Welcome to the weekend #SMCmoneytribe. Congratulations on finishing month 3 of the She Makes Cents 52 Week BINGO Money Challenge! How does it feel to see your money grow and know that you are closer to your goals than you were before you started the challenge? Keep that feeling close in the coming months. This is around the time, where people need the most motivation to keep going. As I revealed in the February recap, 80% of people fail their resolutions by February. If you are still going hard on this challenge, you are already more focused and goal-driven than most people. While the challenge isn’t hard, it does take discipline and consistency. I must admit I even found myself getting a little behind and then having to catch up before the end of the month. I am happy to report I am all caught up with a new sense of motivation.
How I Stay Motivation Doing The Money Challenge
Every once in a while, I calculate how long it would take me to pay off the remaining $17,940.40 in student loan debt I owe if I only made the monthly payment. The answer- 11 years and 3 months. Then I calculate how long it would take me and how much interest I would save if I added extra money toward the principal. For example, if I paid an extra $300.00 per month starting in April 2017 toward this goal, I would only have 3 years and 6 months left to pay on this loan. That’s right, making an additional $300.00 payment per month toward my student loans would shave off 7 years and 9 months off the term of the loan and would save me a little more than $5,550.00 in extra interest. Let that soak in for a minute, shall we. If I were to up the ante even more and started paying an additional $500.00 per month starting August 2017 instead of the $300.00 in the example above, I would be able to pay the loan off in 2 years and 8 months, shave off 8 years and 7 months of the repayment term, and save $5,862.60 in interest. Now folks, if that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what will. When I feel myself drifting off my path to financial freedom, I take a moment and do this exercise. It immediately fills me with a sense of inspiration, purpose, and energy especially considering that my student loans are the only thing now keeping me from moving from Baby Step 2 to Baby Step 3.
The March Recap
For the month of March, I saved $72.00 which puts me at a YTD of $221.00 through the end of March. I save more money than the previous month and I am really looking forward to what April brings. The end of April represents the end of the first quarter of the challenge which is when I will take the 2017 savings from this challenge and make a principal payment toward my student loan debt! If my financial projects for next month are correct, April will be the most successful month of the challenge thus far. Want to join the challenge? Click here for your FREE money card download.
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