So it took a little over a year but as of December 2009 I am back where I started before I bought a house (Nov 2008). I had figured at the time that the house would set us back a year on our debt repayment and I was right. I must admit though, I hadn't realized both DH and I would have a moment of unemployment in there and a 1/3 of our income cut out this year. As a result, I am a little surprised to see that we stayed on schedule.

We have increased our net worth this year by about 9k with the majority of that being mortgage principal paydown (almost 6k). That's 4.2% of our loan.

The last time we used a credit card (other than paying in full) was in April for the cabinet refacing and that deal will be paid off in March 2010 with no interest paid.

We actually had quite a few big surprise bills this year that we have paid cash for no problem.

From January 2010 on, I will be setting records for my networth which is really nice. DH will be contributing 15% to his 401(k) again and I will finally max out my roth this year (hoping to max out his roth as well but we will see).

The advantage of having gotten so many of our fixer upper projects done this year is that the house is livable and we have lost the desire to move as quickly on future remodeling. Spacing out repairs will allow us to pay off the debt quicker and build a larger savings cushion.

I've estimated our taxes this year and we are looking to receive a refund. I don't want to adjust our withholding though because without the window credit, we would have been paying in this year despite the unemployment. Also DH's income can jump very quickly which makes tax estimating a haphazard guessing game.

Overall its been a good year all round.