Be humane - kill your debt as quickly and painlessly as possible

You've probably already heard of the snowball debt reduction approach that has been popularized by Dave Ramsey. It's an excellent way to get out of debt, as long as you follow it. I believe that wholeheartedly, but at the same time, I'm asking, "Isn't there a faster way?" I know, I'm a typical guy, always wanting something with more power.

Well, I found it in a great article about "The Accelerator Margin". It makes some amazing claims, such as, "You can pay down all of your debt, including your mortgage, within 7.5 years." What it boils down to is: keep making payments on your debts, according to the Snowball Method. In addition, set aside a portion of your income (their example uses 10% of your gross income). Use this "accelerator margin" to pay down the debt you're focusing on in your Snowball plan.

As you can see just by thinking about it, it's a massively effective way of paying down debts…if you can come up with the 10% of your gross income. If you're truly dedicated to finding a way to do this, I recommend using a budgeting system that's powerful enough to help you find areas where you could cut your spending. This can be almost any budgeting system, as long as it helps you to determine where you could cut your spending and come up with extra money to use in your Accelerator Margin.

A bit of a preview of upcoming articles: I'll be reviewing budgeting systems in the next little while. I'm trying out Mvelopes right now, but I want to try a whole spectrum of products so I can make a "Top 10"-type recommendation list.