Snowflakes

Barbara

March went out like a lion  in South Dakota. We had quite the winter storm system pass through the area this week. That thick layer of frosting now covering the emerging green grass inspired me to talk to you about snow, well, actually snowflakes.

Snowflaking is a concept that personal finance blogger paidtwice  discusses on her blog I've Paid For This Twice Already... .  She offers a basic introduction to the idea of snowflaking here. 

Basically, it's taking any extra money you scrounge up and throwing it at your debt — even if it's only an extra dollar or two. Earlier in March, I offered similar advice to one of our readers through comments. It's a practice I follow myself. Each month, a little extra ($44) goes toward my mortgage balance.

Recently, paidtwice offered a great illustration  of how throwing a little extra toward your debt balances can pay off. So, to bring my advice full circle, I decided to calculate just how much power that $44 each month has.

According to the calculator she links to, here is the estimated payoff:

If I paid the minimum amount, I would take 190 months to pay off my mortgage and I would pay $63,743.00 in interest.

But by adding that $44 every month my payoff time is reduced to 179 months. Not only do I take a year off of my repayment, I also save over $4,000 in interest! Those are pretty big results for a little extra each month.

So, while real snowflakes are hindering spring and all of its new beginnings, financial snowflakes can be a great catalyst to help us reach our financial new beginnings faster.