Concept
Debt inventory
A debt inventory is a single page that lists every debt you owe, each with its balance, interest rate and minimum payment, written down before any plan is made so the real total replaces the vague fear.
Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover starts where most people refuse to look: the statements. Debt grows in the dark because each card, instalment and overdraft is opened on a different day and paid from a different screen, so no one ever sees the whole. The inventory puts it on one page. For each debt you write the lender, the balance today, the interest rate and the minimum payment, then you add the column. Include the debts people leave out: the loan from a sibling, the phone on instalments, the overdraft that renews itself every month. The total is usually a shock, but it is also usually smaller than the dread that came before it, and a number can be planned against while a feeling cannot. The inventory is not a judgement. It is the starting line every later step depends on: the emergency cushion, the payment order and the date you will be free.
A real-life example
Emre, a nurse in Bursa, knows he owes 'a lot' and avoids his banking app. On a Sunday evening he opens every statement and writes six lines on one sheet: two cards, an overdraft, a television on instalments, a personal loan and money borrowed from his brother. The total is 142,000 lira. It is bad, but it is finite, and by ten o'clock he has circled the smallest balance to attack first.
How to use it
- 1Open every statement, including family loans and instalments, and write one line per debt: lender, balance, rate, minimum.
- 2Add the balances and the minimums so you know the total owed and the total you must pay each month.
- 3Update the page once a month on the same day, so progress becomes visible.