FLORIDA — There's a dark side that comes with all of the holiday shopping — nearly half of Americans say the holidays will put them deeper in debt, based on a new Debt Hammer study.
Taking Action Reporter Jackie Callaway met with a local debt blogger and counselor who shared an easy, painless way to pay off all those credit card bills sooner rather than later.
Debt counselor and founder of True Money Saver Kati Kiefer will tell you her knowledge of beating down debt comes from trial and error and eventually permanent success. The Kiefers made their last payment on $60,000 in credit card debt in 2019.
Since then, she founded an online debt-busting business where she teaches subscribers the single trick she used to fast-track her family’s way to debt freedom.
Keifer said she figured out the secret sauce while tracking her credit card payments in 2016.
“I noticed that our credit card payments were going down by a teeny tiny bit each month like $1-2 each.”
But instead of paying the new lower minimum on six cards, she continued to pay the original monthly minimum.
“We were starting to get ahead, and then pretty soon, we just put the extra into the next one; we just kept rolling that minimum payment into the next balance," Keifer said.
Had the couple continued to make the lowered minimum payments on all six of their cards, it would have taken 25 years or more to pay them off. Instead, she did it in three years.
“It is life-changing. Like though, to be able to go to sleep at night and not worry that something catastrophic will happen because you've got savings built up.”
Here’s an example of how the plan would work on a $230 credit card balance. If you pay the minimum amount every time it will take 10 months to pay the balance off. But if you make the original minimum payment on the original balance, you will pay it off in four years.
The bottom line, small changes will snowball over time and lead to big wins.
Consumer debt hit a record high of 17 trillion dollars this year. According to Debt Hammer, 33% of Americans are still paying off last year's Christmas bills.
