The following post originally appeared on our听RoadLoans blog,听The Open Road.
It鈥檚 not easy, but it can be done.
Getting ahead on auto loan, mortgage or credit card payments takes discipline and a plan 鈥� and it鈥檚 well worth the effort, according to financial experts.
鈥淲hile working toward becoming debt free, I wanted to use every trick in the book to save money, increase my income, and pay down my debt faster,鈥� blogger Carrie Smith of 鈥淐areful Cents鈥� wrote recently at Huffington Post Money.
In the blog post, she offers her 鈥淭op 6 ways to Pay Off Any Loan Faster鈥�:
- Make bi-weekly payments to your lender, submitting half the monthly payment every two weeks. Such a strategy will pay off your loan early because it鈥檒l result in an extra payment per year, and reduce the interest you pay in the long run.
- Round up your payments, 鈥渁n effortless way to pay extra without even missing the funds.鈥� And, Smith writes, 鈥測ou don鈥檛 need a lot of extra funds鈥� to have an impact.
- Put any extra money you earn (or find) toward paying down your loan amount.
- Make one extra payment per year, using the money from a tax refund or work bonus.
- Refinance your loan, which Smith calls 鈥渙ne of the easiest ways to lower your payment, save interest and pay off your loan in half the time鈥� at current interest levels.
- Go paperless, which could bring additional discounts, when you sign up for automatic withdrawal on your auto payments and for paperless statements.
鈥淭he bottom line,鈥� Smith wrote, 鈥渋s that paying off your loan or credit card debt early will save you money in interest and decrease the overall term of the loan.鈥�
So, take a deep breath, and go for it. Every little bit will help your financial well-being. And if you already are working on paying off your loans early, tell us how you鈥檙e doing it.
