REF: ESW123025EN
Today I achieved one of my goals: paying off one of my debts, specifically a personal loan. It was a five-year loan, and although I wasn’t tracking the exact time, it took me just under those five years. I want to share here the way I’ve been getting out of each of my debts, based on a book I read called The Consistency Chain for Network Marketing by George Campbell and Jim Packard.*
In this book, I learned something very interesting: many times we don’t have the habit of doing certain things. There are even habits that are harder for us to maintain, and over time we fall into routine and end up abandoning them. The authors explain in a very simple way how those of us who struggle the most to build habits—whether it’s getting out of debt, exercising, losing weight, eating better, saving, investing, or any other goal we set for ourselves—can make steady progress.
What I discovered is that when you do something small, but you do it every day, forming a consistency chain, that’s the key. Little by little you move forward with the goal of not breaking the chain, and you begin to build momentum. There comes a point when, even if one day you say, “I don’t feel like exercising today,” or “I don’t have enough money today to pay what I planned toward my debts,” because you’ve already gone many days without breaking the chain, it becomes harder to stop. So you do everything possible—or even impossible—not to break it.
That’s what I’ve been doing for more than thirteen hundred days, making payments toward my debts every single day. On occasions when, for whatever reason, I don’t manage to gather the amount I wanted, even if it’s a smaller amount, I still make a payment. That way I keep the chain intact.
I’ve also been using the snowball principle to get out of debt. That’s how I’ve already paid off several credit cards. And today, on top of that, I managed to pay off that $20,000 personal loan, which I ended up clearing in less than five years.
Something I did very early on was automate payments. I originally had a monthly payment, but instead I set up automatic weekly payments. That meant I ended up paying a little more, because some months have five weeks, and I was making a payment every week. That also helped me get out of debt faster.
It’s important to understand that in many types of debt—especially credit cards and lines of credit—interest is calculated daily, even if it’s charged monthly. That’s why when someone makes more frequent payments, such as weekly instead of monthly, the average daily balance decreases. This causes the interest generated each day to be lower, and as a result, you end up paying less interest over time. Although not all debts work exactly the same way, in most cases paying earlier and more frequently helps reduce the total cost of the debt.
As for strategy, I picked one debt and started paying more toward it, while paying the minimum on the others. With the snowball method, you start with the debt that has the smallest balance, because psychologically it helps you see results faster and gives you more motivation. With the avalanche method, it’s the opposite: you start with the debt that has the highest interest rate, and that way you end up paying less interest overall. Both options are valid; it all depends on personal preference.
In my case, I make a payment every day. I don’t automate it—I manually log into my account and make the daily payment. That helps me too, because it’s like saying, “I did it, I made today’s payment.” When I finish paying off one card, the money I was putting toward that card goes to the next one, and so on.
You can generate that extra money to make daily debt payments by doing Uber, DoorDash, or any other activity you can do for just one or two hours a day, or whenever you have the opportunity.
When it comes to earning extra income with activities like driving for Uber, DoorDash, etc., it’s very important to remember that these companies do not pay taxes for you. That’s why it’s highly recommended that from every dollar you earn, you set aside 15% to 20% for taxes, or even pay them throughout the year. That way, when it’s time to file your tax return, you don’t find yourself in the situation of owing money you don’t have, which can lead to penalties, interest, and the need to set up a payment plan.
It all depends, of course, on how much money you earn with these platforms. If you only do it in your spare time, it may not be much, but it’s still a good idea to keep that money set aside.
In another post, I’ll talk about an app I use that helps me tremendously with exactly this: creating separate funds, whether for an emergency fund, taxes, vacations, or even saving up for your next gadget so you don’t use a credit card, but instead save little by little.
But we’ll talk about that later.
This process of getting out of debt faster is like a marathon that sometimes feels like it has no end. I still have some distance to go, but I’m already in the final stretch. For example, right now I try to pay about $90 a day toward the next credit card. When I finished paying off the personal loan, that monthly payment—around $450—became extra money that I can now apply to the next debt.
Let’s always keep in mind that by doing this, we can get rid of all our debts very quickly. Instead of taking 25 years making only minimum payments on a credit card with a $5,000 balance at an 18% annual interest rate, those same $5,000 could be paid off in just one year by paying only $16 a day.
This is powerful and achievable if you commit to it, and it becomes much easier when you build your consistency chain, which helps you stay focused and motivated. Each time you eliminate one debt, your snowball gains more strength to tackle the next card, and so on, until you are completely free of debt.
In my case, I managed to get out of debt from 8 credit cards, a car loan, and a personal loan in record time. And although I was already doing this before I learned about the consistency chain, now that I’m implementing it, as of today (12/30/25), I have reached a total of 1,380 consecutive days of making daily payments toward my debts.
I still have a few debts left to pay, but I’m moving in the right direction and at an accelerated pace. It is absolutely possible to do this at your own pace and on your own terms. You can do it too.
It’s also true that there are strategies like debt consolidation. I’ve done it and it has worked for me, although it’s not ideal because it doesn’t necessarily build the habit. Still, it can be an option: moving high-interest debts into a personal loan with a lower interest rate and a fixed term, for example five years.
Of course, things also happen along the way. I remember that at the end of 2021 I spent two days in the hospital, and the bill was significant. That set me back and pushed me a bit deeper into debt, even though I was already making progress. But the important thing is not to give up and to keep going.
What I recommend, based on what has worked for me, is to make a payment every day toward one of your debts. That builds discipline and creates a consistency chain that helps you get out of debt much faster.
What should you do once you’ve completely paid off a credit card?
According to Dave Ramsey, he is completely against credit cards and any type of debt, and he promotes destroying credit cards and closing those accounts. The other option—which most people choose, and which is the one I’ve chosen—is to keep those accounts open so you don’t affect your credit history. It’s important to keep in mind that if you keep them at a zero balance and never use them, banks or issuing institutions may eventually close them due to inactivity.
To avoid that, what I do is assign a recurring charge to each card. For example, it could be the water bill, electricity, Netflix, or any other fixed monthly expense. Each credit card that I pay off completely gets assigned one of these recurring payments.
And here’s the most important part: set up automatic payment of the full balance every month. That way, when the card’s due date arrives—for example, the card that pays for your cell phone—the bank automatically pulls the money from your checking account and pays the full balance. The balance stays at zero, and you never pay interest.
You do need to be very careful about one thing: make sure that money is available in your checking account, because the credit card will attempt to withdraw it automatically. As long as the money is there, there’s no problem.
This way, you can keep your credit cards active without the risk of the institutions closing them. Another thing I recommend—and that I personally do—is not using those cards for anything else at all. I don’t even carry them with me. I keep them stored somewhere that’s not easily accessible; if you can keep them locked away, even better. The idea is that if temptation shows up, you don’t have them within easy reach. This is very important.
And here I do have to acknowledge something about Dave Ramsey’s approach: if you close the accounts or destroy the cards, you simply can’t use them. So when temptation comes, you have nowhere to turn. That’s vital.
It’s also interesting to think about what happens once you’re finally out of all your debts. Imagine that those $90 a day that are currently going toward debt are suddenly no longer needed for that. You could then use that money to build an emergency fund or to invest. You could invest in ETFs, the stock market, Bitcoin, silver, gold, or whatever you consider appropriate. Nowadays you can even buy fractional shares of stocks or ETFs, so you don’t need large amounts of money to get started.
Later on, I’ll talk about how I’m personally doing this, based on what I’ve learned from experts. It’s much safer than most people imagine, but that will be the topic of another article.
Speaking of emergency funds, something important is to try to build at least a $1,000 emergency fund before aggressively paying down debt. That small fund helps you avoid going back into debt if an emergency comes up. If you use it, you simply rebuild it and then continue with the plan.
So here we are, continuing to move forward with this consistency chain to get out of debt. There’s still some road ahead, but we’re already in the final stretch.
I hope this is helpful and that you can apply these principles. The book The Consistency Chain for Network Marketing it’s small and easy to read. And it can be applied to many areas of life, not just personal finances.
I hope this also helps you get out of debt quickly.
Until next time. God bless you.
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