Payday yesterday. I will pay our state tax due. I should get the IRS refund this week, to offset that.

I got a reimbursement my parents owed me (for Sprint).

I don't have anything else to pay until March, and so I have a good $3,000 amassed for ROTHs. I'll finish funding 2013 ROTH in March. I don't know if I will send in some now, or just wait. If I can do the whole thing March 1st, I might do that. It will be close and I haven't put March in my Quicken yet. So, will see. Otherwise, I may just send in $2500 now and $2500 around March 15.

I haven't updated my sidebar for savings progress this month - just kind of hoarding ROTH money for now. I will update when ROTHs are funded.

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I just paid the property taxes yesterday, from online savings account. I wanted to cash flow and probably could, if I waited closer to April due date. But decided I was making things unnecessarily difficult, and I just wanted to cross that payment off my list.

I think it is possible that post-April, we can leave a solid 6 months expenses untouched, indefinitely. Will see.

As we hit our goals and I think through them, I Was thinking a sum equal to "8 x expenses" would probably be our ideal target. Just working through the numbers, expenses I expect in the near-term future, our comfort level, etc. It didn't hit me until later that my figure was "8 months expenses". I guess Suze knows what she is talking about. (That's Suze's Orman's rule). I think we are in agreement with her. But I think 6 months is good too, and I won't overly belabor the 7th and 8th months. Like if it takes me two years to get there, as it always seems to, then whatever. It is certainly not our #1 financial priority. But maybe a good long-term rule.

We've had much more cash in the past, but was saving up for a home or for maternity leave (I Was really concerned about covering bed rest or something like that, as sole breadwinner). The flip side of that is it is impossible to save any cash, with two kids. So it feels. So I feel like we need more cash needs on some level, at the pace we run through it. & of course the one-income situation bodes well for a bigger emergency fund. On the flip side, we actually have other assets and savings now (far more than in our 20s when we bought homes and had kids). So, I feel like 6-8 months is probably doable, and we have other assets to fall back on in the worst case.

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I had some nice surprises yesterday.

The annual insurance rebate I get (for life and disability insurance) was TWICE as much as I expected. $400!!

I was expecting it to be $200 and was going to throw it at the mortgage. I will throw the $400 at the mortgage. What a snowflake!!

I also found a box of 150 checks. What in the heck!?! I have no idea how I missed them before. Now I can grumble less every time I have to use one of the 10 checks I thought I had left. (I was hoping on some level to milk those checks until the "end of checks". But I guess it doesn't matter much now. 150 checks will last me forever).