Good-bye $110,000

Thanks to the power of putting small yet continuous sums of money against our two loans, we just crossed beneath the $110,000 owed threshold.  In just under 6 months, we've paid off over $14,000 in debt.  Now, to be fair, that's a little behind where we need to be if we want to be paid off in that 40 month time period.  But bear in mind two things:

1. In that time we've gone in to "crisis mode" and socked extra money away in a rainy day account, as well as refinanced our mortgage.  Unless something truly insane happens, we won't have to do either of those again in the near future.

2. The later it gets and the more principal we pay down, the less of our regular monthly payment will go toward interest.  A regular monthly payment toward a $90,000 mortgage won't lower the principal balance as much as it will if the loan's balance is $20,000.  The closer to 40 months we get, the faster the principal reduction starts happening, like snow in an avalanche.

Things will be slowing up in the next few months -- summer means no income from school for me and less piano lesson income -- but we still hope to make great strides in our program.  Our next big hurdle (hopefully in the next week or two) is to get the mortgage down below $90,000.  Small goals, to be sure, but they help us stay on track and stay focused when we'd rather go out and splurge needlessly.