Sam D. Miller

Starting today I’ve added a new graphic to my blog, and I’m calling it the Debt Payoff Meter. You can see it from just about any page on the site. It’s super straightforward – Each time I pay off debt (or each month, at least) I’ll update the meter to reflect how much money I’ve put down on the debt and how much closer I am to my goal of being debt free.

As of now, February 9th, my fiancée and I have just above $91,000 in debt remaining. I thought it was more around $90,000 as of my last post, but after double-checking all of the accounts it’s sadly just a little bit higher. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and my goal is to get rid of it as soon as possible. My aggressive repayment plan pegs us to be debt free by August 2018. That’s about three and a half years away. It’s a scary target and means we’ll need to throw as close to $30,000 down in debt each year as we can, but it’s certainly possible. And by all means I’ll try to get us debt free a lot sooner.

With our tax refunds going straight to the debt this year, rather than emergencies (like last year), we have a nice boost this month. We’ve also adjusted our tax basis so that we don’t get much of a refund next year. That means more money in today’s dollars to throw towards debt and less in the hands of Uncle Sam.

Overall, the goal of the meter is to keep me motivated and to provide a nice visualization to any fellow readers. If you’re following me, keep an eye on my tracker and help keep me accountable!