engagement

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Incenter Diligence Solutions, a provider of due diligence and document management services for the mortgage industry, announced on Wednesday that it has expanded offerings for the mortgage servicing rights (MSR) trading market.

These new offerings complement the trading services provided by Incenter Mortgage Advisors, which is another member of the Incenter LLC family of companies focused on improving mortgage operations.

“In an active trading market, participants must be able to quickly identify and manage their short-term and long-term risks so that they can transfer assets with agility and seize new revenue opportunities,” said Pamela Hamrick, president of Incenter Diligence Solutions. “Incenter Diligence is streamlining obstacle-ridden diligence processes without making them cookie-cutter. We are customizing each engagement to address the unique goals, strategies, and best-execution practices of every client.”

Incenter Diligence’s due diligence team creates a tailored review scope for each buyer or seller based on factors such as seasoning, geography, performance, and other key portfolio attributes. The firm also offers individualized reporting and document delivery services.

These services encompass various MSR-related tasks, including acquisition reviews, data to document validation, compliance reviews, document inventory, trailing document reconciliation, servicing boarding audits, and pay history reviews.

In situations where loan servicing institutions are selling the servicing rights to thousands of loans at once, it becomes crucial to identify any potential issues that could affect the long-term collectability of these assets. Incenter Diligence addresses this need through its document management solutions, which involve scanning and automated data extraction using advanced technology.

This process allows for the rapid ingestion of all loan files, scraping critical data from the documents, and identifying discrepancies and omissions.

“Buyers and sellers need a diligence firm that can customize reporting in a timely manner. Sellers also benefit from a system for maintaining data consistency to ensure that they have all the elements regulators require—for CCAR purposes, for example. Our clients consider Incenter Diligence an invaluable partner in both these areas,” Tom Piercy, managing director of Incenter Mortgage Advisors, said.

Additionally, Incenter Diligence aims to enhance sellers’ visibility into their assets by transforming “information blobs” that contain hundreds of pages of variously formatted loan documents into one clearly indexed, easy-to-search resource in a single format.

Incenter Diligence Solutions provides due diligence and document management services for the mortgage industry, enabling originators and investors to streamline operations, reduce risks, and capitalize on growth opportunities with speed and agility. The firm specializes in supporting the MSR trading ecosystem and tailors its review scope and document delivery services to clients’ unique requirements.

This content was generated using AI, and was edited and fact-checked by HousingWire’s editors.

Source: housingwire.com

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When I worked in management consulting, one of my responsibilities was to help my company figure out ways to make money while we slept. As a consulting business, our revenue stream came from selling the hours of the people who worked at our company. But to grow our margins, we knew we had to scale our time. This is where I first learned about passive income — the Holy Grail of the business world.

Now that I’m in my 30s, I think a lot about how to direct my active streams of income into passive income opportunities. Here are some things I’ve learned about active and passive income in my wealth-building journey.

What’s Ahead:

What Is Active Income?

Active income is earned by trading your time for money. Most people at the beginning of their careers are focused solely on earning active income to make a living.

What Is Passive Income?

Passive income is earned from income-producing assets. Someone who has passive income is not trading their time for money. Instead, the assets they own produce income without much involvement from the owner of the asset.

With the rise of financial influencers and the FIRE movement, finding ways to earn passive income has become a popular topic in the personal finance community.

Is Any Income Truly ‘Passive’?

The idea of earning truly passive income sounds amazing, right? But what’s often not discussed about passive income is that unless you inherit passive income-producing assets, creating passive income streams actually requires a substantial amount of active work.

Famous American entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has gone as far as to say that truly passive income doesn’t exist outside of passive public market investing and rental income.

I tend to agree with Gary that the term ‘passive’ income is something of a misnomer. Creating passive income is never truly passive; there is no free lunch when it comes to financial mobility!

But thinking of income in active and passive terms might nonetheless have some benefits for those who are assessing their current financial status and crafting their wealth-building strategy. For that reason, I’ll break down the broad differences between active and passive income streams, as well as the most prominent ways to generate active or passive income.

Pros & Cons of Active Income

Pros

  • Allows you to develop a specific skill or expertise consistently
  • May provide social interaction and camaraderie associated with a traditional worksite

Cons

  • Trades time for money
  • Takes time away from doing other things
  • Cannot scale income potential beyond time constraints
  • Can be taxed at high rates

Pros & Cons of Passive Income

Pros

  • Generates money while sleeping, vacationing, etc.
  • Frees up more time for recreational activities
  • Subject to potential tax deductions
  • Scales income potential beyond time constraints
  • Does not require physical presence at a work site

Cons

  • Often requires you to create active income first
  • Usually harder to create than active income

Types of Active Income

Salary and Wages

The most basic and obvious form of active income is the salary that you earn from a typical job. A salary is a fixed amount received for working a regular schedule like 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. While a salary is a consistent form of active income, it can be taken away at a moment’s notice due to layoffs or downsizing. Most people earn their living from this type of income.

Bonuses and Commissions

Bonuses and commissions are other forms of active income. This type of income is not fixed and can vary dramatically based on the type of work performed. Many jobs can have a bonus or commission element added to a base salary, while other jobs can be 100% commission based.

Real estate agents, commercial real estate sales professionals, and other types of salespeople tend to fall into this income category. 100% commission-based jobs tend to have higher earning potential compared to salaried positions. However, they are also highly competitive, and their profitability is subject to ups and downs based on the economy, seasonality, and other factors.

Read more: How to Become a Real Estate Agent

Consulting and Freelancing

Freelancing and consulting fees are other types of active income that can either make up 100% of one’s income or serve as a side hustle. Those with valuable skills in high demand are often able to build side businesses, selling their time for specific short-term projects or long-term contracts. As of August 2021, there are 57 million freelancers working in the U.S., with 10 million more considering freelancing.

Looking ahead, more and more businesses are noting they’re willing to hire freelancers to support their mission, growth, and revenue.

Being a freelancer or consultant requires an entrepreneurial spirit, as this type of work can be very inconsistent and requires building a strong brand/reputation. Some of the most popular types of freelance work include graphic design, software development, copywriting, and photography.

Read more: 35+ Side Hustle Ideas

Equity Compensation

Equity compensation is a type of bonus that is given out at public or private companies to senior individuals or particularly valuable employees. Different types of equity compensation include straight shares, stock options, and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).

It’s not uncommon for equity compensation to make up most of an individual’s income. For example, in 2020, 85% of an average CEO’s income was stock-related compensation.

Capital Gains

Buying and selling certain types of assets, like stocks and real estate, can generate capital gains if the asset’s sale price was higher than its original purchase price. For example, you might buy shares in a company while its stock price is low and then sell those shares later after the stock’s price has increased. The difference between the price you paid and the price you sold at is a capital gain.

Generating capital gains as a means of consistent income requires a significant amount of work, expertise, and risk-taking. Capital gains also have different tax treatments depending on how and when they are generated.

Read more: Claiming Capital Gains and Losses

Renting Out Property

Listing your property on sites like Airbnb can help you earn active income. While listing your property for rent may not require a significant investment of time and energy upfront, it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it income source.

Actively managing your listings, communicating with renters, and maintaining your property certainly requires active effort (unless you have a property manager).

Old Goods and Furniture Flipping

I’ve seen lots of people recently on TikTok and Instagram building side businesses by taking old or broken furniture, refurbishing it, and selling it for a profit. If you are handy and have an eye for design, this can be a great way of making active income given the low startup costs.

In addition to making money from selling the furniture, after you’ve built an audience you can sign brand partners and feature their products on your social media pages to generate even more income. Lastly, this type of business is a great way to help recycle old products that would have otherwise been thrown out.

Types of Passive Income

Interest and Dividends

Interest from your savings can be generated from high-yield savings accounts or by investing in CDs or bonds.

Dividends are paid to the shareholders of public companies. Not all companies pay dividends and the amount of dividends paid varies significantly. While earning dividends is passive income, choosing the right investments that generate dividends is a very active and time-consuming process.

In my experience, those looking to earn dividends can typically expect returns of 1–5%.

Rental Income

You can earn passive income from real estate by investing in rental properties, commercial real estate, public real estate investment trusts, or real estate crowdfunding platforms. Income-generating real estate can also provide landlords with tax benefits by deducting depreciation costs, property management expenses, insurance, and other expenses.

But there’s always an active element of real estate investing, no matter what type of real estate you invest in. This includes property management, dealing with tenants, managing relationships with lenders or investors, ensuring upkeep, or simply picking the right real estate projects to invest in. Some forms of real estate investing can become so time consuming that many personal finance experts question if real estate investing can be considered passive at all.

Read more: How to Invest in Real Estate

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending

Peer-to-peer lending has attracted investors looking for an alternative to persistently low interest rates on savings accounts and bond yields. With P2P loans, investors make unsecured personal loans to others and can earn high returns.

While P2P lending has exploded in popularity (check out Lending Club and Prosper), these investments are very risky. The loans are often not secured against collateral, are not FDIC insured, and money invested in P2P lending can be difficult to access in times of economic stress.

Digital Product, Online Course, or Community Development

Creating digital products, courses, or online communities can be one of the best ways to earn passive income if you can package your skills and knowledge and sell it to a group of customers. In today’s digital age, the costs of creating a course, digital product, or community have never been lower, and all you really need is a computer and some creativity.

While there are lots of instances of everyday people earning millions on their digital products, don’t forget that getting to that point likely required a lot of work. Keeping these types of products relevant and up to date after launch also requires time, effort, and attention, not to mention having to market your product and keep up community engagement.

If you are interested in starting something like this up, platforms like Thinkific, Teachable, and Patreon are all options to explore.

YouTube/TikTok Ad Revenue

I became fascinated by the prospect of earning money on YouTube after coming across financial influencer Graham Stephan. Earning money on YouTube or Tik Tok generally comes down to building your channel’s audience and monetizing content through ads or affiliate marketing links. Once your presence meets a critical mass, every video you create has the potential to become an income-generating asset.

On the surface, making money on YouTube seems amazing, but again, it takes a lot of work and dedication to get there. For example, Graham has mentioned having to post videos at least three times a week for several years to get traction. And it often takes audiences of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers to earn any money.

But there’s lots of potential to earn sizable passive income from YouTube after you build an audience. The average YouTuber can make $3 to $5 per 1,000 video views and the top YouTubers can make millions annually.

Final Thoughts

Passive income can be a great way to earn more while working a regular 9 to 5, or it could fully replace your current stream(s) of active income entirely.

When it comes to building real wealth, however, the discussion around active vs. passive income is more nuanced.

According to a five-year study of 233 wealthy individuals, a common thread between them was that self-made millionaires generated income from multiple sources. 65% of them had three streams of income, 45% had four streams of income, and 29% had five or more streams of income.

These figures suggest that when it comes to building wealth, it’s not just a question of prioritizing passive vs. active income. Rather, it’s about generating multiple streams of income and scaling your time.

Personally, I have four streams of income:

  1. The income I make from my 9 to 5
  2. Investment capital gains
  3. Dividends
  4. Freelancing work

You can leave it to your own creativity and aspirations to find what constellation of passive and active income streams works best for you. But remember, whether you are looking to create passive or active income, there is no free lunch, and any source of income that ultimately becomes passive will likely start as a highly active pursuit.

Read More:

Source: moneyunder30.com

Apache is functioning normally

All right, let’s get this out of the way, right up front.

Dining alone in a restaurant is neither a shameful thing nor an experience to avoid.

Maybe you’ve had an experience like Jason Segel in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Sometimes a server does make a fuss, but, really, most are happy you’re there — if you are happy to be there, yourself.

There’s an art to the solo dine. In the right frame of mind and with reasonable expectations, a solo diner can have a delicious experience.

It helps if you like to eat, of course.

These tidbits should help the reluctant learn from my own mistakes. Know thyself, dear diner, and feel free to enjoy a great meal, regardless of situational solitude!

[find-an-apartment]

There’s an Art to Dining AloneSolo Dining 101
Ok, so the moment finds you hungry, sans social engagement. What to do?

Let’s start with a basic tenet: you’ve got to dispel any insecurity you might have about your right to eat alone.

American culture is a little crazy about food. As a result of what we’ve been taught, some of us feel self-conscious about enjoying eating, especially in public. But the fact is, we’ve all done it.

Confidence is key, here. If you find yourself wondering whether others in a restaurant are looking at you or judging your presence, remember they’re really more interested in the cannelloni.

Location, location, loca…
Where you choose to sit in a restaurant has perhaps the greatest impact on whether you’ll enjoy your solo dining experience.

It’s up to you to share your seating preference: want to be situated in eaves-dropping distance of an interesting-looking group of folks? Prefer to pass the time in a more secluded area? Unless the joint is really jumping, any friendly establishment should be happy to accommodate your pleasant request.

Don’t feel that you have to dress to match the furniture. Whatever you’re wearing is just fine.
Don’t feel that you have to dress to match the furniture. Whatever you’re wearing is just fine.

Read the restaurant
Ah, this is important. I like to know a little bit about a place before I go there, just so there are no unpleasant surprises.

When you know the details – like how much the food costs, or that there will likely be patrons dressed to the nines – you can adjust your expectations. I’m not saying you should feel compelled to conform, but know the general guidelines. The point of the solo dine is for you to enjoy yourself.

Your meal on mobile (or, the smartphone connection)
Here’s a call: to eat while connected, or no?

A meal alone certainly gives you a chance to catch up on emails, fave websites, and memes you’ve yet to have the time to embrace. Or you might want to cherish a few moments to yourself, entirely disconnected from the grind.

When I’m feeling digitally social in these situations, I like to philosophize by text with a friend who likely won’t respond right away. (Do you have those, too?) I might describe the scene, the people, the food. It’s sort of like talking to myself in the presence of another, online. I’ll hear what my friend has to say later, but, for now, I just want to put my impressions out there — and I want to enjoy the food.

What if you want to be social?
Just because you arrive alone to a hip eatery doesn’t necessarily mean you wish to stay that way. Again, it’s up to you to signal your intentions.

Your body language tells the tale about whether you want to engage with other diners. A seat taken at the bar is a reasonable give-away, too.

The Staff and the Solo Diner
Servers are generally friendly to those dining alone; ones who are frustrated about the desire for a larger table (and tip) really only spite themselves, if they take these feelings out on the solo diner. I choose to be super-nice to servers, but I tip based on the bill and the quality of service received — generally no more merely because I happen to be eating alone.

Here’s a man who knows what he likes. Sweet…or is it savory?
Here’s a man who knows what he likes. Sweet…or is it savory?

Enjoying a food scene with friends is one of the great pleasures in life, but there’s no rule that says it’s the only way to experience a restaurant. Go ahead, muster up your courage: “table for one, please.”

Photo credits: Shutterstock / Rovenko Photo, Tyler Olson, Tanya Uralova, Nejron Photo

Apache is functioning normally

Whether you run an e-commerce business or a traditional brick-and-mortar store, investing in digital marketing can be essential in promoting your brand and remaining competitive in the marketplace. Digital marketing typically involves online marketing methods, but it can also include local marketing options.

1. Optimize your website for mobile

With more consumers browsing and making purchases using their smartphones and tablets, using a responsive design for your website will allow it to display correctly on mobile devices, as well as desktops. This is especially important for e-commerce businesses looking to drive sales.

Website builders such as Squarespace and Wix, as well as dedicated e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce, typically offer mobile-friendly templates and features. As you design your website, check to see how it looks and functions on a mobile device and make any necessary adjustments.

2. Create business profiles

A free advertising strategy and an easy way to improve search rank for your business is to claim and update your business profiles on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other popular search platforms. Your business profile is a useful way to provide current and potential customers with essential information about your business, such as address, phone number and store hours. Also, adding images, photos and logos can be helpful when engaging potential customers.

The Better Business Bureau, Yelp for Business and Nextdoor are other platforms where details about your business can gain the attention of local customers.

3. Understand your target audience

Knowing your target audience, the consumers who are likely to buy your products and services, allows you to customize your digital marketing strategy for different segments of your customer base. For example, if you own a coffee shop and want to sell bags of your specialty blends to customers outside your local area, your digital marketing strategy would typically be different than the one you use for walk-in customers.

Identifying different groups in your target audience allows you to customize the digital marketing strategies you use to engage them — whether it’s through social platforms, local listings, email or another method.

4. Invest in local marketing

If your business operates in a local market, you’ll want to take advantage of the digital marketing strategies that specifically appeal and relate to that audience. Some local marketing strategies to consider include:

  • Local TV and radio ads.

  • Digital billboards, signs and displays in high-traffic locations.

  • Direct mail campaigns in your local area.

  • Hosting or participating in community events.

With these strategies, you can easily include your business’s website and social media handles on any materials or information you distribute in your local community.

5. Start a blog as part of your content marketing strategy

Blog articles, one of the simplest ways to get involved in content marketing, can have a significant impact on your ability to attract customers and drive sales. Articles as well as newsletters, videos, infographics, e-books and other materials can be shared on your website and through email and social media posts.

Writing about topics related to your business, showing your expertise and providing helpful information can drive more traffic to your website and help improve search rankings for your business.

6. Engage on social media platforms that suit your business

Just like content marketing, social media marketing is another type of digital marketing. Many consumers rely on social media marketing to guide purchasing decisions. However, instead of trying to excel on all social media platforms, determine which platforms are best for your business and focus your energy there.

For example, if you’re starting an online boutique, you might find that platforms with an emphasis on images, such as Pinterest and Instagram, match your digital marketing strategies better than others.

Zeroing in on a few platforms can make it easier to stay active and respond quickly to customer interactions.

7. Build your contact list to maximize email marketing

Using customer relationship management with email marketing is an effective digital marketing tactic that’s often used to build loyalty and engage new customers. CRM software can help you collect and store information about your contacts — your existing customers and potential customers who have interacted with your business in some way.

Your contact list can be used to share newsletters, special offers, announcements, discounts and other information about your business and products. Also, information such as a contact’s first name and location can autopopulate to personalize outgoing emails.

8. Encourage customers to leave online reviews

Customer reviews can be personally rewarding and strengthen the reputation of your business. Reviews can also be helpful in building rapport with existing customers and influencing others to visit your website. You can place signs at your location, in addition to including links on your website and in emails, to encourage customers to write reviews of your business.

You’ll want to monitor your reviews for any negative feedback as well, so you can quickly work to resolve the issue. Meeting bad reviews head-on can help you improve your products and processes and can give you the opportunity to strengthen your relationship with customers.

9. Use digital ads to reach your target audience

If it’s within your marketing budget, placing digital ads on Google and social media platforms can help get your business in front of your target audience. Digital ads generally give you the ability to choose keywords, target your specific audience and engage prospective customers who are likely to want your product or service. Digital advertising can be used to target customers in your local area, in a specific age range and in a niche market.

Retargeting tools are also offered by many of these platforms and allow you to show your ads specifically to customers who have already interacted with your business website and shown an interest in your products.

10. Explore influencer marketing opportunities

You may want to consider adding influencer marketing to your social media marketing efforts. Influencers have a sizable number of followers on social media, and their reviews and promotion of products can affect the buying decisions of their audience.

A nano-influencer may be an especially good choice for small businesses. Because they have less than 10,000 followers, they often have strong engagement with their community and can be less expensive than influencers with higher follower counts. When selecting an influencer, it’s important that their audience be similar to your target audience and that you thoroughly review them and their platforms.

11. Use SMS marketing to build customer loyalty

Short Message Service (SMS) marketing is a fairly cost-effective way to promote your business through text messages. You can use SMS to regularly engage existing customers with information about special offers, discounts, store events and other promotions. Like email marketing, you’ll want to get permission before sending texts to your contact list.

SMS marketing software can automate the process of sending text messages to existing and potential customers. Also, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages can be used when you want to share photos, images, videos, audio files and other content with your contact list.

12. Respond to online feedback

Customer service can be a determining factor in attracting and retaining customers. You can extend your in-person customer service practices to your business website. A good place to start is to create a contact page on your website with information on how customers can contact you and then respond promptly to requests, questions and comments you receive.

You might also consider investing in a chatbot service for extended 24/7 customer support hours. Chatbots can provide answers to frequently asked questions and can be a particularly useful tool for e-commerce businesses.

13. Monitor your campaigns and adjust your strategy

Monitor your digital marketing strategies to determine what’s working well and what can be changed. It’s important to remember that not all of your strategies will be successful. A large part of your digital marketing efforts will involve testing and trying new things to determine the best methods for your business.

For example, if a Facebook ads campaign for a new product doesn’t meet your expectations, you can adjust your strategy by changing the ads in the campaign, picking another social media platform or using a different digital marketing method.

14. Spend within your marketing budget

Although marketing is necessary for attracting customers, it can be difficult to devote a large budget to these efforts. That’s why creating a marketing budget is essential. As you consider how to allocate funds, you may want to lock in the “basics” to establish your digital presence — launching and optimizing your business website, setting up your social media profiles and building an email list. Then, you can branch out and investigate other tactics that might require more of your budget, such as digital ads and local marketing tactics.

Rieva Lesonsky, a freelance writer, contributed to this article.

A version of this article originally appeared on Fundera, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

Source: nerdwallet.com

Apache is functioning normally

Hello! Today, I have a great debt payoff story from Heather O’Donnell of HappyHumbleHome.com. Enjoy!

These days, I’m a frugal living blogger at Happy Humble Home and I provide money saving advice and encouragement to others.

But there was a point in my life, not that long ago, when I thought I would be in debt forever.

When my husband and I got married in August of 2015, we had $105,000 of debt. Since then, we have worked very hard towards our goal becoming debt free and we have crushed $95,000 of our debt.

Along the way, we’ve used 2 different debt payoff strategies and we’ve learned 3 essential habits that have helped us be successful along the way. In this post, I’m going to give you an inside look at how I overcame my giant mountain of debt because I know without a doubt that if I can do this, you absolutely can too.

More debt payoff stories:

I brought most of the debt into my marriage

My husband was debt-free except for his car payment. I had a giant student loan and a car payment of my own. Here’s a breakdown of exactly what our debt looked like:

  • Student Loan – $68,000
  • My Car Loan – $20,000
  • His Car Loan – $17,000

If you’re wondering about those numbers, let me give you a quick backstory.

My giant student loan was consolidated from my undergraduate and masters degrees. I went to school to be a elementary school teacher and was working as a kindergarten teacher in an inner city when we got married. Obviously, this was not a very high paying career choice.

It was just pure bad luck that my husband and I had to buy cars at the same time.

A few months before our wedding, his old car was starting to have problems and it would have been expensive to fix. We decided together that instead of fixing his old car, it would make more sense to trade it in and get a new one. So, he did.

We expected the little Honda Civic that I was driving at the time to last us at least another 5 years and we didn’t think his one car payment would be that bad.

But just a few weeks after my husband bought his new car, my car was totaled in a hit and run accident. Thankfully, I wasn’t injured. On the other hand, my poor little car was destroyed.

Clearly, I was going to need a new one. And of course, I could have bought something used and affordable. But instead I did a rushed month of research and decided to invest in a new car that would last us 10 years, barring another horrible accident.

So, that’s how we ended up with 2 car payments at the same time on top of my student loan.

We paid for our wedding in full with cash that we had saved up during our 18 month engagement. But this also meant that we were only paying the minimums on our debt during this time.

It was right after we were married that we decided to get serious about paying off our debt.

Emotionally, it was hard to be the one to bringing so much debt into my marriage. I felt really guilty about it and it took several long conversations with my husband before I was ready to tackle or debt together.

We started by learning everything we could about debt payoff strategies.

We decided that because we were already highly motivated, we should use the debt avalanche and focus on paying off my student loan first since it had a much higher interest rate.

For the next 18 months we devoted every spare dollar that we could to paying my student loan. We paid off $38,000 of the $68,000 total during that time.

The debt avalanche was serving us well. We’d paid off more than half of our biggest and highest interest rate debt. But our life situation was changing. I was pregnant and planning to leave my job to stay home with our baby. We knew this would drastically decrease our income and affect our debt payoff.

So, we decided to reevaluate our strategy.

After looking at our debts, we decided the best thing for us would be to eliminate our highest monthly payment. That would free up more money each month and would make life easier when I wasn’t working.

My husband’s car loan was our smallest debt, with our smallest interest rate, but it was our highest monthly payment at $505.  

We set our sights on that small car loan and started devoting all the extra money that had been going to my student loan each month to the car loan instead.

We had his car paid off in 6 months.

This put a lot more breathing room in our monthly budget.

Then, we turned our attention to my car payment. The minimum monthly payment for my car was only $297, but it was a much smaller total amount than my student loan and we wanted to remove that monthly payment too.

We put everything we could toward paying off my car, including our 2017 tax return, and we had it paid off 7 months later.

By this time, our son was here and I had left my job. Our income was much less than when we were both working and our expenses were a little higher since we had another person in our family.

So, our debt payoff slowed.

There were several months that we could only pay the minimum monthly payment towards the student loan.

Whenever we had a little extra, we would pay more.

Even though our progress had slowed, our motivation was still high. We had built so much momentum when we were paying off our debts quickly and that carried us through those harder months.

Since I left my job in August of 2017, we have paid off $21,000 of my student loan on one income.

So at the time that I’m writing this we still have about $10,000 of debt left. I have this new, life changing ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know we will be debt-free soon, and once we are, we’re never going back.

I want to share with you 3 essential habits that we used to pay off our $95,000 of debt so far.

These strategies worked for me even as someone who was horrible with money in the beginning. And they’ve kept me motivated through the hard times when I felt like giving up. I know these strategies can work for you too.

1. Monthly Debt Check-In

Every month during the last weekend of the month, my husband and I spend an hour planning out our budget for the month ahead and checking in on our debt payoff progress.

We talk about how much debt we’ve paid off and how much further we have left to go.

Sometimes we play with an online debt calculator on Unbury.us. The calculator tells us when our debt will be paid off based on how much extra we can pay each month. For example, if we pay an extra $600 a month, we’ll have our debt paid off my February 2020. It just gives us a rough idea of how close we’re getting.

Talking about it is powerful gets us excited and motivates us to continue.

2. Cutting Expenses for Extra Debt Payments

We did everything we could think of to lowering our expenses so we would have more money to devote to paying off our debts. This wasn’t fun to think about at first, but it was fun to see all that extra money going toward paying off debt.

Here are some of the expenses we cut to free up money for extra debt payments.

Food

We completely stopped going out to eat at restaurants. During the 3.5 years that we’ve been married and working on our debt, my husband and I have only been in a restaurant on our anniversary or birthdays.

We also stopped getting take-out food on the busy (or lazy) nights that we didn’t feel like cooking. Instead we had some supplies on hand for super simples meals that we both liked and that would be easy to prepare when we didn’t want to cook. These were mostly things like tuna, cartons of soup, or frozen chicken fried rice.

I made an effort to meal plan and once I learned a system that worked for me, I worked on stretching the same ingredients out for several different dinners in a week. For example, shredded beef would work for beef and broccoli, beef tacos, and stew.

Then, I started getting serious about saving money on groceries. I started looking for sales, comparing prices, using some coupons, and shopping with a grocery budget. I was able to lower our grocery costs by $40 a week with just a little bit of work and thinking ahead.

Household Costs

After we got our food costs under control, we focused our attention on our household costs.

We seriously cut down on our electric bill just by unplugging things and intentionally turning off what we weren’t using.

We negotiated our cell phone bill and saved $15 a month.

We made an effort to use a little less of everything – less paper towels, less detergent, less shampoo.

We’ve even tried to do some simple home repairs ourselves without calling (and paying) a professional. My husband was able to fix the ice maker in our freezer, replace our doorbell, and even do a simple repair on our toilet.

It was easier than I thought it would be.

I expected cutting our expenses to be a grueling process but it was so much easier than I ever expected. We would just try something, and if it worked we’d get really excited about the money we saved.

My success with cutting our expenses is one of the main reasons I wanted to start my blog, Happy Humble Home. I was excited to share simple, actionable ideas that other people could use in their own lives, with their own families, to save money.

3. Keeping the Future Front of Mind

The biggest change that helped me while paying off debt was actually a mindset shift.

I stopped thinking about what I wanted right now, and instead started focusing on what I want in the long run.

I knew that I didn’t want to still be paying off my student loan when my kids were in college. And during the times that I was struggling, that’s what I would remind myself.

And my husband and I are always talking about how much more money we will have once we don’t have to make any debt payments. We’ll actually be able to save money for things that we really want, like remodeling our bathrooms.

This isn’t an easy mindset shift to make.

There were so many times that I wanted the instant gratification that came from take-out food or going out with friends or buying a cute new outfit.

I had to keep reminding myself that 5 years from now I wouldn’t remember that meal, or event, or outfit. But if I made the right choices, in 5 years I could be debt free. And that would have a profound impact on my family forever.

With practice, those hard choices became easier to make.

And now that I’m so close to being debt-free, it’s very easy to turn down temptation.

$93,000 in 3.5 Years

It’s a little scary to put all my real life numbers out there into the world. But It’s pretty amazing to take a step back and think about how far I’ve come. And It’s even more amazing to think about how close I am to the finish line.

My husband and I expect to be 100% debt free by the end of 2019. And once we are, we are never going back. Also, there will be a party.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep sharing my money saving tips and debt insights over on my blog, Happy Humble Home. I’m doing my best to empower everyone I can reach to fix their financial situation, just like I have. I’d be honored to be a part of your financial journey. You can join me here to get access to all of my best money saving tips and tools (including a printable debt payoff tracker!)

If your debt feels overwhelming like mine once did, I want you to know that this is not impossible. With a little intentionality, some smart choices, and healthy money habits you can pay off your debt and change your future. I know that if I can do this, you can too.

Do you have debt? What are you doing to pay off your debt?

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Source: makingsenseofcents.com