Looking At The Big Picture

My Top 3

We have a established a lofty goal for ourselves. The ultimate goal is to be able to free ourselves from all worries about money and have the financial freedom to pursue other interest.

I would like to switch career into a full-time stock and a hedge-fund manager.

My wife would like to start working part-time and devout more time to our almost 3 year old big boy.

To achieve these lofty goals, we have to take baby steps, one step at a time.

Baby step#1 Make some of my financial decisions automatic and start purging some excesses

Following the advice from the Automatic Millionaire book, we changed the contribution percentage for our 401k to 10% of our pre-tax salaries which should bring us close the the maximum amount allowed per year. My wife also modified her salaries’ ACH transfer to directly deposit $1,500 into our emergency fund every month and the rest of her salary will go to our monthly budget account.

I have also established a recurring payment of $100 for credit card#2 ($504 remaining balance) and $400 ($11,000 remaining balance) for credit card#1 to automatically pay these credit debts.

I will look into establishing by-weekly payment of our mortgage which should cut down the years to pay from 30 to around 21 years. Instead of sending a $5000 check at the end of each month, I will establish a recurring payment of $2500 every after 2 weeks.

We will also look into reducing our spending excesses such as the super-loaded satellite tv subscription, $100 monthly overseas call expense, change gym membership from NYSC to a local gym. Try to cut down on those small items such as Starbucks coffee every morning and the frequent trips to fast-food stores.

Baby step#2 Pay the $504 debt from credit card#2

Any money coming from my income from the trading account will be used to pay this card quickly.

Baby step#3 Pay the $11,000 debt from credit card#1

After paying down credit card#2, I will add the $100 into my recurring payment for this card which should bring the monthly payment up to $500. I will also use 30% of my per-profitable trade income from my trading account to pay this credit card debt.

Baby step#4 Pay the remaining balance from the car loan

Baby step#5 Build the emergency fund to $100,000 to cover 1year worth of expenses

Baby step#6 Build the college fund for daughter to cover $200,000 worth of expenses