How about SAVE MONEY, instead of spending it?

I am talking about discretionary income.

Once the first mortgage and 2 HELOCs are paid off (old and new house) and I see how much is left, things I'd like include:

1) New mattress. After 18 years, I think it's time (as does my back...)

2) Hardwoods on the stairs and upper hallways of the house rather than white carpet. Three kids, 2 cats, 1 dog -- 'nuff said.

3) New fence the dog can't jump, so he can be let out rather than leash-walked only.

good answer terriks .. put more money in my retirement savings.

Well, since I will be about 65, I'd say "retire".

Four more years until retirement. Then, we'll dump our NY place & settle full time here. Maintaining our NY home takes quite a bit from our income that we'll divert to further our investment portfolio. We're just nearing the end of our remodel of this house so won't need to do much of anything for a long time. We've paid cash as we progressed so nothing to pay off for the remodel. Our purchase money mortgage is a 15 year, bi-weekly, fixed-rate plus on Jan. 1 of every year we make a principal lump payment. That loan will clear in a couple more years.

We're past the point in our lives where more 'stuff' has any priority. In fact, it seems like we're spending the second half of our lives trying to get rid of what we acquired in the first half! lol

We intend to continue cruising the Atlantic seaboard & the Great American Circle route in our boat long after retirement. That's all the 'get away' time we want or need. We'll spend 4-5 months/year onboard & the rest of the time at home. Downsizing our house has prepared us for onboard living nicely. We've learned that we won't kill each other living in a small space! :)

/tricia

Once our second mortgage is paid off--in about 4 years (6 years early)--we'll probably re-side our house and get a new bay window for the dining room. Our house still has the '70s style wide siding. I'd also like to get wood floors installed on the stairway, hallway, living room, and dining room. OR...maybe we'll take trip overseas!

Haha, this post caught my eye because my husband and I talk about this ALL the time! #1 on my list is paying off my car and credit card debt, but then there's the new computer he's been craving and I really want to start saving for a trip to Europe. We kind of fell into this 2-mortgages thing by accident and are SO looking forward to selling soon! I've already go that mortgage payment earmarked for 20 other things! ;-)

Celebrate!!! Our second house isn't ready to live in yet so we have no choice but for sure CELEBRATE when we can move in and orig house sells.

We're really hoping to get rid of the other house SOON to get back down to one mortgage; we've had some showings in the last few weeks since the price drop, which is encouraging.

Our first priority is building our savings back up and getting back on track with retirement contributions etc. This house needs quite a lot of work that we'll need to save up for, we've taken a hit to that fund with some emergency repairs. We're not really going to let ourselves have more than a little (and I'm talking maybe $50 a month) in "discretionary" funds for quite a while. DH is probably going to need a new vehicle in the next few years so it would not be very smart to get accustomed to higher spending so that a car payment would hurt, we'd rather just be able to accomodate it.

Celebrate!!!

We'll take 3-4 months to pay off our credit card and 1 of our cars. We need to get our FICO score around 800 for financing. After that, we'll look for property and build a house.

Our home equity loan will be HISTORY next month on December 10!!! I am going to treat myself to 3 pairs of new jeans and 2 new pairs of tennis shoes with the first post HELOC paycheck. I might also get a new winter coat if I can find something that's warm and will last a few years. After that, it's back to saving as a result of having received the best news of my life about 2 months ago. I'm being downsized on 2/29 (YEAH!!) and I'll be taking a few months off (first time in 30 years) before I do a career change and start working at my new job. I'll be living well within my means, wearing my new jeans and tennies, until I get gainfully employed again...because I don't want to ask DH for funding!

Eat something besides macaroni and cheese for supper. Seriously! And go out for lunch at a nice place instead of McDonalds!!

1. Pay off the improvements that we have had to make on the new house despite having a mortgage and heloc on the old house (furnace, exterior doors, insulation)

2. Make that savings account we are all supposed to have with 6 months of expenses (thanks terriks).

3. Get new windows to replace the leaky aluminum framed ones.

4. Hardwoods or cork floors in halls and kitchen/dining and den, tile with an electric heat pad in foyer, tile in half bath and laundry room.

5. New cabinets and an island in the kitchen with 38 inch counter height and a single bowl sink with a decent garbage disposal and nice laminate counter tops. The cabs may be locally made custom, but I can save $$$ by getting laminate counter tops.

6. Hardwood on bedroom floor or tear out the 1978 main bath and redo with new tile and tub and decently high cabs with drawers for storage.

7. Whatever we did not do in #6.

8. OMG! We still have that hideous wall-o-brown-brick 1978 fireplace in the den! DO SOMETHING - cover with wood, tear 3/4 of it down and make the smaller fireplace nice by covering with stone, do something to lessen the dark cave effect. Put in an efficient gas insert or a pellet insert if gas prices have skyrocketed.

8. By now it is time to re-roof!