What's Next?

As I sit and wait for my next few paychecks to come in order to finish paying off the second mortgage, I'm starting to think about what my next wealth goals will be. I mentioned before that we will need about $3,200 to put gutters on our house.  We put the down payment of $1,000 on our credit card and the rest will be billed when the work is complete.  We don't have the installation scheduled yet, so at this point I hope it's after May 6 - when the next cycle of our credit card starts.  We always pay off the credit card in full each month, but it would be nice if we can delay the remaining $2,200 by a month. If we can do that, I think I should actually be able to pay off the whole second mortgage earlier than my current plan of June 1st.

After that, I need to rebuild some of our emergency savings. Right now we have about $3,500 saved, but of course $3,200 of that for the gutters, so our emergency fund is pretty much at nothing. So my first goal after I pay off the gutters and the second mortgage is getting the emergency fund back up to at least $3,500 which is about a month's worth of expenses. 

My next goal after that is tentative. My husband mentioned he'd like to take a vacation in August.  I love to travel so it's hard to say no.  It would not be as big as Japan (we're thinking San Francisco), but it'll still probably cost about $2,500 to $3,000 to go.

After that, I really would love to contribute the maximum to my Roth IRA this year. Last year I only put in $2,400.  You can put in as much as $5,000 a year.  I had been putting in $200 per month, but I just canceled May's withdrawal to free up some more cash for the mortgage payoff.  So as of today, I have contributed $800 for 2011, so I need to put in $4,200 more before the end of the year (technically I have until April 15, 2012, but I'd really like to just get it done with this year).  I have an old 401(k) with about $4,000 in it and my current balance on my Roth IRA is $19,592.  So at the age of 33, I only have $23,592 in my retirement accounts. I know it's better than a lot of Americans, but I still feel like I'm really far behind!

So here is an overview of my goals for the rest of 2011:

Balance of the second mortgage: $1,400
New gutters: $3,200
Rebuild emergency fund: $3,500
Vacation: $3,000
IRA Contributions: $4,200
Total needed: $15,300

I have about 8 months of the year left to make money.  If I make $1,700 per month, I should make $13,600 the rest of the year.  I guess I won't be making all these goals unless I can get my income up.  Stupid gutters, I'd gather take the vacation!