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The journey out of debt can be a long one. And it’s easy to get discouraged along the way, especially if progress is slow.
The good news is that there are lots of simple techniques you can incorporate into your life to motivate yourself and keep yourself accountable.
Try some of our tips below to create set yourself up for success and on the fast track to debt freedom.
5 motivational techniques for sticking to your debt repayments
1. Reframe progress
Slowly chipping away at a mountain of debt can make it feel like you're not making much progress.
But every penny you pay towards your debt is a step in the right direction. The trick here is to find ways of visualising and celebrating your progress.
This could include:
- Viewing your repayments in a cumulative graph (Unbury.me is a good tool for this).
- Keeping a tally chart of your repayments on your fridge door.
- Making a checklist and ticking off your debts as your clear them.
- Breaking the figure(s) down into smaller chunks such as 10%, 20% and so on.
Being able to see your progress visually will give you a great feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.
It also helps to reframe the way you think about debt repayments. Try and view them like you’re giving your future self a gift — the gift of being debt-free.
Your future self will gain financially (by paying less in any interest and being able to direct your money towards other things) as well as mentally (you won't have the burden of debt constantly hanging over you).
2. Make being debt-free a part of your identity
This is a kind of 'change your thoughts, change your life' technique. We are what we think: our thoughts create our choices, our choices become our behaviour, and our behaviour forms our identity.
Sometimes, changing your mindset really can be as simple as deciding to think a certain way. This is exemplified well in the famous study which asked people who were trying to quit smoking to reply to the offer of a cigarette with a phrase such as "I'm not a smoker", rather than something like "I'm trying to quit".
This also works in the context of emerging from debt. Simply flipping your perspective can have a huge impact — think about the difference between "I'm on my way to being debt-free" and "I still have a lot of debt to repay".
Coming at it from a glass-half-full angle can do wonders for your mindset, and give you an added boost of motivation.
3. Automate the process
You want to remove as many obstacles between your current financial situation and debt freedom process as possible. Making use of digital tools and automating the process can take loads of the faff out of debt repayments and make it a seamless experience.
Many debt collection agencies offer scheduled payments, monthly payment plans and direct debit, all of which come out of your account automatically.
A great way to stay on top of your finances is to use budgeting apps. Some of our favourites include:
Many budgeting apps use Open Banking to link up all your bank accounts and automatically analyse your spending habits, making it easy for you to identify areas where you can make changes.
4. Include buffers
People often take an all-or-nothing approach to behaviour change. Either they adopt a new habit of going to the gym every morning or they don’t. And when they miss a few days, it's easy to throw in the towel altogether.
Interestingly though, flexible habits have been found to be much more sustainable. A person who goes to the gym in the evening when they can't make it that morning is much less likely to give up altogether.
When we build flexibility into our habits, we're less likely to give it all up when things don't go quite as planned.
When it comes to repaying debt, it's a wise idea to include buffers so that you don't end up berating yourself if you miss targets.
One way of doing this could be setting a day in the week for you to get on top of your finances. That could mean reassessing your budget, making a repayment or coming up with an action plan to reach your next goal. If you put aside, say, an hour on Monday morning, then even if you end up missing it you still have the rest of the week to make up before the next Monday.
5. Remind yourself of your purpose
The need for purpose is one of the defining characteristics of being human.
Having a purpose makes life less difficult, less complicated and less stressful. It means that we don't get so hung up on the small things and can instead focus on the bigger picture.
There are loads of great reasons to pay off your debts, including having more financial security, more money to spend on things you enjoy without the added guilt, lower stress levels and a better credit score, to name just a few.
You might have a reason for clearing your debts that really resonates with you. It might be useful to turn this into a simple phrase that you can write down or say to yourself if you start to lose hope. This will give you an added sense of purpose and help to remind yourself of the reason you're on this journey.
Remember that if you're really struggling you're not alone and there is lots of help out there. You may wish to seek free financial support from StepChange or Citizens Advice, or look into mental health charities such as Mind.
