If there is any philosophy of debt reduction I can see myself getting behind is the snowflake method. I first heard about the idea of snowflaking on a site I’ve been reading a lot of lately, Paid Twice, and I think the idea behind the snowflake method is similar to what I’m trying to get across on this site. The same as every little step gets you towards your goal, snowflaking takes the view that payments towards your financial goal will eventually get you there, no matter the size of the payment - big or small. The beauty of the snowflaking method is that the money snowflaked towards debt can’t be taken back. That money is towards your debt immediately, instead of staying in your pocket or checking account waiting to be wasted on something Inconsequential. Then, these little payments add up over time to have a real big effect on your debt situation. The only thing you have to do is start putting money towards debt as soon you get that extra money, and then consistently keep putting that money towards your debt, even it is a small amount (i.e. a snowflake). Examples of where the extra money can come from are numerous, from surpluses in the family budget to money found on the sidewalk; from tax refunds to christmas checks from the parents. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to brainstorm and investigate how I’m going to utilize snowflaking to get myself out of debt and financial trouble. I’m going to post my plan and all that I can come up with, and share the journey as I set everything up to be able to snowflake. My first step of action to get me started will be to figure out how I can access all of my accounts for snowflaking. That will include investigating the internet access of all of my accounts, and sign up for online payments for everything that I can.
So Here’s to my first step, and ya’ll…
Keep Steppin’

Filed under: budget, debt, money