Facing the Whole Picture of What You Owe
For the point where you stop guessing and put every debt on one page. It gets the rates in order, finds free advice rather than paid, sets one monthly amount you can actually keep, and separates owing money from what kind of person you are.
Debt · Money · Shame · 9 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- Write every debt on one page — the total is usually less frightening than not knowing.
- Put the interest rate beside each one — the order to pay them in falls out of that.
- Call the worst one first and ask for terms — most lenders have a plan they do not advertise.
- Find the free advice line in your state — paid debt help is rarely better than free help.
- Set one amount that leaves the house monthly — a plan you keep beats a plan that is faster.
- Separate the debt from your character — owing money is arithmetic, not a verdict on you.
- Tell one person the real number — the secret costs more than the interest does.
- Put the date of the next review in — three months is long enough to see movement.
- Stop checking the balance daily — looking is not paying and it eats the evening.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.