In this issue of The Payoff Challenge:
Total Debt Payoff Crossed $40k!
Community Debt Payoff Snapshot
Submit your debt payoff totals for this week!
Weekly Action: Set Up Automatic Extra Payments
Money News: Do you read this?
My Home Payoff Update: New milestone!
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We Hit a New Milestone!
We passed $40k this week since the start of the Payoff Challenge? That’s crazy!
Now let’s jump into this week’s payoff snapshot.
Community Debt Payoff Snapshot
Congrats to the everyone who paid off some debt this week! Let’s put this into a fun comparison.
We paid off a total of $1576 last week! Just $200 more and this would have been the most patriotic amount paid off ever of $1776. But we’ll celebrate this. What a great week.
$525 was the average paid off, which is the exact cost of a Masters Tournament badge in 2026. Thanks for that tidbit Google.
$525 is also the equivalent of 142 gallons of chocolate milk. That’s like a decent sized kiddie pool worth of the most delicious liquid on earth.
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
Set up Automatic Extra Payments
I say this with the caveat of only doing this if you have the buffer in your budget for it.
Action: This week, set up automatic extra payments on your smallest debt.
My brother just did this with his mortgage. That way he pays off his debt faster without even thinking about it.
This is a great option for those who may not think about extra payments and also have the buffer in their budget without having to worry about accidentally putting your last dollars towards debt instead of groceries.
I would do this if I wasn’t running this challenge! Our amount varies a lot from week to week so it really wouldn’t work for us and I like to be invested in each payment.
Member Spotlight
I Want To Celebrate Your Wins!
But I can’t do that if you don’t tell me about it. So fill out this short form about the debt you’ve paid off and your current wins!
Any amount of debt payoff is worth celebrating here in the member spotlight.
Personal Financial News
Do you read this section?
If so, let me know right here.
Basically, I feel like every week when I do research for this section, it’s mostly negative news. I’ll share it if you all think it’s helpful. But I feel like negative news is not necessarily what I want to be included in this newsletter. This is all about the positivity of paying off debt, not the reasons people can’t afford food or fuel.
And I don’t want to give people excuses for why they can’t pay off their debt. I want to give you every reason to believe you can pay off your debt.
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.
367 days left
Mortgage Balance on January 1st, 2026: $70,000
Current Mortgage Balance: $59,934.96 (▼$765.31 since last week)
Balance paid off since start of challenge: $10,065.04
Source: Paycheck, savings, interest, Etsy poster sales, selling scrap metal, a bicycle, a TV cabinet, and a laptop
*This includes monthly principal payments as well as additional payments.
Current Mortgage Balance
This was a GOOD week. We crossed $10k since the start of the challenge!
Partly this is due to my wife bringing in more from her job than I had initially budgeted for the first paycheck in June. Then also I sold a laptop we had sitting around for a while. That accounts for $250 of our payoff this week! Plus, we included interest earned from our savings account for the month of May.
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
