Thursday, June 2, 2011

Dilemma

Okay bloggy friends, I have a dilemma. It's a good dilemma though. :)

Today I got paid for the month of June. So, I moved the extra $57.22 leftover from my May budget to my car loan. Then, I made my regular payment for June. That leaves me with a balance of $585.82 on my car. Which is AWESOME. I also have an extra $387.32 on my June check that is not being used in another budget category. So, if I apply all that and really push it, I could conceivably get my car paid off this month.

OR

I am planning to go visit my sister in Alaska at the end of July. I need to buy a plane ticket for that trip. I can use the extra money from my budget (plus a little of my cushion money) to buy my plane ticket now. I will still look for any extra money in my budget areas to apply to my car payment, but it will not get paid off until next month. If I wait, my regular payment plus about $50 will do it in July, which will be no problem.

Honestly, I think it makes more sense to buy my plane ticket now to make sure I get a deal (and hopefully a direct flight) and know the dates. But, the goal-oriented part of me wants to meet my original goal of paying my car off a year early, in June. Not eleven months early, in July.

What would you do?

9 comments:

  1. I work in the airline industry and advise that you get the plane ticket now. If you wait you could end up paying much, much more. It is not worth makeing the goal of 12 months.

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  2. I would buy the plane ticket now to ensure that you get a reasonable price on the ticket. I think that if you wait, you might end up paying a lot more. The end goal is to pay off your car and you will still be accomplishing that.

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  3. plane ticket!! But I like where your head is at :). Congratulations on your progress so far!

    C.M.C. @ twentytwomonths.blogspot.com

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  4. Get the plane ticket... its not like you will pay that much in interest anyway by having the car payment one more month!

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  5. As hard as it will be to wait the extra month to pay off the car, I have to agree with all the "get the plane ticket" votes.

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  6. Plane ticket, you will still pay of the car! I know it is hard to wait.

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  7. Buy the plane ticket. You can think of it as an early reward for paying off your car if that makes you feel better. :)

    As someone who just paid an outrageous amount for a plane ticket, buy it early. I wish I had.

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