struggling to pay off my debts for so long, i haven’t thought that i have the luxury of contemplating what i will do afterwards when they do get paid off. but i have been assuming that the money i used to pay for debt will just get rerouted in different ways to my various savings accounts. i guess the challenge i may encounter later then will be, how? and how much where?

reading your post makes me reevaluate my rather nonchalant attitude about how i will manage my finances later. i see no reason why i have to wait till after i’m debt-free to plot out my savings plans.

@until debt
you make an awesome and important point about the attitude of short vs. long term, and ‘vigilance’ lest old habits reappear.

Well I got out of debt before and life was good. Unfortunately the new found sense of freedom caused my old habits to reappear so it wasn’t too long before I found myself in debt again.

I think the problem was that I looked on my debt management as a short term thing and not something that I would have to engage in long term but I have come to the understanding that ‘the price of debt freedom is eternal vigilance’

Increase e fund to $5000
Partially (quarter) fund Roth
Start a ‘new to me car fund’ with 1/2 of old car payment
Increase e fund to 3 months
Increase Roth to 1/2 max allowed
Buy laddered CDs for ‘OMG, lost my job’ efund

etc, etc
ect.

I tracked all this in an excel spreadsheet, just like I used to track my debts. I’ve been debt free for four years now, and I’m getting toward the bottom of that list. Once I’m up to 15% of gross pay to retirement, I’ll set up a new spreadsheet with another batch of detailed investment type goals to work on.

I think that having a set “next goal” for savings just like you had for debt repayment is the key.