One of my college loan payment places is saying they never received last month's check. I've paid it early or on time every single month for the past four years. From the tone of the email, you'd think I had been late on every single payment. I'm really irritated with them. This is the second time they have not processed my payment; last time it showed up and I received no apology.

So, here's my new plan. Since I just paid off one of my college loans, I'm down to two. This one will not take me long to pay off, the other one is still in in the tens of thousands. I was going to pay this one off slowly and put more money toward my savings account and my Roth IRA, but now I think I am going to put lesser amounts into both and work really hard to get rid of this stupid loan so I don't have to deal with these people anymore. I've mapped it out in my budget, and I think I can do it by the end of the year. With my previous plan, I would have paid it off by the middle of next year. I'd rather get rid of it faster. I'm considering taking on a part time job just to get rid of it even faster.

It's probably not what the loan company was going for...I imagine they like having people drag their payments out for an eternity. Perhaps if their customer service representatives were more amiable, I would have stuck with my longer-range plan and racked up more interest. But now, I have a challenge...how much can I throw at it every month? I'm also going to pay them online instead of by check from now on. No "it got lost in the mail" that way!