Now that all our unsecured debt (and some of the secured kind, as well) is paid off, 2010 is all about building wealth.

You can read about that journey at the debt thread: http://www.getrichslowly.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2434


Our goals for this year are as follows:

My 401K: $10,000
Wife 401K: $7,000
529 kid A: $2,000
529 kid B: $2,000
Cash: $30,000

We also have budgeted to buy a bit of furniture and do some home improvements, about 10K altogether. And we have a bit of a tax bill, too. I think around 5K, but won't know for sure until we get the rest of our tax docs.

We pretty low on cash, only $500 right now. So basically starting from scratch. I'll ty to update this at least monthly, and use graphs, since they worked well for the debt. Be nice to see those curves with a positive slope.

Wow, those savings goals, plus the tax liability, plus the rennovations add up to $66,000 - pretty ambitious! What kind of income are you working with to try and meet these goals? Do you plan to downgrade any aspect of your life (home, cars) or sell any big-ticket items? Or is it strictly going to be LBYM?

Why not max out 401ks before funding the 529 plans? Isn't the standard advice, your kids can borrow for college but you can't borrow for retirement. Just wondering.

We both make generous incomes. Grossed about 190K last year. Should be about the same next year. We paid off about that much debt last last year, and that was with $900 for daycare, an expense that ends in July. Both cars are paid off, and should hopefully make it at least through the year. Our only debt right now is the mortgage, which will be the focus of 2011 (probably paying an extra 10-20K per year on it).

Considered maxing out the 401Ks, but the 529's allow the grandparents to make contributions. We won't make it an annual contribution, but just to get them started. Then we'll bump our 401ks to %15 for 2011.

That's what I do for my niece and nephew and my god-daughter and her sister, I contribute to their 529 plans instead of getting them expensive birthday/holiday gifts.

Do you need to put $2000 into each fund to start it or could you put $2000 more into your wife's 401k (I was wondering why she get's less ) and put $1000 each into the 529 plans?

Heh, we both put in %10. She works for the state, and also has a pension plan. We'll put in 4K just to lowe the tax liability, and only if we meet our other goals at the end of the year.