I’ve followed Dave Ramsey’s principles since 2021, and even though we were diligent and slowly paying off debt, still progress was little to none in 2025! Today I will share how I raised my credit score to 816 and how I managed debt to win.
How I managed Debt To Win
I’m going to start by telling you, Dave Ramsey’s financial peace course and books helped us to get started on our journey to get rid of debt.
Here are some of my updates as we moved along the Baby Steps:
After 4 years of diligently following the plan, our debt didn’t go down as much as we were paying it off and we got discouraged dishing out almost $500.00 a month in payments to see only $100.00 actually go into paying off our debt.
I finally decided to make changes and saw dramatic results that I will share with you today:
Change #1 – Consolidated Credit Card Debt Into A Lower Interest Loan
I know Dave and his staff are against this, but I am telling you, I went from paying $500.00 a month to paying less and seeing the debt decrease from $100 / month to now almost $ 300.00 a month.
My new loan had a 10% fixed interest rate, while some of the cards had a 27% interest rate.
Credit Card Debt counts very negatively on your credit score, so when I paid off the cards, I got rid of most of them, closed the accounts, and only kept one for emergencies.
My credit score went from 697 to 816 in three months! Contrary to what Ramsey and his staff preach, I do want to have a healthy high credit score.
Change #2 – Say No To New Debt
We decided not to take on new debt until the “consolidation loan” is paid off.
Change #3 – Spend Less
We lowered our Christmas Budget, cut vacation trips and made other sacrifices to ensure we were on track with our goals.
Change #4 – Send additional principal payments
The only other debt I have is my car payment, mortgage and a co-signed college loan. I have been sending additional small payments to the principals to reduce the life of the loans.
Small but gradual progress.
Change #4 – In Progress
I am going to close two more cards, just keeping one for emergencies or travel needs. I didn’t want to close them all at once to avoid my credit score from tanking, since one of the cards I plan to close is my oldest one.
I plan to continue to move the needle towards owing as little as possible to free up money to increase savings and investments in retirement.
Have you taken steps to live life without or little debt?
I can’t wait to hear from you!
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