Set It and Forget It: Automatic Payment Plan

I’m really liking this set-it-and-forget-it plan that I’ve got going.

Though I’m just 3 weeks in, the thought of carrying a four figure balance for a few months isn’t eating away at me the way it used to.

The $1545 charge that I put on my card to additionally pay down the mortgage will be gone in 12 more weeks. No worries. The minimum payment is covered. All I need to do is make sure my checking account has enough in it.

The weekly $103 transfer from my checking account isn’t budget breaking either. Dare I say it, it’s almost easy.

Though it’s a sizeable balance, the entire account is out of mind because it’s on autopilot. It sort of feels like it will just evaporate on its own.

So now I’m toying with the idea of adding the remaining balance on my auto loan to the plan. The balance there is currently $1532. I’m deep in the red zone. This is like first-and-goal from the 5-yard line. A gimme.

Usually at this junction, I’d just pull out some money from savings and wipe the balance out. I’m in a position to do just that.

But I’m reluctant to tap myself out (again).

Now that the situation isn’t so dire, I’ve got to break from the hammer-and-chisel method of paying down debt that I’ve grown accustomed to.

Sure, it’d be great to have the auto loan off of the books in a matter of days, but at the cost of sweating it out for a few more pay periods? Maybe even a month or more?

It’s time to be a little more methodical about things. Pace myself. Easy does it. I mean, really, what’s the rush?

My minimum payment is non-existent. The most recent statement said my next due date was December of 2009. That’s over a year away.

And the finance charges per month are under $10 (down from a high of over $350/month when I was carrying so much credit card debt) so delaying the gratification won’t hurt financially.

In a lot of ways, it may actually help because it will allow me to get a HUGE jump on my savings now rather than later.

Ideally, I’d like to eliminate the car loan by December. That’s 13 weeks away.

With a current balance of $1532, that works out to around $120 per weekly payment. I can do that.

The left over income will go towards savings.