Goal #1

“In the long run you hit only what you aim at. Therefore, though you fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.”

Henry David Thoreau

In my own attempt at aiming for something high as Thoreau advises, I have decided to start with paying off my student loans. And when I say start, what I really mean is finish paying off my student loans. I started with around $55k coming out of four years of undergrad. Now after five years of paying the minimum payment of $600 per month I’m down to $24,011.60, which works out to around $6,000 per year that I have been paying off. My goal completion date is August 2014, just under a year from today.

Here’s my plan. I’m going to continue to pay the minimum payments until around April 12th, 2014. Some short time after I plan to dump almost everything I have saved up on it like the fire it is, as one of my favorite bloggers, Mr. Money Mustache, recommends. After which I will also be able to unleash the ace up my sleeve, my wife to be. We have both been saving like crazy since getting engaged in February 2013 to cover any extra wedding expenses and a honeymoon, after which we should have a good amount left over to dump on the remaining $20k or so, and from that point on it is no holds bar all out frenzy to finish them off. I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on the progress.