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Conventional wisdom dictates that those wondering how to get out of debt should pay down high interest debt first. When people use this as an answer to the age old “how to get out of debt?” question, they are drawing on the assumption that high interest debt will grow faster, thus eliminating it will stop you from getting into more debt. But Dave Ramsey has another method for people wondering how to get out of debt.

You may recognize Dave Ramsey from his syndicated radio program The David Ramsey Show, which often gives advice on how to get out of debt. Ramsey argues that you should pay off the smallest debt first  regardless of interest rate. The reason: it’ll create vital momentum to help you pay off debt.

According to Ramsey, the personal finance fundamentals that tell us how to get out of debt is 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior. The snowball plan stresses the latter. Here’s what you do:

Stop paying extra on all of your loans. This seems like odd advice for someone who wants to know how to get out of debt. But by paying nothing but the minimum on your all your loans except for the smallest one, you can begin knocking out debts one at a time. To begin, accumulate a $1,000 cash emergency fund. After you have your emergency fund, you should list your debts in order, starting with the one with the smallest balance. Do not pay attention to interest rates or terms  unless two debts have the same balance. In that case, do use the conventional wisdom on how to get out of debt and pay off the higher interest debt first. Otherwise, focus on paying off the smallest debts first. Divert all of your extra money towards aggressively paying down that smallest debt. When one debt is gone, move on to the next.

The point of this method is to give you quick, positive reinforcement. When faced with the dilemma of how to get out of debt when you have numerous loans, it can be hard to keep from getting discouraged when you just pay off a small fraction of each loan at a time. With the snowball plan, however, you get a bit of immediate gratification when you knock out a debt. This encouragement will help you continue your quest to get out  of debt. You area building what Ramsey calls “momentum.”  He encourages you to reevaluate your snowball plan each time you eliminate a debt so you can track your progress.

When trying to figure out how to get out of debt, the overall task can seem entirely too daunting and intimidating. But by breaking up the titanic puzzle of how to get out of debt into manageable chunks using David Ramsey’s debt snowball plan, you can systematically take care of your debt.  If you’ve tried all the other methods with little success and are wondering how to get out of debt using a method that boosts your confidence, try Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball plan.