Before telling you how we get out of debt, let me tell you how we get in trouble. It starts when I want an ideal life. Got married, buy a house, car, and insurance. I think it's effortless to have everything, we only need to provide monthly payments and we are safe. We thought we just need to be patient to pay the installment, 15 years for the house and 5 years for a car. But things are different, when we have debt, our finances are a mess.

After we pay the installment, we suddenly feel a shortage so we use a credit card to fulfill other things like impulsive buying and eating in a fancy restaurant. We never got a problem paying the installment because we only pay the minimum. We forget about the interest that gets bigger and bigger until the monthly minimum payment of credit card is the same number as our home installment.
 
We then realize the mistake so when hubby got a bonus, we always try to pay some big amount for house installment and settle the credit card. It helps us to reduce the interest but we are never really debt-free because we always start to use a credit card again, sometimes we use any excuse to buy things for example 0% installment. Consumerism never stops.

After 3 years I realize that everything is wrong in the first place. My friend reminds me about riba and I finally understand why our life is a mess. We started to have a goal to get out of debt and here are our way to do that:
1. Stop consumerism, only buy things when you have money.
2. Get rid of a credit card by paying extra money every month. When you finally pay off the balance, call the bank and ask them to cancel a credit card. Then you need to check again the record a few months later. When everything is good, destroy the credit card. When you pass step 1, it will be much easier to do.
3. Pay extra money on the house installment. It's not only reducing the monthly interest but also reducing the principal loan amount significantly.
4. Sell everything you have. I was planning to sell the car to reduce the debt but my sister stops me just a few moments before hubby sent a car to the showroom. We had already agreed on the price but in the end, it got canceled because my sister said she wanted to lend me money. Along with that my parent also lend me money. I guess I'm pretty lucky that we can move the loan from the bank to my family so we stop paying the interest. I  believe that all the favor comes because I want to get out of riba, so don't give up.
5. You may be in shortage but you can still be giving. Don't be afraid to give because after that you will never feel lacking again.

I thought I will pay off the debt when my daughter in junior high school but Alhamdulillah we can do that when she is still in elementary school. I'm grateful that we figure out the mistakes earlier.

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