64 days till 2013

WOW. 64 Days. this means i have 64 days to:

- pay off my credit cards
- finish all my travel shopping
- invest $500
- save $4000 for January trip

Time has been flying too fast, and in 2 days, our fate will determine where we will be by next month.
If everything turns out good, i will be able to fulfill there goals easy. If not, what is my Plan B?

maybe:
-continue paying minimum on credit cards
-only buy necessary stuff for travel, no more goodies for friends
-hold investing
-borrow money from savings - (which i dont really want to do)

sigh, wish me luck. ill update soon.

Save, Pay it Off and make it AUTOMATIC

So i have $250/paycheck direct deposited into my other checking account, that is $500/month of money i use for whatever if i ran short from my paycheck, which was most of the time. Now that hubby will be hopefully going back to working full time since he's done with school, i have used this money to be my vehicle to fund my retirement, savings, and to pay off all my credit cards.

So here's what i have set up to be transferred per paycheck:

10th of the month:

$20 - USAA investment
$100 - ingdirect savings
$100 - pay off credit card
------
$220 - total

25th of the month:
$50 - USAA investment
$100 - Roth IRA
$100 - pay off credit card
-----
$250 - total

i have the following credit cards to pay off:
target - 200 - 2 paychecks
cc #1 - 500 - 5 paychecks
cc #2 - 500 - 5 paychecks
hubby cc #1 - 3 paychecks
hubby cc #2 - 7 paychecks


i am also looking for some money that i can move also into my p2p investment but as for right now, i think this is a good set up:
-I am funding my emergency fund 5% of paycheck, need $50 more,
-Retirement -- target will be 5% of my paycheck so i need to add $50 by next year,
-$200 a month to pay off my $2200 credit card balance.. which will be in about 11 months!

and the greatest thing is my paycheck will still be intact! i didnt touch it at all to pay off these credit cards.

now that this is set in stone, i will just let this drive on its own.

Pay it all off GRADUALLY

I have come to a decision of paying our credit cards gradually.. I have gotten a bunch of advices from paying everything off all at once and start on a clean slate to slowly paying it off while enjoying life at the same time.

So here's my logic of the two:

Paying them all off at the same time when you have the money will free you from bondage, saves you interest and leaves you with nothing extra to spend. It will eventually end up to you using the card again anyway.

While gradually paying it off, setting some aside to savings and enjoying some for shopping and appreciating life will make you feel less of a burden that you are on a mission.
So i opt for the latter, life's too short and id like to enjoy at the same time be debt free.... Eventually.

Extra money - to keep or to give?

All this time i have been looking forward to this day where i can just write off all my credit card bills and bid them goodbye. I now have this money to pay it off and has chickened out. and i have called this blog "PAY IT ALL OFF" not making sense right?

I am in a dilemma where im too scared to use up all my liquid cash to pay off my credit card debts.. and instead to keep it sitting in a savings account, like its gonna grow up to millions overnight.

So if it was you, and you have that extra cash to pay off all but one credit card, would you use it or keep that money sitting pretty in your savings account?

Millionaire's Club here i come

In order for me to become a millionaire, I pledge to do the following (each year):

1. save one paycheck per month, at least $2500 or hopefully more

2. max my Roth IRA every year

3. set aside $1 a day in a jar (as of today, i already owe $283 oops) 

4. invest $1000 in P2P investing with at least 10% return 

5. save all profits from my online shopping store

if i only do #1 and do it religiously, based on CNN's millionaire calculator http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/millionaire/millionaire.html i will be a millionaire in 19 years and 4 months! 

just around the time i want to retire! 

so with this, i pledge to myself to join the millionaire's club with J. Money and everybody! http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2008/04/my-millionaire-to-do-list/

Finding my niche

i have been thinking over and over about what could be a possible niche to make it in the business world.  I talk to people and read numerous blogs and still come back with a big question mark. bottomline, i want the following in a business:

-online
-automatic
-no legwork
-low startup

some are really too smart to get something started and takes it off right away, but for the rest of us, ideas like this dont come easy.

someday, i hope to find this niche.

October budget

Last month I was overbudget again in food. So I will try to increase my food budget this month:

Rent: $1350
Car:$430
Insurance: $98
Irs: $165
Local tax: $70
Power: $100
Gas: $15
Cellphone: $95
Cable/internet: $130
Gas: $280
Food: $500
Kids school: $541
Student loan: $96
Laundry: $40
Spending money: $200

I hope to not have any miscellaneous expenses this month except for the travel I will be booking.

October goal

Fresh month.. New goals!

September have been fruitful, online business have taken off and going well, consignment event was successful, hubby is done with school and ready to go back to work full time.

So for October, my goal really will be payback time:
-pay credit cards off
-bring bills to current
-start to save one paycheck
-start in p2p investing

I'm asking too much for this month but I can always move some stuff I can't fulfill to next month, it's a work in progress after all, right?