<prompt> Human: So I got a wild hair Monday night, and decided to buy a car. Historically I have a habit of not making the most healthy decisions when it comes to money. Ive been rebuilding my credit for the last 6-8 months, and got it up to a solid 640, from 400. I got pre-approved from Capital One for a car loan up to 25,000. My purchase ended up being a 2013 Ford Edge SEL with only 34,000 miles. After my trade-in, fees, etc the total financed amount was around 18,000. Heres the bad part, the interest rate is 16-17 for 72 months, with GAP insurance putting my payment around 400 a month. Affordable, I budgeted my money and after all my bills rent, cell phone, utilities, food I should have between 1000-1200 left over each month. Im curious to know what the best strategy for paying off the principal early is? Should I dump as much as possible onto the principal each month, or pay a little extra each month and attempt to get the loan refinanced in 6-8 months? Id also like to be saving some money each month, while also preventing myself from being extremely upside down on the value of the car vs the loan.  <response>: You went 18k in debt for a 5 year old car and are worried now about being upside down?The horses are gone and now you are closing the barn door. This was a bad decision and you are going to feel it for a long time. My recommendation is to pay it as quickly as possible due to the high interest rate. 