I need a map...........

[happymommy]

Warning this is a whine.

I should feel really good right now about our finances. We have come so far in the DUMB department.

We have no debt except the mortgage, a great emergency savings. Yet I feel
so discouraged or confused about my goals. It was easier when I had a balance to pay down for example.

I do know we are going to fully fund our Roth. I'm also waiting to do our taxes, I might owe...not sure, so I am keeping more money saved just incase.

House/mortgage...Our taxes went up and I am so scared when we retire someday we won't be able to afford them. Is this crazy thinking? I suppose our taxes would be cheaper than renting in our old age...talking outloud.lol
So that keeps me from going gazelle intense on paying off our mortgage.
I also can't get in my head we can build wealth too.

I am more mindful of my spending than I have ever been. I have not gone shopping since December. Reduced eating out by 90%.
I need to finish some remodeling, again I am in no rush and have put if off to save money.
I guess I see these huge numbers we are suppose to reach for retirement and we will never make it, so again I feel hopeless.

I know this is not a healthy way of thinking. Better to have X invested and saved for retirement instead of $0!

I really need to make goals for our family this coming year, and start feeling more incontrol of our future.

Has anyone else made it to this point and just felt a loss of what to do next?
What would you do at this point financially?

I so appreciate letting me whine and share my fears here..HP

[banana]

Well I will join you on the bandwagon. I seem to be in the same boat. Our taxes seem to go up every year also. I just keep on telling myself that it will still be cheaper to live here when we retire with just paying property taxes and insurance than it would be to rent. dh contributes 6-7% to his retirement plan and I really should look into a ROTH IRA. My goal is to have my home paid off before my son graduates high school. I also would like to help my son pay for his college tuition. Other than that I really dont have any goals set up for retirement.

[ecgsmama]

I think you are correct that you need to establish goals and let those goals lead your decisions.

It might not be what the financial gurus say you should do, but if it is what your heart says you should, you'll be more likely to go at it 110%.

[happymommy]

quote:
ecgsmama
It might not be what the financial gurus say you should do, but if it is what your heart says you should, you'll be more likely to go at it 110%.

Wow, thank you for such helpful reply. I think I have been boggled down by so much research on finances that I'm burnt out.
Falling our hearts sounds like the best advice I've heard in a long time!
Thank you again for helping me look at this in such a positive way.
HP

banana, good luck with your goals. It looks like you are doing great!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, it's nice to know you are not alone.

Feeling much better.

[frugalfoster]

You know....while we go about paying off debts it's so cut and dry what we need to do. There is always a $0 balance to look forward to. It's not quite so easy when you're saving for retirement, the end in sight is so far out there that you can feel really discouraged. You're doing great right now, you have no debt (except the house), and you are on your way to financial freedom. Stay the course, do what's in your heart and don't forget to enjoy the small things in life.....usually they are free.

[TheRootedNomad]

I should feel really good right now about our finances. We have come so far in the DUMB department.

We have no debt except the mortgage, a great emergency savings. Yet I feel
so discouraged or confused about my goals. It was easier when I had a balance to pay down for example..................

Has anyone else made it to this point and just felt a loss of what to do next?
What would you do at this point financially?

I am so with you. Only the morgage here as well. Working on fully funding the EF (Its almost there) and paying off the morgage. I don't completely agree that Dave Ramsey's steps should be a literal map for each family and have been going with what seems to work best for us by doing both with the EF and paying extra on the morgage AND we are continueing to pay into our work sponsored retirement accounts. I am frequently torn between should I be completely focused on one or continue in our current mode. I am currently spending lots of time researching and running numbers. At the moment it looks like our next step is to completely finish the EF. Once that's done we will probably continue putting extra on the morgage but may look at investing a small amount in a mutual fund.

[rosebron]

I often felt this way and completely agreement with everyone's assessment.

I too have been burnt out on financial gospel. I also felt that I had no balance because I was soooo FOCUSED on debt reduction. We stopped ALL savings and investing last year to do this. But I am now helping others (family and friends) get their financial house in order.

This year, we modified our TMMO master plan to accommodate a few short-term goals including focused debt reduction, savings and a dream basket for the year. Some will happen and some won't. Our debt reduction this year WILL happen and our savings goals WILL happen. Some components of the dream basket will happen, God's willing. They include:

1. pay off the joint home-improvement loan (we;ve increased out payments from $375 to $450 per month using tax returns and consulting jobs to knock it off in 2006;
2. pay off my CC balance ($1000 before March 1) and DH cc3 by July 1; DH has been working like a madman to snowball $800-$1000 to his debt;
2. attend a concert in the city in the fall;
3. a trip to Disney in April (I will be working in Orlando for a week so free room and food);
4. attend a wedding in the Caribbean this summer (that's where we are from originally so no cost for room and board, just airfare ~$1200 total and a $200 for a rental car);
5. camping trips.

Some of these ao the Caribbean, were quite ambitious but DH and I are dumping salary and any extra to debt and have some consulting jobs lined up to take care of our short-term dream basket. If we get to get to do some of these things, then fine. If we don't see that we can, fine! Difference is that before we would use CCs to accomodate these trips. NO MORE. We will not create any new debts.

We have a half-funded EF and are contributing to our retirement plan and children's college. I am so excited about paying off our home loan by 2010 that sometimes it is too much to imagine.

I think that you are doing great!!! I would create some short and long-term goals and see how these fit into your goal of being debt-free by 12/08.

[Telephus44]

I think that one of the confusing things about money management is that after you have your debts paid off, you get stuck in the "What Next?" mindset. And there are so many different people out there telling you what to do that it becomes overwhelming. I bet just about everyone of the financial gurus (Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, whoever) tells you to pay off your debt first, but they all differ with what to do next.

Personally, we take a shotgun approach. I have a bunch of goals, and rather than putting all of our extra money towards just one goal, we put a little here and a little there. I know that I don't get to see huge numbers right away, but I also feel better knowing that we've made some headway on all of our goals. I just don't feel comfortable with focusing on one goal at a time, the way you can focus on one debt at a time. I just don't think you can "snowball" your goals, or else you'll never get to them all by the time you retire (IMHO).

We put some aside for a downpayment for a house, at least $300.
We put some extra money on my student loan payments, about $150.
We're going to start putting aside $100 for DS's college fund next month.
We put $100 each month into stock (non-retirement).
We put 6% of DH's salary into his 401K.
We fund my ROTH IRA (this is not done on a monthly basis, but irregularly when we save up enough).

My personal goals are to have enough saved up that DS can go to college wherever he wants to - not necessarily a free ride, he will probably have to work and take out loans, but that if he gets into Harvard, we won't have to say no, we can't afford it.

Also I want to retire early - at 50 (maybe 55 at the rate we're going).

And this may sound selfish - but I want to be wealthy when we retire. We want to be able to build a dwelling of our own design (either a hobbit hole type house or an underground residence out of an old missile silo) and I want to run a no-kill shelter for cats. Both of those dreams require big bucks.

[staceyy]

I'm not sure about where you live, but in the Pittsburgh PA area, people 65 and over are eligible to have their property taxes reduced or eliminiated. You might want to look into this in your area. Also think about learning to vegetable garden, this can go a long way to lowering your food bills in retirement. You could grow all of your own potatoes and vegetables, and maybe your own berries and fruit trees. I'm beginning to work on this. I live in the suburbs, but this can be done almost anywhere. I also plan on making my own bread, yogurt and icecream, with the help of small appliances of course.

[Cricket1]

Maybe you just need a different frame of reference. For example, if you felt better when you had a debt to pay down, why not create a "balance" each year (or month) that you have to pay off. That balance due can be for funding your IRA, saving for a vacation, savings, whatever. That way it will give you a debt to pay down, even though it's to yourself. KWIM?

[freyadog]

I need to find the road before I will need a map.

[FrugalMomof3]

I like Cricket1's comment, we currently pay child support to the tune of $600 a month of $300 twice a month, once that is done in the middle of June we are going to act like we have a bill each month for $300, leaving us with an extra $300 we havent had in over 13 years, that way it acts as an ongoing bill, but is really being saved for our future.

Pretend or set it in your mind that even though you may not have a credit card to pay off, make your mind believe you do and put that so called CC payment of XX$ a month into savings.

[freyadog]

Absolutely Tracy. When we paid off our last cc we still draw the payment out as though we were still paying on it and put in our savings. Its like we have a second checking account at a different bank. The money is direct deposited into that other account and we never see it, so we don't think about it. Been drawing 150. per week for almost 2 years.