My Mortgage Countdown #3, Year End Financial Crunch

It already feels like I’ve crossed the debt-free threshold!

Mortgage Countdown #3

December is always tight for us!  Especially this year since we took our first trip to Disney.  It also gets tight because I claim zero exemptions (I know this is a bad idea).

Once my house is paid off, I’m going to change my exemptions to 2.  That will even increase my cash flow even more during 2010.  I’m still mulling around ideas about what to do with that extra income.  I got a few more months though.  I’m hoping the ideas just start jump out at me, and soon!

Last month I blogged about Mortgage Milestones, and this technique served me well (my wife wasn’t so crazy about my idea of paying the house off early) since it softened my wife’s concerns…

The amount that I now owe is down to $3,755!

It’s funny, I had planned on making a $5,000 payment early in my payment schedule (in my spreadsheet), so I would have had my balance paid off by now.  But, I decided not to take the chance when the economy started to tailspin into the recession.

Now that I almost have that extra expense gone, I have all these great ideas for funds that keep popping in my head.  Unfortunately, there are too many and now I feel like I’m behind the eightball again.

My next post about this, “Mortgage Countdown #2” will have some real ideas for what to do with the extra money I’ll be saving!