4 Ways to Pay Down Your Debt Faster in 2023

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If you owe money, you may want to read this.  

Being in debt can be expensive and annoying. You’ll be stuck paying financing charges to creditors, which is money you can’t use for stuff that’s more fun. And the fact you have to keep making payments every month for months or even years to come can be a huge hassle — especially if you’re paying back debt for vacations long over or stuff you no longer use.

Whether you owe money to credit cards, personal loans, or other lenders, there are steps you can take to make payoff faster and easier. In fact, if you want to make a bigger dent in your debt in 2023, these techniques can help you make that happen.

1. Get mad at your debt

It may seem like strange advice, but try to work up some anger at the fact you have this debt that’s holding you back from other things. If you get yourself angry at paying all of these financing charges, this can be a great motivator to get really serious about debt payback.

After all, if you feel like you’re sticking it to your creditors every time you send in a big extra payment and cost them a little bit of interest, you’re going to be much more motivated to make the sacrifices necessary to do that.

If you can funnel your anger at the wasted funds into action and make it feel like a huge victory every time you deprive your creditor of interest charges, you will make a lot more progress on your debt sooner than you expected.

In fact, you may just find yourself excited to skip a meal out or cut back on entertainment expenses just so you can deprive MasterCard of those precious extra dollars it was hoping to make from you.

2. Refinance your loans

Reducing the financing charges that you have to pay is another great way to pay down your debt quicker. Every single dollar of interest you can save is more money that goes toward paying your loan balance off faster.

If you have high-interest debt, getting a personal loan at a lower rate and using the loan proceeds to pay off your costlier loans is going to make your life a lot easier. You’ll have one new loan at a more favorable rate that you can focus on paying back.

3. Treat debt payoff like a job

You wouldn’t go into work without a plan for how to do your job effectively, so don’t try to get your debt paid off without being serious about how you approach the task.

You can research different payoff techniques, such as the debt snowball versus debt avalanche and decide which approach works best for you.

You can also make a commitment to do at least something each day to try to pay off your balance — whether that’s looking into refinancing, cutting a coupon to save some cash on groceries that you can then divert toward your debt, or making a big batch meal to slash your grocery costs and redirect that money to loan paydown.

4. Consider bringing in some extra income

Finally, earning more money and putting it directly toward your loans could make a huge difference in how quickly you become debt-free. The more extra cash you can earn, the more quickly and easily you can eliminate your credit balance.

Give as many of these four techniques a try as you can and you should end 2023 owing a whole lot less than when you started the year.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Christy Bieber has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Avalanche and Mastercard. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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