The race to debt payoff has begun. In July we were able to record three paychecks, and apply this extra principle towards our mortgage. Our family's desire to get out from under this debt is beginning to take on a whole new meaning. A meaning like we have a disease or sickness and we want to rid our bodies of it.
A lot of other priorities for our house and lifestyle have taken a back seat. We want to get our deck stained, our kitchen floor needs to be buffed, and we have a kitchen table that is 15 years old. A lot of wants/needs that are mounting and taking a back seat to our mortgage pay off. With that said, here is the latest status of what we paid off in 2016
Mortgage Pay Off Countdown
Balance: $62,743
Paid last month (July 1): $2950
Extra Money That Was Applied: $1641
Goal of Pay Off Date: August 2018
- Pension – [2016 Goal – $1308 – made $654 thus far] – the pension continues to feed our private school fund at a consistent rate with no required action. Private schooling was fully funded by August 1st and we were able to prepay tuition with our Amazon credit card and get 1% cash and get the 3% discount.
- Peer-to-Peer Lending – [2016 Goal make $100 – made $19.23 thus far] – I've essentially paused my LendingClub.com contribution (egg sales distributions) and will focus on paying down the mortgage. I think this is a good strategy until some of the regulatory oversight is completed that I wrote about last month.
- Egg Sales – [2016 Goal – $360 – made $112 thus far] – our chickens have significant decreased production both due to the hot weather and predators have been killing our chickens. Our production has dropped so much that we've had to buy eggs from the store. Ugh!
- Blog Income – [2016 Goal – $6000 – made $4955 thus far] – made $588 last month that has now bumped me up to almost $5000 for the year and we have five months still left! Last month I used 100% of our blog revenue to pay down our mortgage. So every little bit is going to become debt free.
- Two Checking Account System – [2016 Goal – $500 – made $263.00 thus far] – our launch of the two checking account system for the past two months have been very successful. We didn't have any sign ups last month, but we are continuing to stay focus on this income stream.
- Schwab Monthly Income Fund – [2016 Goal – invest $1200 and make $100] – contributions to this fund have halted for the last few months, because we are focused on paying off our house. I forsee this will be a lot of the same for the coming months as wee continue to keep focused on paying down debt.
- Amazon's MTurk – [2016 Goal – make $500 – made $30 thus far] – I haven't had any time to work on MTurk in the last month, because I was focused on getting my VMware vCloud Automation certification. Hopefully I can start doing more in Aug.
Overall, I've halted all income generation, but we are squarely focused on paying down our debt, and getting to be debt free. It is amazing how being focused on one area really drives you to accomplish that one goal. I think that is why Dave Ramsey so often has his audience snowball their debts.
3 Comments
I like read list of income because I compare it with my ( paltry ) achievements. Thanks a lot!
Hi Charlie!
Thanks for the in depth share of not only your income sources, but your goals as well! I’m new to the blogging world, so all of this info is super helpful to me!
I love how diverse your streams of income are, Charlie! Everything from investing to blogging to selling eggs. Sorry about the heat, by the way! I really want diversify my online income. There’s too much service-based work right now, so I’m focusing on optimizing ads and maximizing affiliate income. Keep up the great work!