Free Money Finance hosted the third edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. Of the seven posts in this carnival, one that caught my eye was this one by Chief Family Officer:

5 ways to motivate yourself to get out of debt

Accomplishing anything worthwhile, whether it’s saving money, learning a new skill, losing weight, or getting out of debt, requires a long, steady effort. The long haul can get awfully long with debt reduction, ranging anywhere from a few months to several years. When faced with tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt, a payment of $50 seems like nothing, and the balance hardly budges. CFO came up with these five tips to keep going toward the debt-free prize:

1. Tackle a small debt first
2. Rank your debts, and attack the next one
3. Make extra payments if you get little windfalls
4. Use a payment calculator so that you can see the whole picture, and most importantly, the light at the end of the tunnel
5. Reward yourself along the way

This last part is really important. It doesn’t have to be a big reward. Just something to motivate you. Just like a person on a diet needs to be able to throw back a really good beer once in a while (or eat a banana split, or whatever), a person getting out of debt needs to go see a movie or go out to dinner or something like that after tightening the belt for so long.

So if you’re trying to reduce your debt, look for ways to keep yourself motivated.  It’s not easy, and there’s nothing wrong with getting help anywhere you can to accomplish this very important goal.

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