Transcription
Okay, let me start off by saying this. I was not able to pay off all of my debt because I'm so disciplined or even because I knew what I was doing. I was able to pay off the debt because I kept fixing what wasn't working. What we are when we're in debt is overwhelmed, figuring things out as we go, making a lot of mistakes, and honestly, just doing the best we can with what we know. And for me, going through all of that while paying off debt did show me what actually works and also what doesn't work. And now that I'm on the other side of it, I have taken everything that I've learned, I simplified it, and I put it into a clear and doable plan. And in this video, I'm going to show you exactly how to use it step by step.
Here is what I wish I had when I was finally ready to get us out of this ridiculous amount of debt that we were in. This is going to get you through baby steps one and two of Dave Ramseay's seven baby step plan to financial freedom. This is a stepbystep guide that is going to make this whole process a lot easier for you. It's something to follow and something to keep you on track, right? Like no going off the rails here. But I do want to say this. You don't necessarily need this guide in order to do this to pay off your debt. I mean, I didn't have it. It didn't even exist yet, right? I'm going to be showing you every page, what it says and what to do. So, you are more than welcome to take this information that I'm going to be sharing with you today and get to it. But if you're someone like me who likes to have everything in one place, it's ready to go and you can just download and print it. It's one less thing to worry about. This is available for you. So, let's get to it and let's go over every page. And I'm telling you, this is going to work. It worked for me. It can work for you. Is it fun? No. Is it time consuming? Very. Why am I going to lie? Getting out of debt sucks. It's a lot of aggravation, but I call this working for yourself. You are out there putting in the hours for someone else, right? Your paycheck. You show up to work every day. You're there for every shift. Why don't we put in hours to ourselves to get money? I don't know either. And once you look at all of this in that way, kind of like a little side hustle, but with this one, you're making your own hours and your paycheck could be thousands of dollars a month. I mean, think about it. Whatever all of your monthly minimum payments that are for debt that you owe, once all of those are all added up, that amount, that's essentially what you're going to be working for. And then your days off can be a blessing now instead of like some panic mode stress inducer. I want you guys to remember that every debt paid is an instant pay raise. Let me show you really quick. This is my list of debts that are all paid off now. And let's see. I did not write the minimum payments here. I wished I would have, but I didn't. But I can still remember the payments on these, right? I mean, that kind of stuff sticks with you. Um, this RV right here, this was a $480 a month payment. Pay raise. This RV, the payment was in the $800 range. Again, pay raise. As soon as that was paid off, taxes, that was $600 a month pay raise. This truck right here, that payment was $1,300 a month. That is a huge pay raise when that one got paid off. So, you see where I'm going with making this kind of a side job. Think of it as working for yourself. And every time you pay one of these off, you just got an instant pay raise.
Okay, now I feel like you're going to want to print this. I mean, you can use it digitally if you want to, but that pen to paper, you guys, you cannot compete with that. And I've already said, if you've been watching my videos, you are going to get so sick of hearing me say this because I do say it a lot. I have a lot of faith in the brain hand connection. The benefits are Okay, so do yourself a favor by one last thing before you begin this process. Get a printer if you don't already have one. You are going to need it and you will be glad that you have it.
Okay, so here we go with the guide. The first couple pages, it's just a quick little pep talk from me to get you motivated. And after that, we have some quick how-to instructions. We will come back to this. We have our table of contents. Obviously, this is everything that is in this guide. And next are Dave's steps, all seven, but we are focusing on these two. Step number one, have $1,000 saved for your starter emergency fund. And step number two is to pay off all of your debt with the debt snowball method except your house if you have a mortgage, by the way. Now, this is where the self-doubt emerges. The thoughts of I can never and there's no way are running through your mind right now. Am I right? Well, stop. Push it away. Breathe for a moment. I want you to shift those thoughts to things like, "I am perfectly capable of following a plan. There is no reason why I can't make adjustments to turn my finances around." I want you to remember one of Dave Ramsey's famous quotes. It's not a money problem. It's a behavior problem. And you are ready to change your behaviors. And this is going to help. It's that simple. And the first thing we're going to do is save $1,000 for our starter emergency fund. And I'm not going to go into all the reasons why having this is so important. Please don't please don't make me. Instead, I'm going to link a video from Dave Ramsey where he explains it. 59% of Americans do not have $1,000 saved up. So, I don't really know why I always hear arguments about this subject. Once we all actually have it saved up, all of us, all the Americans have $1,000 saved up, then we can have a discussion about how it is not enough to cover an emergency in 2026. Okay.
Okay. We're back to those who want that $1,000 safety net for a flat tire, a pediatrician visit, a leaky toilet, right? We've got our tracker here for you. Each one of these little circles is worth $10. There's 100 of them for $1,000. And I have added some quick tips here to get you moving in the right direction. and they are sell items around your house on marketplace. Do a pantry challenge. Boost your income with a temporary side job or jobs. Number four, use cash only. No online shopping. Inperson only. Return items that you are not using or don't want. Pause all subscriptions. Okay. And some of you may be thinking to yourselves, "I don't know, Jen. I'm not sure that I will ever be able to actually save $1,000." So, here's what I want you to do. Instead of always thinking of saving money as something you do only for these big goals, right? Like to buy a house or to save for retirement or to be debtree. All of those things just seem so distant to us. So instead, I want you to look at it more in terms of you're saving this money for your present self. Presently, right now, 61% of adults say that money is their biggest stressor in life. That's probably the same 59% of people who don't have the $1,000 emergency fund, right? I always notice how these stats, these statistics, they just always kind of line up with each other. They do add up. And believe me, I know that saving money can feel like really hard work, but it also builds confidence, gives you back control, and takes away the worry. And in my opinion, the fastest ways to get your $1,000 are this first one of selling items in your home, garage, shed, your storage unit. I mean, depending on what you have, selling items can be a huge money maker. And the other big one is by doing the no spend, no buy challenge. If you want to know more about the no spend, I have a very detailed video about how to do one. I'm going to link that below for you. You can watch that later. Now, the no spend challenge is where I started, and it's what got me to saving that $1,000 way faster than I ever thought I could. Once I stopped spending, you guys, that $5 here and $20 there, it added up to that $1,000 very quickly. And actually, I did sell some stuff now that I'm thinking about it. But here are my quick tips for some no spend rules that I feel like are pretty universal at this point. And they are no eating out, commit to generic brand only at the grocery store, borrow before buying, no saving items to your wish lists or your carts. Use what is open before buying any replacements. No gift giving and free activities only.
Okay. So now the next thing you will need to do throughout this whole process really is to track what you are spending. There is no dignity quite so impressive and no independence quite so important as living within your means. I love love love that quote. It has been since February of 2022 for me and I still track every dollar that I spend. Patterns emerge for me by doing this. So if something isn't like the rest, that is super easy for me to spot. Did you get overcharged or charged twice? You will know immediately. Something wasn't even you. That happens more than you think it does. And the most important part, you are going to easily see what your overspending areas are. Is it takeout, coffee runs, convenience store stops, the kids, too many beauty appointments? I don't know. But yours are going to show up here on these trackers and then you can easily decide what you want to do about it. Are you going to cut back? Are you going to let some of these things go temporarily? I don't know. These are your behavior changes to make. But at least you will see and you will know what they are. Now when someone asks me what should I budget for my spending categories. I have no idea. Only you can know that. We all live totally different lives. So track your life here. I check in with mine. I write it all down and I doublech checkck it all once a week. I do it here on the channel. If you want to subscribe, you can now so we don't forget. But subscribing isn't the important part. It's the bell. That's how you're going to know when I post a new video. And you guys, we can track together. I'll do it with you. And don't worry, since you are doing a no-by challenge, there shouldn't be a whole lot to track, right? See how all this ties in together and gets you to start saving that money immediately.
Now we are getting somewhere. Okay. So I want you to get into this next section which is the debt section and you're going to prepare for step two while you are still working on step one of getting your $1,000. Because if you are anything like me, this might take you a minute. So here you are going to list all and I mean all of your debt except your mortgage. That's the only debt that we don't worry about until baby step number six. So credit cards, personal loans, student loans, afterpays, consolidation loans, car loans, helocks, all of the things. Just write them all down. And don't worry about being neat about this because this is going to be a rough draft. You're going to be remembering stuff later and adding them in. This is not going to happen in order. So once you feel like you have them all, that's when you're going to write them again for your final copy. And this time they will be listed from the smallest balance owed to the largest balance owed. You may need a page or two more. That's okay. Just print them out. And once you have them all listed out, you are also going to have these two things, which you probably don't want and would rather avoid looking at. Right? This can be emotional. It was for me and it probably will be for you, too. But you will now have very clearly in front of you your total debt number and what your minimum monthly payment is currently. And that's what you must send out every 30 days just to stay current, not fall behind, and end up with a total shitow on your hands. So what I would do is this. I would wait to add up what my total debt is. I would think about my present self, this Jen, and I would say to myself, paying that all off, you know what? That's going to take some time. That's far off enough to know that I don't need to worry about what that number is right this minute. But this number, this right here, that's my paycheck, right? I'm working for this right now. And I want this back right now. So add that up. And I just went ahead and added up all of mine. And that is $7,230 a month. That's what I would have been putting right here for my monthly debt payment. So, whatever your number is, that's your potential pay raise. This is your new side hustle that we were talking about before. So, let's get to work for that right now. Right? Let's get let's get all of this paid off.
So, we have a couple scribble pages. You're going to want to print these out and have them ready for you for when you work on these next four pages. And this is where you are going to start calling your creditors. Now, I told you this wasn't fun, but don't worry, I'm going to help you. I actually tell you exactly what to say and what not to say. So, let's recap just for a second. I love to recap before we move into bigger jobs. Okay. So, you are you are doing these these first two things. You are saving your $1,000 by doing the no spend, tracking your spending, and following those quick tips. And you are prepping in the background so that once you have your $1,000, you are ready to begin paying off your debt immediately. Okay, you with me? Of course you are. So, let's take all of the people, places, and things that you owe money to and begin the prep work. And we're going to start calling them. Even if you are not behind, let's make this easier on ourselves by seeing if we can lower the interest, pause the interest, negotiate the balance, and if you actually are behind or you feel like that's coming, you can go ahead and ask them about their hardship programs. We are being very proactive here. Now, this page is going to be like your final copy log of where you are in the process. It'll just give you like an at a glance look at everyone that you have already called and what type of agreements that you have made with them. So, we're just going to keep this to the side. But when you are actually calling and using this script, you're going to want the scribble pages because you're going to be writing down all kinds of things and you're going to be writing them down really fast. So, let's read the important tips before we call anyone. Okay? You're going to want to be polite and calm. Your tone matters. Use the words temporary and shortterm. And we'll come back to that. Call before missing a payment if possible. Remember to take notes the date, name of the person you're speaking to, the terms that you agree to. Remember that you are not asking for a favor. Hardship programs exist for this exact reason. Give you a little bit of confidence going in there. Maybe I want you to know your numbers. Have your statement with you if you can. Know the balance, the interest rate, your due date, your account number. You want to seem like you've got this together, right? You don't want to go in there blind. Decide the maximum payment that you can truly afford. Call when you are calm and not feeling rushed or emotional. Be sure to pause and let them speak. Silence can actually work in your favor. Do not overshare personal details. That is very important. Don't agree to anything you don't fully understand. If the first rep says no, call back another day. Okay, let's read these red flags to watch for. Verbal promises without written proof, programs that actually increase your balance, pressure to agree immediately, and language that sounds permanent instead of temporary. Now, you might be wondering about that one. So, if you see up here at the top under the important tips, remember that I mentioned using words like temporary and shortterm. And that is because if you use language that sounds permanent instead of temporary, you may have just sent a huge red flag to your creditor and locked yourself into a negative category within their system. And if that happens now, you have reduced the amount of help that they are willing or even allowed to give to you. So do not say things like, "I will never be able to do this," or, "This is just going to be impossible for me." I actually have a video on this coming up, so give me about a week to get that one up. I have a lot more information on that coming up for you guys. Okay? And then after the phone call, what you want to do is set reminders maybe in your phone or on your calendar for your new payment dates. You follow the agreement exactly. Save confirmation emails or letters. Check your statement to make sure that the changes that you agreed to were actually applied.
Okay. And then the next two pages are the script. Now, I'm actually going to put this right here. I don't want to spend the time reading it necessarily for the video. That would take so long. But I'm going to let it sit here for a minute. You can pause the video. You can screenshot it. So that way you have it and you can see exactly what is on both of these sheets. And then hopefully you might make some really good progress when you make all of those calls. You guys, you never know. So, one or two of them may end up being some serious relief for you. Okay.
And the next page, this is you working on your smallest balance debt. So, once you have the $1,000 starter fund, yes, you actually have it. You did that. How could you not, right? I mean, think of all of these behavior changes that you have been making. And this is very important. You are going to continue with all of the things, right? You're still going to be doing a pantry challenge. You're still going to be doing the no spend challenge. You might be selling items using cash. You're going to track your spending. You are still doing all of that. And what you're going to do is all of the cash that you were putting towards your $1,000 emergency fund, now you will put it here. You would write your smallest debt here. and only that one. You're going to write the date of your payment, how much extra you sent, and then your new balance would go here. And you just keep going until it's paid off. Rinse and repeat. Get a new one printed out. Write your second smallest debt and do it again. Okay.
And the next page, once you have your very first debt, the smallest one, it's paid off. Now, you can go ahead and start your debt snowball tracker, you're going to write down whatever your smallest debt was. Let's say it was a Chase credit card, and your minimum payment to that card was $30. There is no rollover. That does not apply yet. The payment is just what it is, right? But now that this is paid off and we are working on our second smallest debt, we're going to write that one in here. And let's say that it's a capital one card. And that minimum payment is $50 a month. But now you have this $30 opened back up, right? You're not paying this anymore. So, you're going to take that $30 as your first rollover, and now you're going to be able to send in a minimum payment of $80 a month to this debt. You've only paid off one debt and you already have extra money for principal payments. What is happening here? So, getting all of these, all of your who do I owe people on this sheet, getting all of these swapped over here, that is your ultimate goal. Okay?
And then next up is the budget and planning section. Now, I have multiple videos on how you can set up your budget. They're step by step. They are linked in the description. Now, obviously, budgeting is a very important part of all of this, but I also realize that not everyone is cut out for budgeting. So, I just posted a video for those of you that see this budget sheet and you hear the word budget and you would just rather die drowning in debt than ever fill that out. I get it. So, that video will help you to get started somewhere and you can start seeing some changes. No budgeting involved. So if you want the written budget, the videos are linked. If you would rather die drowning in debt than do a written budget, watch the video.
Okay. And then is the cash planning sheet. Using cash is the other thing that really helped me get out of debt. And I actually still use cash just for my spending and saving, not like for bills or anything like that. And if you watch my videos, you can see how I do it. I also just posted another video where I go over very quickly. It's very clear on how to get started with the cash method if you're interested in trying it out. It also has some free downloads to get you going. So, I will also put that in the description as well for you guys. But let's just say really quickly that you decide to start using cash for three spending categories. Let's use groceries, takeout, and entertainment as our examples. You would use this to know what denominations to get out in cash from the ATM or at the bank, right? So, let's say that you have given yourself a limit of 350 for the groceries. You're going to do 75 a week for your takeout and you're going to give yourself 50 a week for your entertainment. So, what you could do is get out a $100 bill, 250s, 820s, and 110. So, that would be 100, 200, 340, 350. Takeout, you could do 320s, a 10, and a five. And for entertainment, you could do 220s and a 10. You see where I'm going with that? And here's one of my cash planning sheets. I've been doing this for 4 years, so believe me, I need this. And if you decide to use cash, whether it's for three or 20 categories, this sheet does really help.
Now, the last part is savings challenges. Now, this is another thing that was new to me. I just happened upon these when I was looking online for something new to help me pay off debt. I was so over all the typical stuff of like, yeah, just automate it or pay yourself first. Yeah, gee, thanks for that very enlightening information. So anyway, yeah, I am so glad that I found these. These are lifechanging. They make saving to you real. It's not just automated. You are involved. I love these and I have three of them for you to try in the packet. And each one is very different from the other. This one is a very basic tracker style. It's easy, but it is effective. And once you start coloring these off, you are going to want to keep going. I do suggest doing these in cash. So, back to your cash planning sheet. Let's say as a beginner, you decide like, okay, I'm going to start these and I'm going to commit to $50 a pay period. You would just write down savings challenges, $50. And then when you go to the bank or your ATM, however you're going to do it, you could take out three tens, two fives, and 10 1's. And then you would just distribute that money however you want. You could do one of these at a time. It is totally up to you. So, this one, as I said, is very self-explanatory. This one I really love because it challenges your behavior. How this one works is first you would unfollow anybody that you are following just because you like the items, the clothes, the makeup, whatever it is. You just like what they show you. So, you get rid of those. Get those people out of your life. And then step two, you would also unsubscribe from stores or companies that alert you to sales or when they restock an item. And step three, this is where you are going to save the money instead. You would write down the item that you would have purchased. You would write down how much it is. And then you would make a decision whether or not you want to save 25 or 50% of the cost of that item. And you would write down here how much you are saving. So just think about it. If it's an item that you would have normally purchased, but you have told yourself, "Yeah, I see it. I like it. I want it, but this time I'm going to save it instead." That can be really powerful. So the last one that we have in here, I really like this one. This is called My Words of Affirmation. This one keeps your spirits up. I actually just restarted this one myself. I've completed it multiple times. And how you play this one is you just choose a positive adjective that best describes you. And you would save a dollar per letter and your vowels are worth two. You just write the word here. You count up how many letters and vowels and you save that amount.
And lastly, we have the no spend calendar for 2026. Now, how I use these is I mark the days that I have an oopsie with a red marker. That is anytime that I spend on something that I didn't plan on spending, right? That's an oopsie. And the days that I stay on track, I just do those with a green marker. You can use it like that if you want to. And you don't have to do this all year. You can take months or weeks off, like vacation doesn't count, or maybe you've decided that your birthday doesn't count. When your best friend is in town, that doesn't count. Whatever it is, make this your own. And these pages that I keep skipping over that look like this. These are called envelope inserts. And we use these for the cash method. We're being a little fancy, right? What you do is you cut them out and then you place them in an envelope in a binder and that's where you put the cash that you're saving up. This is tangible. It's in your hands, right? This is not numbers floating around on a screen anymore that are at the mercy of your roller coaster emotions and a quick checkout now button anymore. Is it? Nope.
So, let's see what we have here. Okay. So, here it is. Your complete plan all ready for you to go. No debt. No debt. Get it out of your life. And you guys, when I was in debt, I did not feel confident. I didn't feel disciplined most days. I felt behind. I was embarrassed. And to be honest, I was just so tired of always thinking and stressing over money. You may be surprised by this, but this is not necessarily about willpower. It's about having something to come back to on the hard days. And that's why I did this. So you don't have to remember every step. You don't have to be perfect every day. Just follow the next box, the next prompt, the next page. So today, if all you do is look it over, fill your head with some hope. Fill out one section. That means that you have not given up, and that counts. Progress does not have to be loud to be life-changing. Go ahead and subscribe so this channel can be something that you can come back to as well. I have all of the videos linked below that I think you should watch to bring all of this together for your brain. And obviously, this guide is linked below for you, too. I am working on more debt payoff videos for you guys. I really want to make this process easier for you. Here is that video that I mentioned that will help you get started without necessarily having to budget. and I will see you next.