Credit Card Debt

Home Depot: $0 (100% paid off).

Went ahead and paid this off, didn't want to end the year with business debt.

Debt Free

CNNMoney highlights 5 families/individuals living debt free or working towards being debt free. We used many of the techniques highlighted in this slide show to pay off our unsecured debt of $55,500.

• Like William we tracked our spending using Quicken.


• Like Brooke we still found funds for travel during our debt paydown program, but we saved up and paid cash for all vacations.


• John bummed me out, deciding not to pay off credit card debt if one has the means is wrong in my book and I could care less that he has trouble making travel arrangements. However, while we have a credit card that we use for travel expenses we never had any trouble making travel reservations with our debit cards. The only problem is some hotels and rental car companies put a larger hold on a debit card which, if you only maintain a small balance in your checking account, can be a problem.


• Alex is a fan of multiple ING accounts since he is goal oriented and saves up for specific goals. We do the same, we have ING savings accounts for our emergency fund, but we also have accounts for holiday gifts, travel/vacation and fun.

2010 Planning Continued

First two goals for 2010 will likely remain the same:
(1) Max out 401ks - $33,000
(2) Max out 2009 IRAs - $10,000
Subtotal - $43,000

And since we likely will not complete our other three 2009 goals, by the end of 2009, we likely will carry them over to 2010.
(3) House project and furniture - @$4600
(4) Add to baby fund - @$3500
(5) Add to emergency fund - @$7300
Subtotal - $58,400

New goal:
(6) Pay down mortgage on primary home- $2400
Total - $60,800

We have been talking about wanting to pay off our mortgage and I have asked Mr. Sam to whip up some handy Excel charts to document various scenarios. If we paid an extra $200 a month (going forward) we would have our mortgage paid off in 20 years vs. 24 years. An extra $500 a month would allow us to pay off our mortgage in 15 and a half years. An extra $1350 a month would allow us to pay off our mortgage in 10 years (wowzer!).

Credit Card Debt

Home Depot: $721 (51% paid off).

I could pay this off this month, but with the holiday and holiday reltated expenses I'm probably going to hold off just so we have enough cash available for our holiday expenses.

It was fun while it lasted!

I am in the process of updating our real estate values, which are based on the assessed values assigned by the local property appraiser, and since the bulk of our real estate investments are in Florida the values are coming down, down, down.

So, while it has been fun to call ourselves millionaires these past few weeks the party is just about over.

December 1st Numbers

(1) Max out 401ks - $33,000
(2) Max out 2009 IRAs - $10,000
(3) House project and furniture - $6,000
(4) Add to baby fund - $5,000
(5) Add to emergency fund - $10,000
Total - $64,000

(1) $28,970 (88%) (I've maxed out my 401k, Mr. Sam is still working on his.)
(2) $10,000 (100%)
(3) $1,218 (20%)
(4) $1,308 (22%) ($6,308 in our ING baby account)
(5) $2,227 (22%) ($24,092 in our ING e/r account)
Total - $43,826 (68%)

Coming down the home stretch for 2009 and it seems highly unlikely that we will complete our 2009 goals in full. With a 10% salary cut for me, expenses related to our REFI,* expenses related to the car accident (insurance companies are still fighting), and spotty real estate rentals this year we just have not done as well as we would have liked.

But, the upside during this recession, is that we both are still gainfully employed and making good money, we currently have all properties rented out and we have avoided taking on debt (except for that @$720 in 0% Home Depot debt for our real estate business).

The other upside is that our non real estate investments are doing very well, buying stocks in January, Feburary and March of this year has paid off, we have about 5 stocks that we bought early this year that are up over 100%.

*REFI cost us money but we paid down our mortgage by a few thousand dollars, we cut a year off our mortgage term and we got a great rate.