Celebrate Your Victories

With any debt elimination plan, you’re going to feel a sense of sacrifice. Depending on the size of your debt burden, this could last for a few months, or it could last for several years. Obviously, when it’s all over, you’re going to be excited and ready to party, but being 100% debt free isn’t the only debt elimination goal you should celebrate!

Don’t Forget The Other Goals

When you set goals, you should set short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. And you should celebrate achieving each of them. Obviously, if you pay off a $300 credit card balance, you shouldn’t go buy a flat screen TV. But taking your family out for a nice dinner after paying off a $10,000 credit card bill makes perfect sense.

The important part is that you should celebrate each goal in a way that’s appropriate for that goal. Plan the celebration as part of setting the goal. Writing the goal down makes it real — planning the celebration makes it something you want to achieve (and more importantly, makes it easier to say “I shouldn’t go out to that extravagant restaurant that I can’t afford right now, but by waiting I’ll be able to buy a new car for cash next summer!”).

Include Your Family And Friends In The Celebration

Remember, the sacrifice hasn’t been just yours, your family has been sacrificing too! If you’ve been striving to pay off your mortgage early, you’ve probably skipped a vacation or two along the way. Make sure that they know what you’re trying to achieve and that they’re on board with the goal — and that they’re part of the celebration!

How Big Should The Celebration Be?

Obviously, this is a personal decision, but a good target is probably something no bigger than the size of the monthly payment you just “retired”. If it was your last debt and you’re now 100% debt free, maybe there’s a bigger reward waiting, but the important part is don’t let the reward put you back in debt! And if it’s a reward for an interim goal, rewarding yourself shouldn’t take you away from your long term strategy.

For more tips and ideas, come discuss it in the get me out of debt forum!

Tags: 100% debt free, celebrate your victories, debt burden, debt elimination goal, debt elimination plan, debt free, get me out of debt forum, pay off your mortgage early

This entry was posted on September 3, 2011 at 9:47 am and is filed under Debt Elimination, Getting Out Of Debt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.