New Toolbars

I came to a decision tonight, and updated my toolbars accordingly. I have decided that before I start my savings for a down payment on a house, I should completely pay off my car loan. I have a large car payment and two and a half more years left if I keep paying the scheduled amount. I had originally planned to go with that and start saving separately, but upon further reflection, I have set the goal to aggressively pay off my car loan and completely own my car by July 2011. (Ugh, that sounds SO far away).

My reasoning is as follows: the sooner I pay off my car loan, the more money I save on interest. Once the car is paid off, I can pour more money into my house down payment fund, but can also diversify and work on some retirement investments with the extra money I will have each month.

I am sort of disappointed that I won't get to start saving for a house right away, but I think this way makes more financial sense. And, it will be great not to have that car payment hanging over my head anymore. So, the progress bar just reflects how much I owe on the car starting from today. I am going to continue with the regular payments until my credit cards are paid off, and then start dumping extra money into my car payment.