Focused Intensity

Goals are a great thing.  Having a place you want to get to or something you want to accomplish is a tremendous thing to have.  The problem is so often, we feel like we're meandering toward our goals.  It can feel not like we're a horse streaking to the barn after a long journey, but rather like we're a dog crossing a field, stopping to sniff every tree and rock while marking our territory along the way.

Then there is the joy of Focused Intensity.

Right now, my wife and I are in the throes of Focused Intensity.  We have our Big Goal -- being debt free -- and we have our smaller goals.  In this case, our current smaller goal is being rid of our student loan, which as of this writing sits at about $17,840.  We are doing everything in our power to eradicate this loan, focusing every ounce of our will and every dollar of our making toward it's non-existence. 

We've wanted this loan gone for a while, but now, we really want it gone.  We want it gone so badly, we're willing to put off pretty much every other expense in our lives (not our bills and mortgage, of course, but every expense outside of that) to make it happen.  We want every available dollar to be going toward that loan, and we do mean every dollar:

Extra Income: We can pay our bills and mortgage on the money my wife makes teaching.  That means that any of my income -- school income, church music director income, piano lesson income, composing income -- goes toward the debt.  $60 for a day's worth of piano lessons?  Put it toward the loan.  $500 royalty check for composing?  Put it toward the loan.  $400 from two weeks' work at school?  Put it toward the loan.

Snowflaking: This is a twist on Dave Ramsey's "Snowball" method of paying off a loan (I think I heard about this on The Simple Dollar, but I'm not sure).  You take every small, tiny amount of money you can, and you apply it toward the loan.  With the student loan, I can make one payment every day.  That means that every day I get any income, I put that income toward the loan.  In the past two weeks, I've made five payments.  Financially, this pays off the interest I've accrued since the last payment (sometimes as little as $1.72) and drops the principal, meaning the next time I pay, there will be a smaller principal balance accruing interest.  Psychologically, it means every time I look at that principal number, it will likely be smaller.

Snowflakes are anything, from the $5.72 refund from Verizon after I canceled my cell plan and got on board my father's, to the fact our Visa bill for the month was $100 less than budgeted.  No amount is too big or too small to snowflake it.

Frugal-ing: Anything we can do to reduce our expenses is extra money I can throw at the loan.  Even though the temperature today is going to get to 85, the breeze is nice and strong, so we've got the windows thrown wide.  Total cost to climate-control the house for the day?  $0.  Sure it's just a couple of cents, but it adds up.  Driving the car to school with the windows down has made a difference, too, as I've noticed an increase in our gas mileage, meaning I have to spend that much less at each fill-up.  As I write this, I've got a crock pot of chili cooking, which for about $7.00 in materials and electricity will provide about 4 meals for each of us, saving us a ton of money over what we could spend to eat out or on prepackaged "convenience foods."  The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and the eradication of a student loan begins with a single cent.

Selling the umbrella:  I sat down with my Spreadsheet today and looked at our finances over the next few months.  In my spreadsheet, I've got not only our anticipated income and expenses, but also an interactive amortization table of both our mortgage and student loan.  I can see how putting various amounts of money toward a loan will change its life just by moving some numbers around.

I made the realization this morning that if we continue to put all our available money toward the student loan, the balance on it will be under $4000 by Christmas.  If we dip into our Rainy Day fund (i.e. Sell part of our financial "umbrella") we can give ourselves a nice Christmas gift of paying off the loan.  We make 1.1% on the Rainy day account and pay 3.25% on the student loan, so the math works in our favor; and since my wife is guaranteed a job until at least August, and my income streams are trustworthy, we can then take a month or two to repay the rainy day fund to its previous level once the loan is gone.  I know this goes against "conventional" advice for a rainy day fund, but for us, it works.


What other ways could we be focusing our intensity to make this student loan no more than a foggy memory?  Let us know in the comments section.