Hacks For Paying Debt Off Cheaper/Faster

[Patrick Q.]

Hello all,

Reaching out to see if anybody has any hacks for getting credit card debt paid down/off, sooner/cheaper.

The debt was planned/strategic to get me into my first houshack (and has worked).

I have a plan to pay it off fairly expeditiously.

The current plan is to use the debt avalanche method.

I am thinking that some sort of personal loan could help reduce the interest rate on the debt and provided there are no prepayment penalties on it it will allow me to get the debt paid off quicker with less interest costs.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how one would go about getting the best rate and terms for a personal loan such as the one I mentioned above?

Ultimately I am looking to throw everything I have at this to get the debt gone so that I can move on to other financial plans.

I would love to hear about any other advice or tips that you guys may have.

I would appreciate it if this post is not used for pitching services to me.

Regards,

P. Quaid.

[Joe Splitrock]

I have to say the term "debt avalanche" is really a bad term to describe a strategy. An avalanche crushes everything in it's path. 

There is only two ways to pay off debt faster. Increase income or decrease expenses. A personal loan may reduce the speed at which debt interest accumulates, but will have not by itself pay off debt faster. 

My suggestion is pick up a side hustle. You could be driving for a ride share or grocery delivery services within a few days. You could add a couple hundred dollars income every month with minimal effort. Most people watch Netflix a couple hours a day, so giving up one leisure activity for a few months would give you enough time to knock this debt out. 

Let's call it the "income avalanche" method.