conversation: User (OnwardKnight): "I have been talking to a good friend about this idea for a while and he just doesn't seem to get it and I don't know why. I really want to help motivate him towards attaining the life he wants for himself and his family.\n\nTo me, the amount of student loans my wife and I have are the biggest obstacle between us and the life we want to live. Saying goodbye to $600 of our hard-earned after-taxes dollars KILLS ME every month. That's why we live incredibly frugally and have a singular focus of being debt free by the age of 30 (we're 26 and have around $50k left).\n\nA year or so ago I was in a real motivational slump when it came to paying off debt. It happens. But then one day I started adding up all of the monthly payments we no longer had either due to trimming the budget (bye, Hulu) or paying off credit card balances, our cars and other things. That's when I realized that the amount of monthly payments we no longer have to make is around $700! Using this [nifty little calculator](https://www.omnicalculator.com/business/salary-to-hourly) for some helpful visualization I realized that the $700 per month was as if we gave ourselves a $4.04/hr raise over the last three years. Or, put another way, $8.4k annually (after taxes).\n\nLife is hard, debt sucks and it often seems insurmountable. Especially if the total number is in the tens of thousands owed. How much of a raise would you be giving yourself by paying it off? Any other mental tricks/illustrations you guys would recommend to help motivate a friend into not thinking their own debt situation is hopeless?\n\nEDIT: Wow, thank you so much everyone for sharing your thoughts and stories. One of the reasons I love this sub and Reddit in general is the opportunity to cross paths with and learn from people I never would otherwise. Keep pressing on! "
  Self: "That calculator is cool but it doesn't add time and a half for over time. I woulrk usually 55 hours and any time over 40 is 1.5 also working Sunday is double time. I wish they added those calculations into their model. But still fun! "
  User (OnwardKnight): "Yeah, the calculator isn't perfect but I still love it! They do have an [overtime calculator](https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/overtime) though that you might want to check out and use it to supplement the data you can't get from the first one. They have tons of awesome tools on their site that I enjoy using!\n\nAlso, enjoy that overtime pay. I remember when I used to earn overtime. One of the worst things was when my company forced me to become salaried and didn't increase my pay accordingly so I lost money and they saved money. C'est la vie."
  