Sallie & Perkins: An Update

It's has now been just over a year since our alter-egos made an appearance on this blog and I thought it was about time to update the world on where we've been. If you're newer around here, you might not even know Sallie & Perkins exist. They started as a way to document our student loan payoff, hence the names we chose.... Sallie Mae and of course the dreaded Federal Perkins Loan. 

We officially paid off our last student loan in December 2014. We celebrated, we hollered and danced and definitely chilled out on the obsessive number crunching for a month or so. That mental break was much needed. In 2015, we felt committed to paying down our mortgage and ended up paying an extra $12,000 off - on top of our regularly scheduled mortgage payment. It was great to see that principle reduction and that "big" number at the end of 2015, but let's face it- we could have done more.

You see, there were months we were paying $2-3,000 extra on student loans when we truly buckled down! We got lazy last year and just made extra mortgage payments when we could. We didn't have a set plan to pay off a set amount and I think that's what hurt our progress. We WANT to be those weird people who don't have a mortgage payment one day. Let me clarify- not just one day... sometime in the next few years! So while our $12,000 in 2015 was great? We know we will do better in 2016.

We've made it our goal to pay off an additional $25,000 on our home this year. GASP. It's a big number, but it's doable. We paid that amount in one year previously, and that was a couple of years ago where we made less than we do now. I think sometimes it's hard to stay as focused when it's a mortgage vs a student loan debt but making this goal has motivated us more than ever. Already this year we've paid an additional $7,600 toward our mortgage and it feels great to start with that momentum.

We don't ever want to lose our momentum or get too comfortable living a life of debt. It's not the only way to live, promise! If you ever want to talk debt, Dave Ramsey or just want a pep talk- feel free to hit us up. Nothing makes us happier than hearing about others tackle their debt as well.

Mortgage- we're coming for ya!