So… it’s been a while… for everything

But with renewed motivation and a feeling of starting over from scratch, I wanted to document my upcoming debt repayment plan and journey.

Years ago now, to keep a long story very short, I worked with a company to grow my gym business. At the end of the day while there was growth, unfortunately it didn’t pan out how I wanted, and with their expensive coaching and things not going great, I ended up with a pretty big personal loan to cover costs and try everything I could. Lots has happened since then which is a story for another post.

As a result?

My personal loan is now at $31,634.74.

That loan isn’t going to any income producing asset or earning me any money – it’s lost in the system and now it’s my responsibility to pay if off – no benefits to the debt, it’s just a dead debt that needs to be paid off.

Safe to say that isn’t good enough – and it’s a huge draw on my mind and financial position, so I need to do whatever I can to pay it off.

Loan details as at 30 March 2026

Loan amount: $31,634.74
Interest rate: 7.49%
Minimum monthly payment $841.29
Current payoff date paying the minimum: November 2029 (3 years and 7 months)

Original debt was closer to $35,000 but have been paying the minimum payments for a while.

My debt-repayment plan – make an additional $500 payment on top of the minimum

My goal is to pay the loan off faster than the current repayment schedule, and to ensure I can keep consistent, I am aiming to pay an additional $500 per month. To see how this impacts the life of the loan, here is a simple table:

Scenario	Monthly Payment	Months to Payoff	Total Interest Paid	Total Amount Paid (Principal + Interest)
Minimum only	$841.29	43 months	$4,531.85	$36,166.59
+ $500/month extra	$1,341.29	26 months	$2,693.33	$34,328.07
+ $1,000/month extra	$1,841.29	19 months	$1,933.47	$33,568.21

If I can pay an additional $500 per month, I end up saving 17 months on the life of the loan, and save $2,600 in interest payments.

For interest, I’ve included numbers above if I could manage to pay an additional $1000 each month – and the numbers look even better!

My goal will be $500 per month, but if I have additional money left over, it will be going towards this as well, so time will tell how much extra I pay off each month.

Actions to support my debt repayment plan

• Keep a detailed spending tracker each month to identify areas to cut spending, find my savings rate, and keep motivated.
• Minimise large payments / expensive purchases for things that aren’t essential. I want to live, but don’t want to be crippled by my life.
• Make an additional $250 payment every fortnight (on pay day) at a minimum.
• Check in and write an update every 3 months to review progress and visualise the results of my additional payments.
• Listen to podcasts and watch videos about paying off debts to keep motivated and on the journey.

I need to keep myself accountable to this, and this will be my #1 financial goal this year.

That’s about it for this update – I’ll provide another update in 3 months! Hopefully having paid off an additional $1,500!!!

Lets get this debt paid off!