In 2009, Heidi Ifland Nash and her husband were paying off $38,000 of debt.
Theyd been working on it for several years.
The very first chart I made was just a big square with lines, she said, laughing.
I said, This is so boring!
Im gonna put some words on it.
She divided her debt by the number of lines and added the increments to the side.
It was the first officialDebt Free Chart.
I was looking for something more inspiring than just the big ugly square that Id made, she said.
No Interest Til Almost 2027?
Soon, people started asking for personalized charts.
I was custom-making everyones numbers, she said.
It didnt occur to me for months to make ones with just lines and no numbers on the side.
From there, people asked for different words.
First was car loan.
Other types of loans followed.
The first 16 to 20 designs came from requests from the forum.
Nash wanted to make them available to anyone, so she uploaded them to a Blogspot blog in 2010.
Then, she forgot about them.
People were downloading them constantly.
But a vision board celebrates future achievements.
Its just as important to remind yourself of what youve already accomplished during the journey.
Thats what Debt Free Charts offer.
They make the stale process of paying off debt interactive.
Every payment is a celebration of moving one step closer to that vision board goal.
How Debt Free Charts Got a New Life
In December 2017, Nash got a chart request.
It was the first in a while.
So she moved the charts to their own website.
She got the idea to post pictures of people with their charts.
She knew some YouTubers had filled out the charts, but she didnt know what to expect beyond that.
What she found were hundreds of pictures on Instagram with the hashtag #debtfreecharts.
Its kinda taken on a life of its own, Nash said.
Its doing things I never expected it to do.
Nash never expected her first Debt Free Chart would turn into the 80-plus she has on her website now.
Most cost $1, but 20 are free.
At $1 each, she isnt looking to get rich on chart sales.
She wants to break even for the cost of running the website.
Shed rather use the popularity of the charts to give more away for free.
Which ones are her favorites?
She loves seeing people post their finished starter emergency fund charts.
Another favorite is the adoption fund chart.
Shes also starting to run challenges to help people meet their savings goals faster.
She wants to create a sense of community among those paying off debt.
Its something I never expected to feel.
Jen Smith is a former staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
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