Goal
Get out of debt for good
You get out of debt by seeing the whole number, keeping a small cushion so the next surprise does not go on a card, stopping new debt, and paying the balances in a fixed order with every spare lira, while asking lenders for better terms. Pick the snowball (smallest first) if you need quick wins or the avalanche (highest rate first) if you want to pay less interest. Then keep the money you freed up: it becomes your savings.
What is really going on
You pay the minimum on the card, the overdraft and two instalment plans every month, and the total hardly moves. You avoid opening the statements, so you are not sure what the total is. Every time you decide to start, a car repair or a school fee arrives and goes on the card.
The usual advice does not help. 'Spend less' says nothing about which debt to pay first. 'Consolidate it' often swaps several debts for one longer one and frees the cards to fill up again. And the easy monthly instalment ('taksit') makes every purchase look affordable, so new debt keeps arriving while the old is being paid.
What works is a sequence, not willpower: look at the number, protect the plan from surprises, stop the inflow, choose an order, and make the payments automatic. The books below each supply one step of that sequence.
Five ideas from five books
- 1
Pay the smallest balance first
Dave Ramsey's debt snowball lists every debt from the smallest balance to the largest, ignoring the rate. You pay the minimum on all of them and put every extra lira on the smallest. When it is gone, its payment rolls onto the next. Ramsey's argument is behavioural: the first debt disappears in weeks, not years, and that visible win is what keeps people going. If you have tried and quit before, the snowball's quick wins are worth more than the interest you might save by a different order.
The Total Money MakeoverConcept: Debt snowball - 2
Choose an order, then call the lender
Ramit Sethi's plan has four steps: list each balance with its rate and minimum, call the lender to ask for a lower rate or a waived fee, choose an order, and automate it. The avalanche, highest rate first, costs the least; the snowball motivates. Either beats no order. The call takes ten minutes and many people never make it; a polite request for a better rate, mentioning that you are paying it down, sometimes works, and the worst answer is no.
- 3
Price each debt in hours of your life
Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez define money as life energy: the hours you trade for it. Work out your real hourly wage, what you earn after the costs of working, divided by the hours work really takes. Then turn each monthly debt payment into hours. A phone bought on instalments that costs twenty hours of work a month looks different from one that costs a number on a screen, and that view makes the 'no new debt' rule easier to keep.
- 4
Split every income three ways
In George S. Clason's parable, the camel trader Dabasir climbs out of debt with a simple rule: from every income he keeps one tenth for himself, lives on seven tenths and pays his creditors with the remaining two tenths, after going to each of them to explain the plan honestly. The split keeps saving alive while debt falls, and the conversation turns creditors from enemies into people waiting for a plan they believe in.
- 5
Keep paying once the debt is gone
Morgan Housel argues that you do not need a specific reason to save: savings are a buffer against the surprises you cannot predict. When the last debt is paid, keep the same monthly payment going, now into a savings account. You are already used to living without that money, so the habit that cleared the debt becomes the cushion that stops you from borrowing again.
Try this today — free
Tonight: list every debt with its balance, rate and minimum on one page, and add the total. Tomorrow: call the lender with the highest rate and ask for a lower one.
Questions people ask
- Should I pay the smallest debt or the highest interest first?
- The highest rate first (the avalanche) costs less in interest. The smallest first (the snowball) gives faster wins, which matters if you have quit before. Choose the one you will stick with; either is far better than paying minimums with no order.
- Should I save or pay off debt first?
- Most writers suggest a small cushion first, enough for one ordinary surprise, so the next emergency does not go back on the card. After that, extra money goes to debt until the high-interest debt is gone, and then to a larger emergency fund.
- Is a debt consolidation loan a good idea?
- It can lower the rate and simplify payments, but only if you stop using the cards it paid off. Compare the total cost, including fees and the longer term, not only the monthly payment.
- Does this advice work outside the United States?
- The principles do: see the total, stop new debt, choose an order, automate, ask for better terms. Some details in the American books, such as specific account types and figures, do not transfer; size the cushion and the plan to your own income and costs.