Living Debt-Free

Book excerpt: Get rid of your debt without giving up your life No one wants to be in debt. But life happens and if you’ve got debt, life has happened to you. Whether you have a rolling balance of $2,000 on your credit card or an $80,000 line of credit you are positive you will carry to your grave, debt can be a huge cause of stress—affecting both your emotional and financial wellness. After working with thousands of financial planning clients, Shannon Lee Simmons knows that your only way out of the debt cycle is to truly understand all of your spending triggers so you can shut them down for good. In Living Debt-Free, she shows you that it is possible to have a life and pay down debt at the same time. In fact, that’s the only way your debt plan will work. You will learn to take control of your finances and pay down your debt in a realistic way that will keep you motivated long enough to see it through to the end. No shame. No blame. No scare tactics. In Living Debt-Free, Simmons focuses on creating a debt repayment plan that will motivate you for a long time, rather than an unrealistic one that’s strictly about paying the least amount of interest charges. (Collective gasp—how dare she!?) Listen, everyone knows that paying interest on debt is bad and to be avoided as much as possible, but human beings are complex. Life is complex. Debt is complex. There cannot be a one-size-fits-all plan, so Living Debt-Free will help you build your plan—the one that will help you finally put the debt behind you, start fresh and feel good about your money again.