Paying off debt takes patience, persistence, and a whole lot of motivation. This is especially true if you have a large amount of debt! A debt free vision board can help you stay focused on your ultimate goal of financial freedom.
It’s important to constantly remind yourself of the reasons you want to be debt free.
Related: How to Stay Motivated when Paying Off Debt
If you have a long debt free journey ahead of you, it will be difficult to ignore everything around you. Your Facebook friends will still be going on fun vacations, out to yummy dinners, and buying new cars and houses. You have to put on the blinders, practice contentment, and just keep swimming!
Delaying the instant gratification of “stuff” now, will be totally worth it later. I promise!
You will get to do ALL the fun things, and MORE once you are debt free.
How can we keep stay focused during the long road ahead?
This can easily be done by with a debt free vision board.
How to Make a Debt Free Vision Board in 4 Simple Steps
Discover your “Why”
Ask yourself some deep questions, or have a meeting with your spouse or accountability partner.
Why do you want to get out of debt?
Less stress and more money are the obvious answers, but what will getting out of debt actually do for your life and your family?
Will you be able to travel somewhere really cool? Quit the job you hate? Provide your kids with a college fund so they don’t end up in debt like you?
Becoming debt free has some serious perks. What does it mean for you?
Set Goals
Now that you know why you want to get out of debt, we need a SPECIFIC roadmap for how we are going to get there.
You can’t just say you want to get out of debt “someday“.
Write down all of your debt and divide it by 12 months.
That’s how much you would need to pay each month to get out of debt in a year.
If it’s just not doable with the amount of debt you have and your income, then try 2 years or 3.
Still can’t make the numbers work? Maybe a cool side hustle or job upgrade is in your future.
Revisit your budget, is there anything you can cut back on? I bet there is!
If all of this sounds like something you don’t want to do, look back at your “why” and see if that inspires you to sacrifice a little bit now for big rewards later!
Related:
Make a “fun” wish list
Make a list of everything you want to do once you are finally debt free.
Find photos of the fun places you will travel, the house you will buy, the kitchen you will remodel, and the charity you will support.
Imagine all of the things you could do with your income, if you were free from debt payments.
Related: How to Pay Off Debt Fast
Find images and quotes that inspire you:
Put it all together on a poster board, a Pinterest board, or a make a fun graphic that you can save on your phone and glance at all the time.
Revisit your debt free vision board every time you start to doubt yourself.
Remember why you are doing this. It’s so you can do all of those amazing things!
Achieving financial freedom is not an easy road. Stay focused and frugal and you will get there!
great stuff Shannon– I’m inspired to try out ideas from a fellow Cairns. 🙂
cheers,
Janie Cairns Basile
Author
haha! How fun!! Thanks!!