Paying the Minimum on Your Credit Card Is a Trap. Here's the Way Out.
Credit card companies are not your friends.
The minimum payment system was designed by people who make money every single month you stay in debt. It is engineered to keep you paying for as long as possible while feeling like you're making progress.
You're not making progress. You're running on a treadmill.
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The maths they don't show you
If you have $3,000 on a credit card at 28% APR and you pay the minimum every month, it will take you over 10 years to pay it off. You will pay more in interest than you originally borrowed.
Ten years of minimum payments on a $3,000 debt.
That's not a debt problem. That's a system problem. And you can break the system.
The debt snowball — why it works when other methods don't
There are two well-known debt payoff methods. The Avalanche pays off your highest interest debt first — mathematically optimal. The Snowball pays off your smallest balance first — psychologically optimal.
Studies consistently show the Snowball gets people out of debt faster in the real world. Not because of the maths. Because of the motivation.
When you pay off your first small debt completely — even if it's a $300 store card — something shifts. You get a real win. That win creates momentum. Momentum is what keeps you going when the process gets hard.
Here's how the Snowball works in practice:
List all your debts from smallest balance to largest. Pay the minimum on every one except the smallest. Throw every extra dollar at the smallest until it's gone. Then take the payment you were making on that debt and add it to the next one. Your payment snowballs bigger with every debt you eliminate.
How fast can you actually get out of debt?
Someone with $8,000 in total debt and $200 extra per month to throw at it can be completely debt-free in under 24 months using this method.
Two years. Not ten.
The full tracker and step-by-step plan
I built a complete debt snowball tracker inside the 30-page money reset guide — with space for 7 debts, target dates, and a monthly review system to keep you on track.
Get the Debt Snowball tracker → Break the Paycheck Cycle
Use code LAUNCH50 for 50% off this week only.
Roam Decoded Life — no fluff finance guides for real people.
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