Yesterday I took a look back at the previous year of getting my finances into order and working hard on debt reduction.  Today I want to look ahead, at the year coming up.  And WOW does it look good now!

First thing first will be to kill off the truck note in late March or early April.  There is simply no doubt in my mind, that note (auto loan) will die.  It’s all just a matter of which pay period will be its undoing

Once that truck note is dead, we will be debt free but the house!!!  Can I say that loud enough, or with any more possible enthusiasm??  The only debt left after spring will be our mortgage!  We will be earning interest instead of paying interest, and that will SOO rock!  I am seriously considering a small victory celebration when we hit that milestone…like going out to a fancy restaurant the very next month and having a dinner that costs the equivalent of the monthly truck note LOL  Well, maybe half the truck note…I’m not sure I can eat that much steak, shrimp, and crab legs.

After our little celebration is concluded, it will be back to business by stuffing the freed up money into our money market emergency fund.  At some point we will need to replace the heat/air unit for the house which will require new duct work.  I also want to have at least three months’ worth of expenses just sitting in that account on top of the CHA fund to catch any slack Murphy sends our way.  I figure we can accomplish this by August or September.

I’d like to pay my son’s private school tuition in one fell swoop, which has a 1 or 2% discount for doing so.  This year, like last year, I had to sign up for the monthly option since we still have debt that requires paying.  I’d also like to get a pharmacy school tuition fund going for me.

When the fall starts I intend to be at the investment  phase of Dave Ramsey’s “baby steps” and look forward to upping hubby’s TSP contributions to 15% of his income.  Then I can bump up my Roth IRA contribution above the paltry $50 a month I am doing now.  I know I will need to spend the summer learning more about investing, which I currently know so very little about.

I plan to finish up 2008 with a nice holiday: I might make some gifts (jewelry making is my hobby and what I did this year) and a nice family vacation.  No sleeping on mom’s futon in her basement; we will actually stay in a hotel room for once!  By December 2008, we will be out of debt except our house.  We will have a full emergency fund, a CHA fund, and tuition funds in the money market account.  We will  be saving up a good amount towards our retirements.  We will be able to do just about whatever we want for lodging, eating out, and gift buying.  We will be able to live and demonstrate financial peace to our families!

This next year looks very sweet indeed!