This post may contain affiliate links. Please refer to my Disclosure for more information.

How to Stay Motivated When You’re Paying Off Debt & Saving Money

ATM on the outside of a building

When it comes to paying off debt or saving more money, it can be difficult to keep up your motivation. So here I am going to share, how not to sabotage or derail your effort when it comes to paying off debt.

Break Your Debt Goal Down into Smaller Goals

If you are just focusing on working towards paying off your total amount or saving a large amount of money, it can make it hard to stay motivated and keep up your pace to hitting your financial goals. But when you break it down into smaller financial goals, you make it more realistic to achieve and in a more “real” time frame. It feels like you can achieve it because it is a more bite-sized number and the time frame is just around the corner, versus timing that seems far away.

Take your total debt or total amount you want to save and figure out when you would like to have the total amount paid off by or that money saved up by. Then break it down in half and then into a quarter and focus on paying off that smaller amount. Work in 90-day increments, focusing on what you have set as a goal to pay off or save in 90 days.

Example: If you decide you want to pay off $4000 in debt in 90 days, you will be paying $1334 per month.

Example: If you want to save $5000 in 90 days, you will be putting $1667 per month towards your debt.

Celebrate the Little Wins

When you are focusing on the “big” numbers, it makes it hard to feel like you have progressed and therefore, you feel like the hard work that you are putting in, isn’t really moving the needle forward. But when you celebrate along the way, you are giving yourself credit that you deserve.

There are many more things than just paying off or saving a certain amount of money, that deserves celebrating.

It takes time learning and implementing new habits, learning new skills, staying disciplined, overcoming your triggers and building up your willpower and truly deciding on what you really want in your life.

Celebrate non-number wins, just the same as if you were on a weight loss journey. When you are losing weight, the best coaches tell you to celebrate your “non-scale” victories such as your clothes fitting better, you not turning to food when you are stressed, feeling stronger, feeling more confident, etc.

The reason it is so important to celebrate the little things, is because it helps you to feel accomplished, to feel like your effort is in fact getting you closer to your goals, which gives you the internal fuel necessary, to keep staying consistent, to keep being focused and to keep up with the daily habits that you need to implement to get to your goals.

If you want some more tips for getting your debt paid off quicker, download my free “4 Steps to Pay Off Your Debt” E-book, this gives you more in detail, the step by step actions to take, to get your debt paid off much quicker than you currently are right now.

Click here to download my Realistic Budget template!

Non-Number Wins That You Need to Celebrate:

When you are eating out less and making more meals at home
When you don’t feel the need to purchase things that you’ve had a difficult time saying no or not now to, in the past
Communicating more often with your spouse more about money
Consistently tracking your spending
When you detach from something you thought you couldn’t get rid of and realize that you no longer need it, but don’t feel scarce or bitter that you are giving it up
You are weighing whether or not something is worth it to purchase and making more conscious decisions
Noticing positive changes in your money vocabulary, “I choose not to purchase this” versus “I can’t,” not saying “I can’t afford it,” using words that speak of more abundance and what you are accomplishing
Feeling less anxious to open your accounts and statements and see your numbers

Remember Why You Are Wanting to Pay Off Debt

Going back to the underlying reason for ‘why’ you want to pay off your debt, is so important. Paying off debt or saving money just to pay off debt or save money, isn’t enough fuel to keep you motivated on those tough days where you want to just give up. You need something internally that is much deeper than that, that will help to keep you accountable to the process.

A deeper ‘why’ is specific to you, but some examples are:

Wanting to live with less stress & anxiety around money
Having a better relationship with your spouse
Having vibrant energy all throughout the day
Being able to travel the world
The ability to help out family
Being able to start a family
Etc

Have Supportive & Positive People Who Help You to Stay on Track

When you have supportive people who know what you are working towards, makes all the difference. When you let people in on what you are trying to do, it can make it easier for you to say no to things when they might ask. Tell people how important it is that you achieve this goal and it makes it easier when others are pressuring you to do something, that might derail you. Having supportive cheerleaders who are rooting you on, makes you want to stay accountable because you don’t want to let those people down, it helps you to show up more consistently each day to achieve your financial goals of paying off your debt or saving money.

If you don’t have people who are supportive in your life, seek out other accountability. Hiring a financial coach can help you to stay on track with your goals, to help you significantly reduce the amount of time that it takes to reach your goals and to walk you through it step by step.

Click here to download my Realistic Budget template!

If you are at the point where you don’t want to struggle anymore and you want to reduce your overwhelm and anxiety around money, check out my Financial Services that I offer. I work one on one to help individuals and couples manage their specific financial situation and to improve their lives by walking them through HOW to change their financial situation, step by step.

Frequently Asked Questions about Financial Coaching

I am very active on Instagram, follow me here for more financial tips & tricks: http://instagram.com/mandyythomas (@mandyythomas)

If your finances are a constant state of anxiety and stress for you, focus your energy on improving your finances so you are actually able to reduce this stress instead of living the rest of your life with it. If you are struggling with credit card debt, work with a financial coach who will walk you through the step by step actions of getting your credit cards paid off and keeping them paid off.

Other Content You May Find Helpful:

How to Stay Motivated When Paying Off Debt and Saving