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As with the famous turtle…slow and steady wins the race.
This month, with my wife is still recovering from surgery, we reduced our envelope budget of $1,000 per month to $500 in order to help catch up on some spending from last month. So let’s look at some numbers.
| 10/15/26 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: | $3,455.56 | $1,916.46 | -$1,539.10 | Electric, Gas, and Water bills hit really close to this post every month. |
| Car Loan 4.99% | $14,911.67 | $14,472.83 | -$438.84 | $500 payment. |
| 401k Loan 9.50% | $30,057.02 | $29,062.67 | – $994.35 | $600 x2 payments, interest is paid to my 401k. |
| HELOC | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | No activity. |
| SoFi Loan 3.59% | $36,387.42 (True $11,387.42) | $35,320.79 (True $10,320.79) | -$1,066.63 | $1173.78 in auto pay. |
| September Total: | $84,811.67 (True $59,811.67) | $80,772.75 (True $55,772.75) | -$4,038.92 | $25,000 isn’t real as it’s holding in savings for more interest than the loan. |
| Net Progress: | -$4,038.92 |
Much better progress than last month, but I wish I could crank it up harder.
I ran some math this morning regarding my 401k loan. If I dialed back my 401k contributions to only maximize my employer match and added the rest to 401k loan repayments, I would save roughly $1,500 in expected interest at the cost of $2,700 more in taxes owed.
As much as I despise the idea of that 401k loan sitting around for two more years, I don’t think I can justify pulling money out of new 401k contributions to lose more money than the interest will cost me — especially since this interest does pay back into my own 401k.
As soon as I finish capping the wife’s IRA for 2026, I am going to take the tax hit from not capping my IRA and instead pump all of that money into debt repayment. Progress on the wife’s IRA is currently at $4,900 out of $7,500 this year. That’s 26 more trading days worth of $100 contributions. That should be done by November 20th. Which might leave me around 25 trading days left of 2026 to continue the $100 per day against debt.
~~Miniwing~~
Investor, Stoic, Parent
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