So...

I am not crazy after all. I was feeling perplexed because felt like parents were going to send me money. But they didn't. How could I misread that situation do wrong??? (I mentioned they were being cryptic, though it is odd for them to send money at all, even moreso with my dad out of work).

But then they did. Got a surprise check for $1,000 yesterday, in the mail. Woohoo!

The nice thing is my parents received some gift money from grandma's estate. They simply wanted to pass some of it along. Which they ALWAYS do, but it is nice that this was the first time they passed on money from someone still alive. Makes it a much happier event!

& with that, I will have crossed off THREE long-term goals from my list, this very month. What are the odds of that?

The Trifecta?

1 - $30,000 cash in the bank - check
2 - Mortgage balance under $200,000 - check
3 - Maxed ROTHS from income - check
(meaning, did not use cash or gifts to max out)

Basically, I put $600 of the money to the mortgage (don't have to scrounge that from savings or gift money) and the other $400 to savings.

I plan to pay the mortgage with my paycheck next Friday - to make #2 official.

Any surprises can be charged and paid next month - how we do it anyway. So I don't foresee any change to cash balance between now and 12/31. Certainly anything can happen, but would have to be something really crazy to mess up our cash status.

I am still expecting some Christmas money too, which I originally figured I would put to the mortgage and to cash goal. This amount was much more than I Was expecting. So, will save any more cash received this month to cash savings, for costs of our upcoming refinance.

Anyway, we already had plans to celebrate some major anniversaries on 12/20, so we will just add this to the reasons to celebrate. We are going to splurge on a nice dinner, for sure.

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2012

I need to figure out what my salary will be and how this refinance shakes out, before I make any concrete goals for 2012. But, I am thinking our goals will look like this:

1 - Max out ROTHs
2 - $5k to cash savings
3 - $3,900 extra to mortgage

#1 is the obvious.

#2 is just how much cash I have figured we need to save, working backwards. Our cars are getting old, our house is getting older, our kids need lots of orthodontia work, dh may want to go back to school, we don't borrow money for any of this stuff, and my job is nearing the end of its useful life. So, basically $30k is merely a minimum. We will just keep adding to that until we get on more solid ground. Dh's car is 11 years old so if nothing else, looking at a $10k outflow to replace his car in the not so distant future. & would like to save that above $30k, with job situation and economy.

#3 - I wanted to talk a little bit about #3, because I have about a million reasons why I Want to pay down the mortgage. I wouldn't even know where to begin. & I share because personal finance is never one size fits all. You might think, "That is so Dave Ramsey" or "Why on earth would you prepay a 4% mortgage?"

Oh, let me count the ways.

First off, we are only paying off the mortgage with extra money. NOT From my regular income. Will pay it down with payroll tax holiday if it is extended (don't want to get use to that money), overtime, gifts, amazon sales, and maybe even income from another job.

Should I be putting this money to retirement or kids college or somewhere else? These are just some reasons I am leaning towards mortgage. (Notice I said "some" - not "all the reasons" - as they are too many to list).

A - The housing market sucks, and I would like to make sure we stay above water. I think extra principal payments are prudent.

B - Still want to pay off the closing costs we rolled into our last loan. I didn't mind borrowing them, but I want to pay off while we have some extra cash. I did not intend to borrow that money for 30 years.

C - It's tax efficient. The next step for us is taxable investing, and that is kind of a pain. Admittedly, we will start small, but in the long run it will significantly increase the complexity of our taxes.

D - My dh is infinitely more motivated by debt payoff than any other financial goal. He hates debt more than I do. This is no doubt one reason why we made our trifecta this year. It's the first time we have ever paid extra on our mortgage. (Beyond $10 here or $100 there).

E - The psychology of mortgage pre-payment is interesting. I think I am extremely disciplined when it comes to our cash savings. I put money in our cash savings, I simply don't touch it. I don't find that hard. BUT, it is easier to think, "I have the money, so let's buy this or that." I also feel like in the end we saved more by locking some of it away in our mortgage. IT works extraordinarily well for mortgage chips, for me. For little amounts that maybe I would have decided against adding to savings any given month. But, every time I got any sort of refund, rebate, or unexpected cash, I just added it to my mortgage payment in Quicken, and pretended like it wasn't there. I can do that with larger sums in savings, but not smaller sums. So, I have to play what works for me. That is money that honestly would just be frittered way, otherwise. So, I found something that works, that keeps us more efficient without "hurting" at all. It's not money that we miss, otherwise.

So, you get the picture why mortgage payoff is my next goal.

That said, we did make the goal trifecta, and taxable investing is in our very near future. We simply have to start down that road. I don't believe in being debt free and cash/investment poor. I think by next December we will be opening a taxable investment account and starting to supplement our retirement savings, and saving for kids college, stuff like that.