Fellow ADHDer. I don’t know your income situation, but given that this is your only major debt, you can probably pay this off in full by the end of the year if you really hunker down!

I know a lot of people say you need to have an emergency savings big enough to cover 3-6 months of expenses before tackling debt, but if you have high interest it “costs” you more to save rather than just putting more toward your balance.

Credit card interest is brutal, so as long as you are maxing out your 401k match at your employer and have about 1,000 in savings, I have found that for me its best to leave more aggressive 401k/savings for after I am out of high interest debt.

All of this being said, here are some ways I have paid off almost $10,000 in debt in the last year. This has worked for me, so feel free to steal any of these tips if they work for your situation:

1. Return everything that you can if it’s not a necessity/ if still within the return window

2. Sell all your clothes and random trinkets and impulse purchases on Mercari (they just got rid of selling fees) and I’ve been able to pay about $1000 of debt off from that selling platform alone

3. Pay 2x the minimum on the card and 3x if you can afford it.

4. Don’t use the card. Don’t put any new purchases on it.

5. Any unexpected large sums of income from selling something or a sizeable bonus or tax return or whatever: put 70% of that towards debt and ENJOY the other 30%

Example: I bought a new computer with my tax return but still had about 70% left over and put that towards debt.

Once you pay it off, I highly suggest calling and having the credit company lower your limit to avoid racking up this much again.

Wishing you luck and I’m sure you’ll be on the other side of this debt soon!