the smallest debt, then you move onto the next one.

You take the money you were using to pay the first debt and add it to the minimum payment towards the second debt.

Jadi, to use the example above, once you’d paid off the $200 debt, you’d move onto paying off the $400 debt, and put that money you were paying on the first debt towards paying off that second debt.

This creates a snowball effect, hence the name!

Why the Snowball Method?

Sekarang, the Snowball Method is good for anyone who struggles to maintain motivation to pay off their debts.

It’s all about those small wins. Paying off a $200 debt is much quicker, and it seems like much less of a challenge than paying off a $1,400 debt.

Paying off the $200 debt seems achievable.

Plus, once you’ve paid off that first debt, you’ll know that you’re more than capable of paying off the rest of them.

The Avalanche Method (good for saving money on interest payments!)

Next up, we have the Avalanche Method.

With this method, you focus on paying off the debts that have the highest interest rate first. In the long run, this saves you a lot of money on interest charges.

For this method, you need to list your debts in order of their APR. Jadi, you list the one with the highest APR first, and the one with the lowest APR last.

You then use the money that you’ve assigned to paying off your debts to pay off the debt that has the highest APR.

Once you’ve paid off the first debt on your list, you take the money you used the pay that one, and put it towards the next one, and focus on paying that off – just like with the Snowball Method.

Why the Avalanche Method?

The Avalanche Method will save you more money in the long run than the Snowball Method will because you’re getting rid of those high-interest debts first.

Namun, it can be tougher to maintain motivation with this method. With the Snowball Method, you get those little wins, and you can see progress quicker.

So which method is better?

It really just depends on which method works best for you. If your main goal is to avoid paying tons of interest, then the Avalanche Method is for you.

If you feel like you need a little more motivation and like to feel as though you’re making quick progress, then the Snowball Method will work better for you.

Tips for Paying Down Debt Accrued During Holiday

Above, I’ve given you a five-step plan for paying off your holiday debts.

In this section, I’m going to cover a few tips that’ll help you on your journey to becoming debt-free!

Make minimum payments on time for all of your debts

I briefly mentioned above how important it is that you continue to make the minimum payments on all of your debts.,

Whether you chose the Snowball Method or the Avalanche Method, this is so important.

If you miss your minimum payments, it will not only hurt your credit score, but you’ll likely incur late fees as well.

You don’t want to owe even more money on your debts.

This means that if you are focusing on paying one debt first, don’t forget to make the minimum payments on all of your other debts.

Avoiding late fees isn’t the only reason you should keep up with minimum payments.

If you miss minimum payments:

• Your credit score could drop: When you miss your minimum payments, it can negatively affect your credit score. This can affect your ability to obtain new credit in the future.
• Your interest rate may increase: If your payment becomes 60 days past due, many creditors will increase your interest rate to the penalty rate. This is the highest interest rate on your credit card. When you’ve made six months’ worth of on-time payments, you should get your pre-penalty rate back.

That’s why it’s so important that you don’t miss the minimum payments on any of your debts.

Use Mint to make paying off debts easier

Mint is an app that allows you to:

• Manage your money
• Organize your finances
• Create a budget
• Check your credit score
• Get alerts about upcoming bills
• Schedule payments.

Keseluruhan, it’s a great tool for managing your finances, and it makes paying off debts much easier.

• Check out Mint Di Sini.
• Download Mint for iOS devices Di Sini.
• Download Mint for Android devices Di Sini.

Avoid quick fixes like Payday Loans

Avoid payday loans if you can.

They might seem tempting, but they only end up getting you in more debt.

According to Pew Research, 12 million Americans take out payday loans each year, with many of them struggling to afford repayments.

The average payday loan requires a lump-sum repayment of $430.

This takes about 36% of the average borrower’s gross paycheck, even though research shows that most borrowers can actually only afford no more than 5% while still covering their basic expenses.

This means that most borrowers have to renew or re-borrow the loans.

The CFPC found that 80% of payday loans are taken out within two weeks of repayment of a previous payday loan.

Basically, a payday loan might seem like an easy fix at the time, but in the long run, it costs you far more than its worth.

If you can, avoid payday loans.

One More Super Important Thing…Be Flexible!

One of the biggest reasons why people fail with paying off holiday debt is that they’re not willing to be flexible.

Sometimes, you create a budget, allocate money to your debts, and you plan to pay them off.

Then, life happens.

Your car breaks, or you realize that the 50% cut your made to your grocery budget was just too much, and you’re making yourself miserable.

Don’t strain yourself too much.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

If you restrict yourself too much, you’re likely to fail and give up altogether.

Jadi, if something in your plan isn’t working, adjust it, and try again.

Maybe you can cut your grocery budget by 25% instead of 50%.

Maybe, you’ll have to put $400 towards your debts each month instead of $500.

Be willing to make changes to your plans.

Your financial plan shouldn’t be set in stone.

It should help you, not make you feel restricted.

Jadi, adjust and go again, and don’t beat yourself up about it.

Key Takeaways

Okay, so I’ve given you a five-step plan to follow.

Let’s recap:

Step 1: Plan and Prepare: Set realistic goals, take inventory of your current outgoings and income, and create a budget that works for you.

Step 2: Consolidate or transfer your debts: Restructuring your debts a little can make them easier to tackle. Jadi, consider transferring your balance to a zero-interest card, or consolidating your debts.

Step 3: Save money: Make some small changes to your spending habits. See where you can make cutbacks.

Step 4: Increase your income: If you don’t have much cash left over to service your debts, you might have to bring in some extra cash. This is possible, even if you have a full-time job, and you don’t need to leave the house to do it.

Step 5: Choose a method to tackle debt that works for you: Doing this gives you a concrete plan for paying down your holiday debt.

That’s it!

Paying off debts doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need to do is have a plan, free up some cash in your budget, and pick a method of paying off your debts that works for you!

Did you rack up debt over the holidays? What did you do to get rid of it? Let us know in the comments section below how you paid off your holiday debt.