Debt isn’t just a pain from a financial perspective, it can have a serious impact on your mood and emotional wellbeing too. The more time you spend struggling with debt, the harder it is to reach your personal financial goals and accomplish important things in your life. Unfortunately, finding ways to pay debt off quickly isn’t always easy. In an ideal world, we’d all be able to live completely debt free. However, the reality is that most of us will need to borrow money at one point or another to pay for education, business investments, or even a new home. Here are some quick tips that will help you to get out of debt. 

Refinancing your loans won’t always make sense, for instance, there’s no point in switching to another loan if you’ve only been in your 2-year fixed loan for a year, as the chances are that you’ll need to pay high fees for the switch. However, for long-term loans, like student lending and mortgages, times will arise when refinancing makes good sense. For instance, if you’re wondering why some would refinance education debt, the most common reason is that their credit rating and standing has improved since they borrowed the money. A better credit rating can make it much easier to get the right deal on your loan. 

A lot of us look at loans as drains on our income. Every month, a chunk of the money that we earn goes to another company, never to be seen again. It’s no surprise that many of us don’t like spending more than we need to on our loans. However, paying above the minimum could be a good idea if you can afford it. While you might prefer to put the extra cash you earned from your Christmas bonus towards a treat for you and your family, using it to pay off more of your loan instead can reduce your payments, and get you into a loan-free situation a lot faster. 

Finally, one of the easiest ways to pay off your loans as quickly as possible, is to make banishing your debt your ultimate financial goal. This means going through your budget and looking for places where you can slash your payments in other areas to dedicate more money towards your loan repayments. For instance, you might be able to switch your car insurance provider to a different brand and reduce some of your costs there. Consider speaking to your energy provider about the different deals that you can get too. 

At the same time, remember that paying off your debts fast is going to mean compromising from time to time too. You’re going to need to cut down on the number of fancy coffees you get on your way to work each morning. You may also need to reduce the number of times that you eat out with friends and family. It won’t be fun, but it will pay off in the long-term.