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It's been a month since I shared our progress with the student loan project.
We have one student loan between us and its our only non-mortgage debt left. It is time to focus on paying it down faster.
I’m using any after-tax revenue generated from My Financial Reviews to pay down the student loan faster.
The idea here is that money is sent out almost as soon as it comes in.
We're Scheduling Payments Now
So last month I mentioned that the extra $1,000 we put towards the student loan pushed back the required due date for the next payment until this fall.
I had assumed that the automated payments would still be withdrawn from our account. When we had a car payment that's how it worked.
I was mistaken about the process. When I went to check on the joint account, I noticed that April's payment hadn't been taken out yet.
That means we have to automate our payments from our end. It's not a problem, just a bit unexpected.
The bright side is if our budget changes dramatically we have some leeway with the student loan.
Chugging Along with Extra Payments
Not much to say this month about additional payments. Right now an extra payment is scheduled for tomorrow for $100.
My plan for May is to work harder on decreasing monthly expenses. My main focus will be cutting gasoline expenses by 25% and keeping our food expenses below $350.
Stay tuned next Monday for the Fuel Challenge announcement. I thought it would be fun to make a contest with saving money.
Since we got our cable bill lowered (verified by the bill we received yesterday) I'm reallocating the money saved towards paying down the student loan.
Thoughts on Paying Down Debt
I’d love to hear from you about your financial goals this year. How many of you are paying down debt? How is it going so far? What has been the biggest challenge?