Financial Advice
Rich Best has spent 28 years in the financial services industry, as an advisor, a managing partner, directors of training and marketing, and now as a consultant to the industry. Rich has written extensively on a broad range of personal finance topics and is published on several top financial sites. Recent books include The American Family Survival Bible and Annuity Facts Revealed: What You MUST Know Before You Invest.

6 Crazy Ways To Pay Off Debt That You Probably Haven’t Thought Of

6 Crazy Ways To Pay Off Debt That You Probably Haven’t Thought Of

Many things in life drive us crazy – little annoyances or irritants that make us want to scream. They drive us mad because there is nothing we can do to avoid them, outside of living the life of a hermit, but then that would also drive you crazy. Carrying a lot of debt can also drive you crazy, especially when you have tried all the conventional approaches to get out of debt, and nothing seems to work. You feel like the next time you hear someone tell you to “cut out the lattes” or “make more than the minimum payment,” you are going to scream. Not because it is not good advice – it is – but because it is not getting the job done.

Carrying a lot of debt is also crazy, so maybe you need to get crazy in your approach to paying it off. It could not hurt, and it could even be fun. Here are six crazy ways to pay off debt that you have not thought of:

Reduce Your Spending

It is not crazy to reduce your spending – it is just practical. So, why do we include it here? Because you can use an app to help you do it. Cutting down on spending is hard for many people. Too many hard choices to make, and it can take a lot of work to cut down on your expenses. Clarity Money is an app that uses AI to analyze your spending and recommend where you should cut back. It is not a complete budgeting and finance tool like Mint, but it can be your budget conscience when you need it.

Increase Your Income

Again, not such a crazy thing to do. One of the best ways to pay off debt is to earn more money. But you probably did not know about some crazy ways you could do it without a lot of effort.

Watch videos all weekend. It is probably not the healthiest thing to do, but you can pick up some cash just by watching videos. Swagbucks pays you for watching short (5 to 30 minute) videos or using its search engine. Each time you do so, you get “Swagbucks,” which you can redeem for gift cards or PayPal cash. Users say that just 10 to 20 minutes of a day using Swagbucks can add up to some meaningful cash over time. InoxbDollars is another search engine that will pay you to search.

Share your opinion. If you like sharing your opinion, you can get paid for it by opening an account with Ipsos I-Say. The site rewards points for taking five- to 30-minute surveys – the longer the survey, the greater the points. For 1500 points, you can get a prepaid PayPal card. The more surveys you take, the more points you can earn from bonuses. You pick surveys from the I-Say dashboard, or you can receive them by email.

Get cash back for shopping. You can increase your income by getting money back from rebate sites like Ibotta and Rakuten. With Ibotta, you can browse cashback offers from grocery and retail stores in your area. You scan your receipts on the Ibotta app and then receive cash back in your account. When you reach $5 in earnings, you can request payment from PayPal or Venmo.

Rakuten is the site to use for your regular household purchases. When you sign up and make your first purchase, Rakuten will reward you with a $10 Target gift card. For Amazon shoppers, you can earn 5 percent cash back in some categories.

Live Off of Two Paychecks a Month

If you are paid biweekly, you may not realize it, but twice each year, you will receive three paychecks in a month. If you can budget around two paychecks a month for most of the year, you should be able to take those “extra” paychecks and just apply them to your debt. That could make a significant dent in your debt twice a year.

Stop Loaning Money to the IRS

It is just crazy how many people brag about the size of their IRS refund check. Don’t they know that they are just getting their money back after loaning it to the government interest-free? Now, that is crazy. Do not be one of those people. If you got a refund from the IRS last year, you should increase your withholdings to minimize the size of your refund. That will increase the amount you take home each paycheck, which can be used to pay off debt.

Get a Personal Loan

It may sound crazy to use debt to pay off debt, but it may make sense under the right circumstances. If your credit is good enough to qualify for a personal loan with a lower rate than what you are paying on your credit cards, you can accelerate your debt. For example, if your credit card APR is around the national average of 15.59 percent and you can get a personal loan at a rate of 12 percent or below, you will pay less in interest costs over the life of the loan. Your monthly payments may be higher than what you are paying on your credit cards, but you will pay off the balance in less time.

Downsize Your Life

Crazy as it sounds, most people could do without so much stuff in their lives. Our parents and grandparents did fine without many of the things we now take for granted. Here is a list of things to cut down on or eliminate that can raise you hundreds of dollars a month.

Stop going to the gym. There is plenty of free exercise available without it.

Meatless Monday. If you cut out meat just one day a week, you can save $30 to $50 a month. If you want to get really crazy and pay off your debt sooner, become a vegan.

Cut the cord. There are so many ways to access TV and stream videos at a fraction of the cost of cable.

Cut the landline. No one uses a landline anymore. Save yourself another $30 a month.

Cut your cell phone data usage. Stop using your cell phone to access data. Wait until you are near Wi-Fi.

Pack your lunch. The difference between packing your lunches and eating lunch out every day could be about $150 a month

No more lattes. There, we said it. It may be annoying, but 20 lattes a month adds up to more than $1,000 a year. Now that is crazy.

Archive