As has been said above, unless you could invest the money somewhere you could have a guarnteed rate of return higher than 6%, you’re doing the right thing.

To address your second question- yes, you’ve gotten a benefit even if you turn them in for new vehicles. If your loans are maturing in 2011, that means you financed for approx. 5 year. I’ll assume the cars were new or nearly new when you bought them. What happens when you finance a new or nearly new car for 5 years and only pay the pricinpal is that you go upsidedown on your loan. That means the loan on the car is more than the car really is worth (that’s because the car depreciates so much in the first couple of years)

If you only paid the pricipal and then turned the cars over for new ones, you’d usually end up having a difference of a couple thousand dollars you’d have to come up with out of pocket or add to your new car loan (e.g. You still have a loan of $20,000 when you go to trade in. Because of depreciation, your car is only worth $17,000. That’s $3000 you have to come up with for yourself)

The answer to your question really comes down to can you invest those funds and have a return on your investments greater than the 6% you are paying as interest on the loan. If you can, don’t prepay the debt but funds those dollars into your investment. If not, continue to pay the debts down.

If you have other debts with higher interest rates, those funds really should be used to decrease those higher interest loans.

By paying down the car loans you are decreasing the term you will be paying on them. If you trade the cars in (or sell them) before the debts are paid, you’ll owe less (and net more out of the sale) if you continue your debt reduction strategy.

This is a excellent go only if you don’t have other debt with higher interest that you could be paying down with that same money.

Primarily I’m thinking of credit card debt, that is typically at 18% and is frequently even higher than that.

If this is your highest interest debt, then it’s a excellent way to save money in the long run.

But what I tell everyone, is to pay down those credit cards FIRST – it’s by far the best investment you can make.

I worked as a residential mortgage broker for one year and bought this course. Making over 80,000 in first year and im only 20!! id say its fantastic!!!

what are the requirements and qualifications to become one

Well you are right you will save intrest in the long run.
There are alot of fantastic intrest rate calculators on the web that will show you how much you will be saving when you apply extra payments (see link)
If you trade one or both that only means that you will get better trade in value against what you owe which will save on the new vehicle.
But to be sure check out what the trade in value of your cars would be. Most dealers use NADA or KBB for estimates on trade in value. If you pay the principal down then that only means that the remainder will be applied to your new loans, thus reducing prinicipal/intrest/payments on your new vehicle(s)

lol, are you tooting your own horn now? 20 years ancient…. making money in this market? hehe very amusing Brad. . . I guess half the testimonials on your website are just YOU trying to be someone else!

Excellent advice regarding refinancing a mortgage to pay off credit card debt (not a excellent thought). Thanks!

I reckon this is a fantastic thought! I am glad that someone is thinking ahead.

This is stupid….there is no lending right now. Waste of money