During my twenties, I accumulated nearly $25,000 in consumer debt. I had a spending problem. With time, I was able to get my spending under control (mostly), but I still owned overwhelming debt. How could I get rid of it?

The personal finance books all suggested the same approach:

  1. Order your debts from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate.
  2. Designate a certain amount of money to pay toward debts each month.
  3. Pay the minimum payment on all debts except the one with the highest interest rate.
  4. Throw every other penny at the debt with the highest interest rate.
  5. When that debt is gone, do not alter the monthly amount used to pay debts, but throw all you can at the debt with the next-highest interest rate.

This made perfect sense. By doing this, I would be paying the minimum amount in interest over the long term. The trouble was, my highest-interest rate debt was also my debt with the biggest balance (a fully-maxed $12,000 credit card at 19.8% interest). I’d plug away at this debt for several months at a time, but then give up because it felt like I was never getting anywhere.

This happened over and over. I’d start and fail. Start and fail.

Then I read about the Debt Snowball method in Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover. The Debt Snowball method is similar to the traditional approach except that instead of attacking high-interest rate debts first, you attack low-balance debts first. Why? Because you’ll get the psychological lift of pinging debts off in rapid succession. And if you’re like me, this makes all the difference. The Debt Snowball approach is:

  1. Order your debts from lowest balance to highest balance.
  2. Designate a certain amount of money to pay toward debts each month.
  3. Pay the minimum payment on all debts except the one with the lowest balance.
  4. Throw every other penny at the debt with the lowest balance.
  5. When that debt is gone, do not alter the monthly amount used to pay debts, but throw all you can at the debt with the next-lowest balance.

(For more on this, including some actual figures, see my entry on two approaches to debt elimination.)

When I read about the Debt Snowball method, I was skeptical. I knew it would cost me more in the long run, at least on paper. But I figured I had nothing to lose. I tried it. In four months I’d paid off most of my debts. I was shocked. I’d been trying and failing for years, and now I was able to make a huge dent in just months? It was all because I had changed my approach just slightly.

Humans are complex psychological creatures. They’re not adding machines. Many of us know what we ought to do but find it difficult to actually make the best choices. If we were adding machines, we wouldn’t accumulate $20,000 in consumer debt in the first place! It’s misguided to tell somebody so deep in debt that they must follow the repayment plan that minimizes interest payments. The important thing to do is to set up a system of positive reinforcement, and that’s exactly what the Debt Snowball method does.

Which method should you choose? Do what works for you. The first method can save you money in the long-run. But if you’ve tried it and failed, give the Debt Snowball method a shot. It might be the answer you’re searching for!

This post was inspired by an entry today at Lifehacker.