Getting out of debt can be one of the most challenging but also, rewarding endeavors in life. It requires massive amounts of motivation, persistence, and patience.
In order to become debt free, it really helps to have every possible mode of motivation to help you reach your goal. And the best way to do so is by making yourself a Debt Free Vision Board.
Writing down your goals and regularly visualizing life after achieving those goals have time & again proven to be excellent motivating factors to enable you to reach your targets. A Debt Free Vision Board will help you do just that.
What Is a Vision Board?
A vision board is a place where you collect and make a visual representation of all of your life’s greatest desires. It usually showcases all the things that you aim to be able to achieve or acquire in your lifetime.
As the name suggests, a vision board is usually made on a board that you can see regularly in your daily life with a collection of pictures, cutouts, printouts, quotes, etc. of all the things that you wish to be able to achieve.
Debt Free Vision Board
A debt free vision board is just a type of vision board made for and by people who aim towards getting out of debt and living a life of financial freedom.
It will usually consist of all the things that people living in debt hope to obtain and a visualization of how life may look after paying off debt.
Why Do People Use Vision Boards?
The whole idea of a vision board is to keep you focused on things that matter. It is very easy in today’s world full of distractions to lose focus and motivation to keep doing the things that really matter.
In such a case when you start losing track of the things that you need to do to reach your goals, it will help you to recharge your focus and bring attention back to the important tasks at hand.
How Will a Debt Free Vision Board Help You to Reach Financial Freedom?
According to studies, it is more likely that you’ll achieve your goals if you visualize them or write them down. A visual representation of all the things that you want in life can affect the decisions you make on a daily basis.
A debt free vision board has a collection of all the things that you wish to achieve once you pay off your debts. Feeding your brain with such visuals daily will push you forward, motivate you and influence your decisions to do the important things to make the dream of a debt free life a reality.
Can a Vision Board Be Only Used for Financial Goals?
Not at all! A vision board can be used for a number of different segments of your life. In fact, I really encourage you to use vision boards for the various other areas of your life.
For example, a vision board can be used for:
- Physical life/health goals
- Career
- Family
- Social life
- Spirituality
Writing down your life goals and putting them in a visual format will really set you up for imminent success in all walks of your life.
Steps to Follow Before Making Your Debt Free Vision Board
1. Figure Out Your “Why”
Before you go on to make a vision board, you need to figure out why you need to make one in the first place. What exactly is it that you aim to achieve by making a debt free vision board apart from the usual reasons.
It could be anything like having peace of mind from financial stress, being able to travel somewhere that you’ve always wanted to or maybe you could quit that 9 to 5 job that you absolutely hate.
Becoming debt free has some really important advantages. How will it benefit you, what is your “why”?
2. Set Realistic and Achievable Goals
Now that you’ve figured out why you need to get out of debt, it is time to prepare an achievable and realistic roadmap to help you get to your goals.
Just dreaming about getting out of debt is not going to actually make it happen. You need to have a clear plan of action to help you achieve your goal of being debt free.
For example, you can divide your entire debt amount by the number of months you aim to get out of debt within. This will give you the amount you need to save up each month to be able to pay off your debt.
If your current job or income does not let you afford to save that amount every month, you will know that you need to work on another income stream or side hustle.
Or it will give you an insight on the things that you can save money on or create a budget to be able to save up on day-to-day expenses to pay off your debt.
Related: What Is The Purpose Of A Budget? (11 Important Benefits)
3. Make a Wish List (Very Important)
The last thing that you need to do before you make your debt free vision board is to make a wish list of all the things that you will be able to do once you finally get out of debt.
This can include things like pictures of places that you’ve always wanted to visit, that dream car that you always wanted to own, sending your kids to the dream college or a charity that you always wanted to support.
Making a collection of all these things will give you the drive and the motivation to work hard towards your goal of becoming debt free.
How to Make a Debt Free Vision Board
Step 1. Select a Location
Before you start putting together your debt free vision board, you need to find a good location for it.
It should ideally be in a place where you spend a lot of time throughout your day, somewhere where you can see it daily and get inspired.
The whole point of the vision board is to keep you motivated on a regular basis so that working towards your goal of becoming debt free becomes second nature to you.
Step 2. Take Measurements
Once you’ve figured out the location for your board it is now time to measure the area that your board can take up.
This will give you a rough idea of the size of the board to look for when going shopping.
Step 3. Buy Supplies
It is finally time to go shopping! Here are the things that you will need to create your own debt free vision board:
1. Board
There are lots of different types of boards that you can get according to your preference. You can get a basic cork board like this one –
There are so many different possibilities when selecting the board, just select one that you would love to look at every day.
2. Push Pins
You will need push pins to stick all your printouts and cuttings onto the board. You can choose to get simple ones or you could get more decorative ones if you fancy them.
As you can see, the possibilities with pin selection are also endless.
3. Paper
You are going to need some sort of paper to write down your goals or to print them out of a printer.
You can get a simple white variety or if you’re crafty, you can get some colored options. Just make sure to get some sort of a thick variety so that it does not wear out or get wrinkly after some time.
Step 3. Create a Template
Once you’ve got all your stationery supplies needed for the vision board ready, it is time to create a template so that you know that everything will fit on your board.
In this step, you need to put together ideas of all the goals and achievements that you’d like to put on your board.
Once you do that, you need to make cutouts from the paper you’ve bought. You can make simple shapes like circles, squares, or rectangles. Write down your goals on these cutouts that you can later stick onto your board.
Tip: It is also important to write down dates next to your goals, giving you some sort of urgency in the form of deadlines, so you stop putting them off. We all tend to follow through with the tasks at hand when we have dates/deadlines to meet.
Step 4. Select Magazines and Printouts
After writing down your goals, you need to find the visual inspiration for your board. These can be in the form of cutouts from magazines or you can simply take printouts of images or quotes from the internet using a color printer.
If you have old magazines lying around, you could flip through them and find pictures of things you would want to stick to your vision board or you could just ask some of your friends to give you their old magazines.
Take printouts or cut out pictures from those magazines that will inspire and motivate you to achieve each of your goals.
Step 5. Put Everything Together
Once you have all your written goals and visual prints ready, it’s time to put it all together onto your board using those push pins. You can do it chronologically or in a way that visually appeals to you.
Eventually, the whole point of the board is to give you constant inspiration and make you feel good. So it only makes sense that you try and make it look at least a little pretty. Just make sure it is something that you enjoy looking at every day!
Conclusion
The primary purpose of a debt free vision board is to remind you every day that the things on it are important. It should serve as a constant reminder to drive you to do the things that’ll keep you focused to achieve your goals.
Write down the steps to your ultimate goal of becoming debt free, support them with complementing images and it’ll be there every day reminding you to make those important choices.
I wish you all the best in your journey to becoming debt free and achieving financial freedom.
Have you ever made a debt free vision board for yourself? How has it helped you in achieving your financial goals? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you guys.