3 Unusual Ways To Get Out of Debt

If you’re in debt and strategizing to get out, you’ve probably read all the standard advice and learned about all the boilerplate, go-to tactics — consolidate multiple debts into one fixed-rate loan, transfer high-interest balances to a card with a 0% introductory APR, call your creditors to ask for lower interest rates , consider the services of a reputable debt-assistance company, etc.

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Those are all worthy strategies — but they’re hardly the only ones.

Before you settle on a plan, consider these alternative options that are a bit more off the beaten path, but might punch your ticket to a debt-free life .

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Start Small

If you’re battling multiple debts at the same time, it might seem logical to tackle the biggest one or the one with the highest interest rate first.

However, radio host and personal finance celebrity Dave Ramsey suggests using the snowball method, which — as counterintuitive as it might seem — targets your smallest debt as the first order of business.

It’s a simple, five-step plan.

1. Organize your debts from smallest to largest no matter the interest rate.
2. Make only the minimum payments on everything but the smallest.
3. Contribute as much extra money as possible on your littlest debt until it’s gone.
4. Pay what you had been paying toward your smallest to your next smallest debt until it’s gone, too.
5. Repeat the process until you’re debt-free.

While you might want to attack your biggest or most expensive obligation first, the snowball method lets you rack up quick wins early, which builds momentum and gives you the confidence to battle the big debts once the little ones are out of the way.

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Get a Boost by Finding Lost Money

According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, 1 in 7 Americans has money or other assets that the government is holding for them and waiting for them to claim. The states return more than $4 billion annually to people just like you for outstanding refunds, uncollected insurance policies, inactive bank accounts, abandoned stocks or other securities, refunds from undelivered goods or services and uncashed checks that many people didn’t even know they had coming to them.

Visit Unclaimed.org to start your search for owed money that could take a big bite out of your debt so you have less to pay from your checking account.

Learn To Love Paying Bills

Big-ticket debts like mortgages and car loans are monthly bills — but they don’t have to be.

If you pay bi-weekly instead — half of what you owe twice a month — you’ll make 26 payments over the course of the year, or the equivalent of one full extra payment annually. The extra goes directly to your principal, reducing your loan term and saving you thousands — or even hundreds of thousands — in interest charges.

Take this example from the Community State Bank Biweekly Mortgage Calculator:

If you have a $350,000 mortgage with a 7% interest rate, paying $1,164.28 biweekly instead of $2,328.56 monthly would reduce your term from 30 years to 23.7 years and save you a whopping $120,618.76 in interest payments over the life of your loan.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : 3 Unusual Ways To Get Out of Debt