This is Optimal Finance Daily Episode 1856, the minimum payment trap.

Escape it to change your money story by Jackie Beck of Jackie Beck.com.

Welcome back to Optimal Finance Daily or welcome if you're new here.

I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Mariam.

Now we're going to get right to it today as we optimize your life.

The minimum payment trap.

Escape it to change your money story by Jackie Beck of Jackie Beck.com.

Are you making minimum payments on all of your debt?

If so, that's absolutely better than not making those payments.

But just making the minimum payments is also not the best idea.

Why? Well, let me tell you a little story and then tell you about its flip side.

Picture this. You drag yourself out of bed in the morning to go to work to a job that,

if you're lucky, is okay. If you're not so lucky, it sucks.

On the way to work, you fight traffic or maybe have car issues.

Once you get there, you spend the day dealing with projects or situations that wouldn't ordinarily

be your life's priority. Maybe you go out for lunch, spending money in the process.

Maybe you work extra for no extra pay because the company is short-staffed or you want to impress

the boss. Then you head home, tired from the day at work. You rush around doing household chores,

getting something to eat and helping out your kids or other family members.

Finally, you relax for a few hours, doing something relatively mindless.

You want to do other things, the kinds of things you used to love doing once upon a time.

But you just don't have the energy. Then you head to bed, wake up the next day to do it all over

...