Our Van Loan

We purchased a new 2023 Honda Odyssey late August 2022. We paid for it with cash and a loan at 3.49% for 48 months. The principal balance started at $40,399. We have consistently made payments of much more than the minimum for just over two years and have a balance today of $5,725.96.

We currently plan to pay off this loan before the end of the year, possibly before the end of November. I have never been one to want to hold debt any longer than necessary...paying the bank interest sucks! 

The less debt we hold, the fewer expenses we have relative to our income, the more space we create for flexibility. The ability to adapt to increasing prices and inflation. The flexibility to put our money into places that earn us money. The flexibility to spend on things with meaning to us, like family vacations.

We are also about 14 months away from my husband retiring from the military. He may get another job because he likes to work, but we are also minimizing our expenses to live on the pension he will receive and our retirement savings. The less debt we are obligated to the better! 

I highly encourage anyone reading to get your house in order. Cut unnecessary expenses, establish an emergency fund, pay off debt as fast as possible. Regardless of income, we have personal responsibility to ourselves, our family and community to be a good steward of the resources given to us. 

May Snowflakes

I'm tracking money coming in this year from interest, credit card rewards, and other miscellaneous places. Reward money is going towards paying down our van loan. Each month I calculate the total and send it in towards the principal of the loan. Interest is just accumulating in our bank account to add to cash savings this year. 

Chase Rewards  $6.98

USAA Rewards $10.12

US Bank Reward $29.15

Amazon Rewards $10.00

Amex Reward $37.26

NFCU Interest $79.14

FNBO Interest $94.24

Total $266.89

YTD $1,306.90

Total rewards sent to van loan this month was $93.51. We now owe less than $15,000 on our van. The goal is to pay off the middle of next year. 

A College Savings Windfall

Our youngest daughter is about to start her final three semesters of college this month, so it's been time to evaluate how to pay the bills! As planned we are beginning to use her Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits she received from her dad. 

For at least the next two semesters tuition and fees will be paid in full by the VA, each semester is equal to about $6365. 

Her housing cost and meal plan is $4,066 per semester. The VA will provide housing allowance and a book stipend for each of these semesters. Each semester should net $6,517. Clearly more than the cost of housing we pay! 

I found out yesterday that her scholarships with are $2,250 per semester can be applied to the housing costs! This means that the actual housing cost owed will be $1,816 each semester, after scholarships are applied. Her sister had a scholarship at another university that didn't benefit us in this way when the VA paid. I think this has to do with type of scholarship and that one university was out of state tuition, while this current university is in state tuition. So we are pleasantly surprised to have this $4,500 benefit and windfall in our favor.

I have been saving $500 a month since the end of last year and have set aside $4500 in anticipation of paying the housing cost out of pocket, knowing we will eventually get the housing allowance (it's paid out monthly). I basically don't need this savings at all to handle the upcoming bill, because on top of these benefits she still has nearly $7,500 in her Educational Savings Account. I have already made a transfer out of her ESA to cover the housing we owe after scholarships are applied. 

Now remember I said she has three semesters left? The final semester her scholarships will have ended and depending on her housing choice, cost may increase, to as high as $6K. And we know how universities love to increase costs. I expect we will owe between $10,500 and $12,000 for her that final semester, but we have plenty of funds between the VA payments (and they may pay a small portion in the last semester) and her ESA.

Funds currently available

Cash $4300

ESA $7504

Expected VA payments

$13,034

Total Funds

$24,838

Expected Costs

Fall 21 $1,816

Spring 22 $1,816

Fall 22 $10,500 (min) 

Total $14,132

We have more funds available than expenses!

$24,838-$14132 = $10,706

The next two semesters will come from ESA funds and I will shift the $4,300 I saved this year to other priorities! We will stockpile the VA payments as they come in, drain the ESA the final semester, pay the difference with VA funds and keep the remaining amount, which appears to be $6400! Interestingly enough the VA does not require that housing and book payments be used for these costs. If you don't have books to buy or housing to pay (say you are living at home) than you are allowed to keep the funds for any other use. 

So yes, a $10K+ windfall!! Whohoo! 

Because we over saved for our youngest daughter and our oldest daughter took out a small student loan her final semesters of college in the amount of $5,500, we are going to pay her loan off which is about $3100 remaining. She hasn't paid any money to the loan yet because of the deferment currently allowed. She is sitting on a housing reimbursement since the college closed early in March 2020 and a small VA payment that total $2400. 

I'm almost shell shocked that we did it, or are nearly there. With our college savings efforts, cash flow and VA benefits we paid in full for our two daughters to attend college (19 semesters). 

Paying off A Loan

We are cosigners on our daughter's car that we bought in May 2019. We paid about half in cash and took out a small loan for $5,700. If memory serves our daughter put about half of the cash down on the car. We honestly didn't have a great plan after that. We had some thought she would take over payments after graduating in May 2020. 

It took her about six months to secure a full time job and here we are two months later. The balance on the loan was under $3,500. We decided to pay it off in full. We know it will help her to not have a car payment, even though small at $133.50 per month. We knew that we had also received $3,600 from the Federal government this year. Money we really didn't need or want. We have always used windfalls to pay off/down debt, so that is what we have done again. 

If you pay close attention to my POP reports, yes, we did save the first stimulus cash ($2,400) towards our savings goal. We will not be reducing that number!

During the last four months of the year all federal employees were exempt from social security deductions. We saved all of these funds, which was eight payments of $258.06, amounting to $2,064.48. With the stimulus money we were pretty close to the payoff amount. There's always some extra cash in various places.

The main point is that we sent a check to pay off this car loan in full today for the amount of $3,497.81. One less payment for me or her to think about! Now we hope she can keep this car for a few years as she gets her financial life on track.