I was drowning in £31K debt but the snowball method got me out of the red & saved me spending my life chasing repayments
A WOMAN has revealed that she was drowning in repayments, but thanks to a simple method, is now debt free.
Nia Lynn explained that she and her husband found themselves in £31,500 of debt, but used the snowball method, on two occasions, to pay it all off.
She claimed that you’ll need to be disciplined if you want it to work, but for she and her husband, it enabled them to take back control of their money in just six months.
Posting online, Nia said: “How the snowball method got us out of debt within six months (total of $40k+ [£31,500] paid off). This method works with discipline and being 100% real with your financial situation.
“We started our journey when hubby went on deployment for six months back in April 2018. It was the perfect opportunity to take our finances back.
“We were debt free by October 2018 with credit scores touching 780-800 points. [We then] bought our first home in January 2019.
“Everyone’s debt timeline will look different because of your amount of debts, your total income, extra money, and of course discipline.
“However, it definitely works as we’ve used it twice! It even gets you excited as you see debts disappear one by one.”
In a clip posted on social media, Nia went into more detail on the snowball method, as she then explained: “Surprisingly, a lot of you wanted to know how me and my husband got out of debt, so I’m gonna share that with you.
“We actually used this method twice, because the first time we got out of debt, life was immediately lifeing after we did everything we needed to do with buying our first house, 2020 hit and it was just wild.
“We did it again, so it’s foolproof, I know it works, but it only works if you’re disciplined.
“Well, first of all, I’m no financial expert. I’m just telling you what we’ve done from experience and what worked for us.
“You’ve probably heard of it before – it’s called the snowball effect. And basically what you do is you take your smallest size debt, whether that’s a credit card, a loan, whatever is.
“This actually works. Me and my husband have done this twice now. Got us both out of debt.”
Nia Lynn
“It doesn’t matter what the interest rate is on it. You wanna take the smallest debt with the smallest balance.
“You’re gonna take that and you’re gonna pay that one off first. Whatever extra money you can put towards that, do that and pay that loan off first.
“Then once you pay that off, the minimum payment that you owed on that debt, you’re going to keep applying that same minimum amount to your next debt.
“So whatever your minimum was for that small loan, you’re gonna take that minimum payment and you’re going to apply that to your next debt, until it’s gone.
“And then it’s building up like a snowball.”
But Nia stressed that you need to have the right mindset for this to work, as she continued: “The only way that this actually works is if you’re disciplined.
“You are putting that money towards your next big debt and you’re gonna add that on top of the minimum payment that you’re already making to that second debt. You’re just gonna keep going until you get to your biggest debt.
You gotta stay disciplined. You have to train your mind to understand that you are not having extra money.”
Nia Lynn
“This actually works. Me and my husband have done this twice now. Got us both out of debt. We bought two homes.
“It raised both of our credit scores and that’s coming from a credit score that was trashed. It works, this is from experience.”
She then advised: “Look up the snowball effect if you want more in-depth information, but that’s the gist of it. Just take the lowest amount of debt that you have and keep paying it off and keep adding that minimum payment to your next big payments, until you’re 100% out of debt.
“So that’s how we did it. You gotta stay disciplined. You have to train your mind to understand that you are not having extra money – you’re having extra money to put towards another debt, not extra money to keep yourself in debt.
“So, yeah, I hope that helps for everybody that was interested in it.”
The TikTok clip, which was posted under the username @thenialynn, a week ago, has clearly left many open-mouthed, as it has quickly amassed 14,600 views.
One person said: “This is the best explanation I’ve heard. Also, learning to be patient on top of being disciplined.”
In response, Nia replied: “Learning the patience is the hardest. What helped me was my end goal. The closer I got, the easier it got!”
Meanwhile, another added: “Wow this is so helpful. Thank you!”
Whilst a third commented: “Girl where have you been all my adult life lol! This is the info I definitely needed to find out about.”
To this, Nia claimed: “It’s never too late to start and the process gets so much easier as the motivation grows!!”
At the same time, another user admitted: “This is so helpful and it motivated us to keep going cause we KNEW we were making a dent.”
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