Money and debt

I hate being in debt. I just thought I'd throw that out there to begin. After my latest round of payments goes through I should be down to around $36K of debt. Ugh. That's a pretty daunting number, if you ask me, but it's manageable. And the first person to complain about their mortgage to me can blow me where the pampers is.

Anyway...

Given the continual downward trend of the stock markets, and the looming hyper-inflation once the $600B in loans from the Fed,$700B bailout from the government, and $250B in bank stock purchases by the government go through, I have decided to not bother putting anything over the minimum into my 401(k) for the time being. Chances are the dollar will completely tank over coming 6-8 months, in which case I will have much bigger things to worry about. Might as well pay off some debt and pour some money into hard assets while I can. If I live by the budget I have setup for myself, I can put about $1800-$2000 into my debt per month. Add in the couple grand I will get back from taxes and some money I have put away already and I should be able to get debt free in less than 18 months from now. Having done some calculations based on my spending habits, I only need ~$18K per year to spend on survival (ignoring loan payments). If I become debt free, my freedom jumps up dramatically, so that's what I'm to focus on from now on. Plan: become debt free, quite ITT, find a brewery with an opening, enjoy my life.


Oh, on the topic of moneys, if anyone has Boardwalk in the McDonald's Monopoly game, let me know: I have Park Place. We could split whatever's left of a cool million after taxes.