Here are some tips to help guide you in paying off your debt.

Education Goals

  • Calculate Your Debt
  • Organize Your Important Records
  • Reduce Your Spending
  • Increase Your Earnings
  • Have a Strategy
  • Track Your Progress
  • Give Yourself Credit
  • Seek Help

3.0: Education Goals by Hellen Lovato

Calculate Your Debt

Do you know how much debt you have accumulated?
How much in interest are you losing monthly?

Make a list of everything you owe. Add up all your credit card balances, personal loans, student loans, and your mortgage.

Visit: annualcreditreport.com to order your annual credit report, it’s free once a year.

Pull up or print out every transaction you’ve made in the last 3 months. Printing it out will make the situation more real, hence a lot harder to ignore.

You can use an online tool or phone app, or our wonderful Debt Tracker at the bottom of this page to help you track your debt.


Week 3.1: Calculate Your Debt by Hellen Lovato

Organize Your Important Records

Organizing your records will help you improve your financial life. Having your records in a secure place and at reach will make it easy to access documents when needed.

Here’s a checklist that it can be useful to follow.

Legal Identification Documents

  • Social Security cards

  • Birth certificates

  • Adoption papers

  • Marriage licenses

  • Passports


Week 3.2: Organize Your Important Rcords by Hellen Lovato

Tax Documents

  • Vehicle registration and

  • Titles

  • Mortgage statements, deeds and bills of sale

  • Insurance policies (home, auto, personal property, etc.) 

Medical Records

  • Wills, powers of attorney/living will

  • Medical bills

  • Burial instructions

  • Health insurance policies

Property Records

  • Tax returns

  • W-2s and 1099 forms

  • Any tax-related forms, receipts and records

Finance Records

  • Pay stubs

  • Canceled checks

  • Disability or unemployment records

  • Retirement/pension plan records

  • Investment statements

  • 401k

You don’t need anything fancy to store your important documents, an accordion folder will do. Make sure it is in a easy to access, safe,water proof, and fire proof area.

Reduce Your Spending

Stick to your budget, and reduce your spending!
You’d be supprised how much money you can find by changing some habits or calling your providers to get a better rate.
Check out this article from NerdWallet on: How to Lower Your Bills: 38 Ways to Save

Meal Planning

We spend a good chunk of our money on groceries. Meal planning will help you save so much money, take the stress out of figuring out what to cook and more importantly stick to your budget.

  • Make time to make a meal plan before the week begins, consult your budget.

  • Look for coupons and sale items

  • Look for easy and quick recipes

  • Shop your pantry, fridge, and freezer

  • Make a grocery list based on your meal plan

  • You’re now ready to go shopping


Week 3.3 Reduce Your Spending by Hellen Lovato

Stock upon staples!

Pasta, rice, canned goods whenever they’re on sale!

Left Overs

Don’t forget your leftovers! Store them in containers that are portioned for a meal, it will make it easier to just grab pop in the microwave, and eat.

Increase Your Earnings

Have a garage sale, use Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or ThreadUp to help you sell the things you no longer need or want. There are a multitude of avenues to sell your items in the 21st century. 

Feed Your Financial Brain

Learn, learn, learn. Never stop feeding your financial brain. Sharpen your skills or develop new ones that you can turn into a side hustle.

Your side hustle doesn’t have to be a literal application of your skills.

If you’re great at organizing you don’t have to start an organizing company!
You can start by something as small as creating a digital checklist, outline, or template that helps people organize, and sell that.

  • Watch videos geared towards your money goals.

  • Listen to podcasts about finances.

  • Read a personal financial book once in awhile.

  • Watch a show about personal finances.


Week 3.4: Increase Your Earnings by Hellen Lovato

Have a Strategy

To get out of debt, we need a good payment strategy. Two of the most popular methods are the Snowball and the Avalanche Method.


Week 3.5: Have a Strategy by Hellen Lovato

What is the best strategy?

Choose a strategy that YOU can stick to.

Track Your Progress

Don’t hesitate to use our helpful trackers at the bottom of the page!

Remember your tribe!

An accountability partner can help you measure your progress as you work towards your goals. Your tribe helps you honestly evaluate your progress.

Make sure you:

  • Meet on a regular basis
  • Communicate with each other frequently
  • Offer each other support for difficult situations
  • Rely on each other for similar help and counsel

Week 3.6: Track Your Progress by Hellen Lovato

Give Yourself Credit

Don’t forget to celebrate every milestone no matter how big or small.
Keep in mind that your celebration should not create additional financial burdens on you.

Seek Help

Use our Fianancial Wellness Program. The District’s 403b partners such as;

Suncoast, Credit Union, and Debt Management Credit Counseling Corp. are here to help Pasco School employees. Wether you need help with debt management or want to be more financially literate. 

Use our Wellness Program
If money is a cause of stress at the moment don’t hesitate to utilize our Employee Assistance Program

Pasco.k12.fl.us/EAP

EAP services include counseling and referral for personal or work-related issues, health coaching, legal and financial consultation, and a wealth of online resources.


Week 3.7: Seek Help by Hellen Lovato

You can also visit

Take a stress assessment and view tools to tackle personal and professional stress with the stress toolkit.

Company code is: Pasco

 

This information is meant for educational purposes only and is not intended as financial advice.

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More Financial Wellness Resources & Tools For Debt Elimination