We have broken 100k networth. Its amazing what a difference a year can make. When we first started this year, neither of us were making our current salaries and, while we were making progress, it didn't feel like it. Since I won't be meeting my credit card goal of less than 10k because I have decided to save up and pay off the balance in full on each card instead, that completes all of my 2012 goals.

I didn't have many because we had been holding steady for about 2 years due to previous layoffs. However, because of all the planning we have done, 2013 is when some of our bigger long term goals should be accomplished.

2013 Goals
All credit card debt paid off
Student loan paid off (you have no idea how excited I am about this one)
Max DH 401(k)
Max 2 Roth IRAs (1 each)
Double the amount of money in our retirement accounts
Fund 6 month EF

I contribute to my 401(k) but I don't get matching and maxing it out will have to wait until 2014 so that I can accmplish some of my other goals (though I will be upping my contribution next year at some point). This will leave us with the car loan at 1.7% apr and the mortgage with 4.375% apr. I also need a new roof and furnace in the next two years or so but that is more than I can accomplish in one year's time and I still haven't decided which one of those I will do in 2013.

All of the 2013 goals are doable as long as we have no more layoffs (something neither of us are counting on even though we are both doing well at the moment). This will probably be the last year where we can double our retirement accounts through contributions and I suspect our 2014 goal will be 100k in retirement accounts if things go according to plan or even mostly (ha!).

After considering where we were headed tax wise this year, I decided to have DH up his 401(k) contribution to 30%. I suspect that with bonuses and overtime that will max out his 401(k) contributions next year (we might even have to dial it back next year to avoid being too high). He's ecstatic since he loves to watch that number go up.

I have decided that since the credit cards are at 0% apr, I will save the cash to pay them off and just pay them off completely all at once. It will make it easier to plan with his income jumping around. We are already over a third of the way there for one of the cards and depending on overtime and bonuses, could have the rest in two months or less.

DH's June bonus will wipe out any remaining credit card debt (even if we pay nothing more) so that is why the priorities are shifting to saving cash and saving for retirement. When I worked a temp job, we always had 3 months expenses in cash and I would like to get to the point where we have 6 months which we have never had before. Once I have seen a month of his income with the higher 401(k) amount, I should be able to develop a goal time for that.

"Plans are useless but planning is indispensable" Dwight D. Eisenhower got it right when he said that. Somedays I try to imagine what it must be like to be able to use Plan A instead of Plan Q.

My houseguest moved out in November instead of January which is extremely nice but altered the financial plans since we were helping with the moving expenses and the initial one time expenses. Good thing we were running in austerity mode because it means we are still on track, just not as ahead of the game as we thought we would be.

We have been told of 2 very large bonuses for DH coming up next year so we now know that we will need to plan for those sums of money. I have been brainstorming but figure I won't know whether to put them to savings or debt payoff until we reach that point.

We are still on track to reach 100k networth by the end of the year and credit card debt under 10k as well. Until December comes though, I doubt I will have more exact numbers.

DH is back to unlimited overtime so what he brings home will be used to get the cards down even more than the original goal.

The Thanksgiving extra expense was able to be absorbed completely in the normal cash allowance for food despite being a little less well behaved with the eating out thanks to moving so we were happy about that.

Given how well DH is doing in the new position, I have already told him that the next raise due to job position (he is already testing for the next level up) means he needs to start maxing out his 401(k). Once the credit cards are gone, both of us will be doing that anyways. I still think we can pay them off by March but thanks to the upcoming bonus, we can guarantee payoff by June. If we both get Christmas bonuses, then the March payoff date will become feasible.

I fully expect with the ways things have been going to have a new and different plan by next week, lol.

I ate out 5 times in the past week and our paid in full card is definitely showing a significant slowdown in the spending. We are basically taking a spending hiatus and seeing how little we can spend this month.

Our major expenditures this month will be my little brother's birthday dinner and Thanksgiving dinner. I am actually hoping that, with the drop in out to eat spending, our cash allowance will completely or mostly cover the increased grocery bill for Thanksgiving (the stocking runs have already begun).

The card spending slowdow has been dramatic. We only have $45 on the card that isn't part of the automatic spending (gas and bills are automatics) when our goal is under $200 per week. I think so far we are meeting that goal, lol. From September to October, we dropped $800 in spending. I am almost afraid to see how extreme a drop we will have for November. I suspect it will be over $1000 if we continue at this pace.

I think knowing that the credit cards payoff is so close after so many years is putting us in austerity mode. We are just ready to see them disappear completely. Despite the momentary hiatus on overtime, we are still on schedule to get the credit cards below 10K by the end of this year. Right now we are looking at a potential March payoff date for both cards.