Debt Payoff Champions

This article is an older one, and I have to thank Jason for sending it to me! Liz Pulliam Weston (from MSN fame) shares some stories about individuals paying off big debts quickly.

The Gordons, for example, retired a $150,000 mortgage in just five years, and Cards is on track to own his home free and clear later this year.

Wilkinson eliminated half of her debt in a year.

Thompson paid off $8,000 in just nine months. Both she and Klein, a single working mother who also goes to school full time, expect to have their debts paid off next year.

[Via MSN.com]

How did they do it?

1.) Debt payoff became a priority.
2.) Reduced their expenses as low as possible.
3.) Looked for ways to speed up their debt replayment (extra income).

Check out the article to read more about these individuals and how they paid off their debt quickly and became debt payoff champions.

Posted by Tricia on December 10, 2007 at 10:12 PM in General Debt | 8 Comments »
You can leave a response or trackback from your site.

Newer Posts Older Posts

Fellowes responded:
Posted: December 11th, 2007 at 9:32 am
I have absolutely followed the advice regarding the lowering of expenses. I finally turned in my leased car–albeit early–and am now living a car-free life. I will probably save a net of $500 per momth including gas, car payment and insurance net of any Flexcar or rental car usage. It is truly amazing how much of a ‘money pit’ my car truly was.
Debt Help responded:
Posted: December 11th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Paying debt and making debt repayment as the priority is usually easier said than done.. Unfortunately, for most of us, we cannot prioritize paying off the debts because of family expenses that cannot be lowered no matter what… Especially with today’s economy, the salaries are low but the prices are at their all time high
JW Thornhill responded:
Posted: December 11th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
That is just the inspiration I needed! Thanks
Joseph Sangl responded:
Posted: December 11th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
My wife and I have been attacking the home mortgage! With God’s help we will have the mortgage paid off in less than 3 years!!!

It CAN be done!
Rob in Madrid responded:
Posted: December 12th, 2007 at 1:18 am
I’m always amazed at people who are able to do that, lowering your expenses is a tough challenge at the best of times. The problem is the Gap as Trent calls it, the difference between you income and expenses. the smaller it is the harder it is to pay off debt. My sister in law is struggling with this, inspite of working almost 70 hour weeks shes really struggling with trying to get the debts paid down. I’m actually not sure she’ll be able to do it, I figure in a year or two they will be forced by circumstances to downsize.

Biggest thing I’d like to know is how some of this people were able to reduce their expenses so much. As JW and others mentioned when you have kids, house cars medical expenses it can be really hard to cut costs.
Ryan S. responded:
Posted: December 12th, 2007 at 2:12 am
Wow, that’s a wild rate of debt payoff. That just totally wows me.
cellie responded:
Posted: December 12th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
When I was in college it was too hard to reduce expenses, but what I did was to read everything and do what I could until I could do better. When I did start working, since I had been reading so much, I knew exactly what to do to start digging out of the hole – and like you said debt became a priority.
Justin responded:
Posted: December 12th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
That’s amazing.. I’ve been talking with a lot of people that are facing problems with their ARM resets now and are facing much higher home loan payments each month. Unfortunately, sometimes it becomes literally impossible for them to get out of debt without outside help. I’m always encouraged by these stories though – getting out of that much debt is definitely impressive!