In partnership with
In this issue of The Payoff Challenge:
Community Debt Payoff Snapshot
Submit your debt payoff totals for this week!
Weekly Action: Ensure Your Investments are Invested ($90k Mistake)
Debt Payoff Shout Out: John and Stella
Personal Finance News: Good News on the Mortgage Front
My Home Payoff Update
Community Debt Payoff Snapshot
Congrats to the everyone who paid off some debt this week! It’s another big week! We’ve officially crossed $20,000 paid off as a community!
We paid off a total of $2814.08 last week! Not bad at all. That’s like four months of the average grocery bill for a family of four. Also crazy, that’s the equivalent of over $16 being paid off per hour for the last 7 days! I love numbers.
$703.52 was the average paid off, which, according to BillShark, is about two months of the average American household subscriptions. That blows my mind! Friendly reminder to go do a subscription audit and actually cancel one you don’t use. Or maybe even cancel some that you do use. 😬
$703 is also the equivalent of 190 gallons of chocolate milk. Side note, Bailey got me chocolate milk for Valentine’s day. What can I say, the woman knows me. She should, it’ll be 9 years we’ve been married this year.
Numbers only move if people act—which brings us to this week’s check-in!
Weekly Check In!
How Much Did You Pay Off This Week?
⏱ Takes under 60 seconds. Any amount. Any debt.
This isn’t about how big the number is—it’s about progress. If you haven’t made a payment yet, consider this your nudge to go make one right now. Missed a week? Just submit the total since your last entry.
Submissions will be included in future week’s Snapshots!
Caleb’s Actionable Strategy
Ensure Your Investments are Invested
Recently, I suggested that while you are paying off non-mortgage debt, stop investing. It’s only intended to be a temporary thing so you can increase your cashflow for paying off debt as quickly as possible. But, if you do have money in a 401k, IRA, 403b, or whatever, I want you to at least ensure your money is invested.
Action: Go check your retirement accounts to ensure the balances are actually invested in something.
Alright, this is going to sound so dumb but this literally happened to me recently. And hey, my goal is to share with you my mistakes so you can avoid them as well.
Basically, I found out that two of our accounts (both IRAs) had balances that were not actually invested in anything. They were literally just sitting as cash balances within the retirement accounts. And my guess is this will cost us $90k in retirement.
UGHHHHH
Alright now that my frustration is out and I have fixed this problem in our retirement accounts, I want you to avoid this mistake too.
Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it. I break down the whole investing debacle.
Brought to you in partnership with AG1:
Health, Without the Hassle
Between work, family, and everything else, most people aren’t looking for another complicated wellness routine. They just want something that works.
AG1 Next Gen is a clinically studied daily health drink designed to support gut health, fill common nutrient gaps, and help maintain steady energy. One scoop a day, and you’re covered.
Start your mornings with AG1 and get 3 FREE AG1 Travel Packs, 3 FREE AGZ Travel Packs, and FREE Vitamin D3+K2 in your Welcome Kit with your first subscription.
Member Spotlight
Full Throttle Payoff
Shout out to John and Stella for the progress they’re making towards paying off their truck! Let me tell you, they are locked IN. They are less than a year into having the car payment and have paid off $31,200.
Here’s what John had to say about their progress so far:
I’m well over halfway paid off in less than a year of owning the vehicle.
John said that the biggest challenge they’re facing right now is that they’re trying to pay off the truck as fast as possible while also saving for a home.
I get that — it’s honestly a tough balance to strike. I feel like as we pay off our house, we have to balance it with potentially needing to replace a vehicle at some point (average of our two cars is 211k miles hahaha).
John said he’s working hard with overtime and second shift to pay off their truck as quickly as possible. Major kudos because overtime and second shift takes some real dedication. But $31k is some serious progress!
If you want to be featured in the Payoff Challenge Newsletter or related videos on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok, this is your chance! Any amount of debt payoff is worth celebrating here in the member spotlight.
Personal Financial News
Good News on the Mortgage Front
1. Mortgage Rates are at 4-Year Lows
Apparently we’ve just hit 4-year lows on mortgage rates — great for you all looking to purchase! According to Yahoo Finance, 30-year rates are now down to 6.01% and 15-year rates hit 5.35%. That’s a heck of a lot better than it was a couple years ago. Read more here.
2. The Housing Market Has Slowed a Lot
According to the AP, the housing market cooled off a lot in January (no pun intended)(okay, a little intended). Again, great for you all looking to purchase a home. That means less competition at least, but the timing is very interesting due to mortgage rates still decreasing. One of the possible contributing factors is the below-average temps we got across the country. Read more here.
Caleb’s Challenge Update
Progress We Made Towards Our Payoff
Goal: Pay off our remaining mortgage ($70k) by our 10-year anniversary on June 17, 2027.
479 days left
Mortgage Balance on January 1st, 2026: $70,000
Current Mortgage Balance: $67,073.76 (▼$143.08 since last week)
Balance paid off since start of challenge: $2926.24
Source: Paycheck, Savings, Interest, Etsy Sales
*This includes monthly principal payments as well as additional payments.
Current Mortgage Balance
Guess what! This week’s payment of $143 isn’t actually from savings. It’s from interest earned on our high-yield savings account in January as well as some Etsy sales! The Etsy sales are for digital downloads of my printable debt trackers. Now, you all can actually get them for free on my website. But pretty fun that’s where the money is coming from this week.
New video this week!
Just talking about our goal of paying off $70k isn’t enough. I actually have a plan for how to do it. In this video, I walk through the exact numbers that make our 18-month mortgage payoff possible. It’ll still be a challenge, but I think it’s doable.
Refer a friend and receive my quick-start guide for saving money TODAY on your existing expenses.
That’s it for this week! I already can’t wait for next couple week’s editions as we start getting numbers to include. If you have any feedback, respond to this email or drop me a line at [email protected].
Till next week!
Caleb
