Millennial who paid off $68,600 in 3 years started with this book

When Guen Garrido graduated from UCLA in 2007, she had $40,000 in student debt. By the end of 2014, her total debt had grown to $68,600, thanks to a car loan, a few personal loans and credit

card debt. But three years and three months later, the San Diego-based millennial had paid off every cent. After making the conscious decision to tackle her debt at the start of 2015, the

first thing Garrido did was dive into the personal finance resources out there: books, podcasts, articles and even videos on YouTube. She started with personal finance guru Dave

Ramsey's bestseller, "The Total Money Makeover," which helped her take control of her money and come up with her plan for getting out of the red. While reading Ramsey's

book, Garrido decided too use his "snowball method" to pay off everything. With this strategy, you prioritize your smallest debts, regardless of interest rate. For Garrido, that

meant starting with $50 she owed Target. The idea is that you'll appreciate watching debts disappear as you would watching a snowball grow bigger and bigger, and that will help you stay

excited about the process. As Garrido puts it: "Psychologically, when you hit the smallest one, you're winning."