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Oh, this one is going to be fun… NOT. This year, I made a deal with myself to buy one share of something every single trading day. I’ve been following the updated game plan, which currently leaves me with seven funds in the $50-$60 window, alongside ARR and AGNC in the $25 and $13 ranges. There are 76 trading days left in 2026. If I bought one share a day, my cheapest option would cost around $1,000 total, and the most expensive would run around $4,500.
What does that have to do with the debt pay down articles? Well, not much, except I still have to cap IRAs and the HSA. So, I loosened my mentality a bit for this part of the year, and I’m using the IRA purchases to count toward buying a share each day. Right now, I’ve been putting $100 per day into my wife’s IRA to cap for 2026. After October 1st, I will pivot into the HSA, since the IRA technically gives us until April 15th of 2027 to finish funding. Still, this $100 per day has been eating into funds that I would normally throw at the debt ball.
So, I guess it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty.
| 9/15/26 Real Total | Last Month Amount | Current Balance | Difference | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USAA 1.5% | $0 | $0 | $0.00 | Still has some Auto pay items, but keeping it down. |
| Gas CC (USAA): | $0 | $0 | $0.00 | Peaked $450 again. |
| Chase Cards x3: | $0 | $0 | $0.00 | Auto bills for max points. |
| Robinhood Gold: | $1,271.59 | $3,455.56 | $2,183.97 | With most spending moved this card is rough. |
| Car Loan 4.99% | $15,346.63 | $14,911.67 | -$434.96 | $500 payment. |
| 401k Loan 9.50% | $31,044.92 | $30,057.02 | – $987.90 | $600 x2 payments, interest is paid to my 401k. |
| HELOC | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | No activity. |
| SoFi Loan 3.59% | $37,326.22 (True $12,326.22) | $36,387.42 (True $11,387.42) | -$938.80 | $1173.78 in auto pay. |
| September Total: | $84,989.36 (True $59,989.36) | $84,811.67 (True $59,811.67) | -$177.69 | $25,000 isn’t real as it’s holding in savings for more interest than the loan. |
| Net Progress: | -$177.69 |
Whew! That sucks. I will admit, out of that $3,455 on the credit card, $1,100 is the Legion Go that I bought with the back-pay money. I was also letting the lawyer fees marinate on the card, but it was giving me heart palpitations, so I paid it off yesterday. The original strategy was to let that cash sit in my Robinhood Savings earning 4.25% interest compounded daily since card incurs no interest until the 3rd of the month. By paying the lawyer fees off now instead of the end of the month, I gave up around $7 in interest.
While I understand how interest works, it is frustrating to see $2,873.78 in total payments only remove $2,361.66 from the principal balance. That’s over $500 lost each month to interest drag. Mathematically, it should be closer to $410, but might have pulled numbers earlier or applied a payment that was still pending in a previous article.
Either way, net down is net down. Let’s try to speed up this process.
~~Miniwing~~
Investor, Stoic, Parent
Comments
2 responses
Seeing $2,873.78 in payments knock only $2,361.66 off principal is exactly the frustration that makes people quit, so credit to you for posting the real numbers. The gap between your $500 and the expected $410 is often just timing: interest accrues daily, so a payment that posts a few days later than you modeled costs a bit more. The one-share-a-day rule is a fun way to keep investing visible while the snowball rolls. Once the HSA is capped after October, will that $100 a day swing back to the debt?
At the moment it is working on capping my wife’s IRA for 2026. Once that is done I was originally going to cap my IRA with the $100 per day, but the value add of putting $7,500 against debt was better than also capping my IRA.