When will it come together

Q & A

When Will It Come Together?

Hi Gail! After watching your show many, many times. I finally got my husband on board to doing the monthly budget. We've been doing it for 2 weeks now, and it's going pretty well. Not to say that it isn't hard, but it's the first time in almost a year that our bank account hasn't been in overdraft!!! We are putting a little more towards debt re-payment and living solely off of the cash in our jars, but we are still just making it every month. I was wondering if you had a time frame for when we actually start feeling like we're accomplishing something? I know everyone's circumstances are different so you can't give a definite answer, but does it start to come together after 1 month, 6 months, a year...? We have about 40K in debt and are living off of one income of about 56k a year, if that helps at all.

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What a good question. And I bet it’s one lots of people have. But I don’t really have an answer for you since it depends on how fast you’re paying off the debt and when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If you have $40K in debt and you want to have it paid off in three years or less, then you’d have to make monthly payments toward your debt of about $1200 a month. Based on your current income, I bet you’re no where close, which is why you may not feel like you’re making progress.

You may have to cut back a little more, or find a way to earn some extra money to ratchet up that debt repayment so you don’t feel like it’s a never-ending journey.

Good luck.