Monday, May 30, 2011

Tomorrow is the day!

I plan on making the phone call for the final payoff balance of the second mortgage tomorrow! We have approximately $500 left to pay on it. If I include this week's paycheck I will have saved up enough for the gutters, so that is really close to being paid off as well.

Once this is paid off, my next goal is to contribute $5,000 to my Roth IRA. So far I've put in $800, so I need to put in another $4,200. I want to contribute at least $1,000 a month. I don't plan on adding to it until the beginning of July. We received a few more medial bills in the mail in the last couple weeks, but I'm going to try to get those on next month's credit card cycle. So those will be hanging over our head for the month of June, and I want to get rid of those ASAP. I'd love to just pay those medical bills today, but we don't have the money yet. I'm sick of having to try to keep delaying charges that go on our credit card every month. I'd actually like to be a month ahead so we already have the money in the bank to pay any charges we put on the credit card. I am making a new rule for myself: Nothing is charged on the credit card unless we have the money in the bank to pay it off NOW. And the money in the emergency fund does not count. Our monthly bill without any major expenses is usually around $2,000, so I'd like to set aside at least $2,000 to be a month ahead.

I would also like to set up a small emergency fund that's not really for an emergency, but just those extra expenses that sometimes pop up. I'm thinking for things such as car repairs or minor home improvements like carpet cleaning. I'm thinking about $1,000 for that fund, and I'll call that the rainy day fund. Whenever that fund gets tapped into, I'll replenish it as soon as possible.

So here are some of my next financial goals:
  • Balance of the second mortgage: $500 (hopefully paid off tomorrow)
  • 2011 IRA Contributions: $4,200 (hopefully done October 1st)
  • Money in the bank to be a month ahead of our credit card: $2,000 (start funding ASAP, and hopefully be fully funded by August 1)
  • Rainy day fund: $1,000 (start funding ASAP, and hopefully be fully funded by September 1)
  • Anything extra: increase our current emergency fund of $3,500 up to 6 months of expenses: $21,000 (will probably take a year or so)

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