Today I’m launching DebtWise - a tool I built to help you become debt-free faster.

And I’m giving free, lifetime access to the first 20 people who use coupon code “DEBTFREE” at checkout:

If all “DEBTFREE” codes have already been claimed, you can use code “LAUNCH” for 30% off (valid through Friday, 5/16).

How Will DebtWise Help Me?

I built DebtWise to automate the systems I used to pay off $50k of debt. With DebtWise, you can:

• Build a budget to understand how much you’re really spending/saving

• Understand exactly when you’ll be debt-free

• Figure out how to get there faster

Still not sure? That’s alright - I also have a completely free spreadsheet template that you can use to get started on your debt-free journey. Grab it at the bottom of our home page. 

How Can I Become Debt-Free?

Here’s the exact steps I took to eliminate $50k of debt (mostly adapted from Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps), and what I would suggest as a good starting point:

1. Build a budget to understand how much you can reasonably spend and save each month

Use DebtWise or my starter spreadsheet to build your budget. Comb through your bank statements and record ALL your spending for the last month (or the last few months, ideally), for various categories like groceries, utilities, etc. so you have a benchmark of your average spending.

Building a budget can be tedious, but it really helps you understand where your money’s going, which is essential to start taking your personal finances seriously. The results might surprise you.

2. Save a starter emergency fund of $1,000-$3,000

Save enough to cover any minor emergencies, like you suddenly need all new tires or have to fix something in the house. Obviously if you have more responsibilities (house, kids, etc.) you might want to stick to the higher end of the emergency fund, while others with minimal responsibilities could probably get away with less.

Now at this point, I took everything in my savings (aside from this starter emergency fund) and put all of it towards my debt. I was a bit hesitant to do this honestly, but my goal was to become debt-free. What good was my money doing sitting in a savings account? It made the most sense to put it towards my debt to ultimately save money on interest and speed up my debt-free timeline.

3. Pay off all non-mortgage debt with the debt snowball method

Now that you made a budget, you should know how much you can afford to put towards your loans. Ideally, you may have found some extra cash to speed up the process. To start the debt snowball method:

• Order your debts by size (ex. $5k credit card, $10k car loan, $20k student loans)

• Put everything you can towards the smallest loan, while paying minimums on the others

• Once the smallest loan is paid off, roll all the money from that loan payment into the next smallest loan (this creates the snowball effect)

• Repeat this process until all debts are eliminated!

After your debt is all paid off, Dave’s 7 Baby Steps recommend saving a full 3-6 month emergency fund, investing for retirement, paying off the house early etc.

But DebtWise is focused on getting you through the hard part, which is becoming debt-free. Hopefully I’ve laid out a clear, actionable plan for you to get started, based on what worked for me.

If you end up trying DebtWise, I would LOVE to get your feedback - I want to make it better and more useful so we can help more people become debt-free. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] to let me know how I can make DebtWise better for you!

*Please consult with a financial advisor to build a plan that works for you - this is just what I personally did to pay off my debt, and might not be the best option for you depending on your circumstances.