Under the 10 questions above, it doesn’t qualify as something to change lifestyle, but since it would change the dog’s lifestyle a bit (no longer tied to a 20′ lead, but given the ability to walk up and lie on the hill or in the shade, and note there is no doghouse – tho i’ve tried twice to get a useable one back there, and to find the dog some shade (all rigged badly). I think this is a need, but the question arose from someone else, so I will pass it to you since it is a financial decision as well. It’s not putting food in our mouths, but it is providing shelter and protection for the family dog who is also protection for us (single mom household). Or is this too left-field?

A small ‘hint’: don’t necessarily be in a hurry to pay off the student loans IF they are at a lower % than current fixed mortgage rates AND you are prepared instead to gear into some other investmments (maybe more real-estate).

I understand what you mean from your last comment as looking at the other side of the equation and the goal is to get to the point of making leaps and bounds with investment capital ASAP.

I think the trouble is that we are just starting out(with me being fairly recently out of school and making it in practice now) and that we haven’t been really earning for very long so we don’t have large amounts of capital yet by default to fully fall into the 20% of net worth in home equity, currently with my student loans we have a neg net worth! lol. I just couldn’t see renting for a few more years to be honest and lose that rent money. However, according to our plan, we will be able to save close to 50k per year initially (not counting any increases in income, of which 100% of the increases will go toward accelerating this process as I really feel no desire in a lifestyle increase at all) This will very quickly become close to 100k of savings as I earn passive income from additional clinics that I am currently helping start up. All that income will be applied toward purchasing real estate, investing, purchasing businesses, etc..

Hope all this makes a bit more sense!

Most of the rules that I have given so far have focussed on the other half of the story: i.e. the Balance Sheet side of the equation; that is your Net Worth (what you own less what you owe).

The cardinal wealth-building rule is to have at least 75% of your Net Worth in INVESTMENTS (no, your house does not count, which is why we try and limit our equity in it to no more than 20% of our net Worth).

I suppose we could have paid someone valuable rent money to help them build their wealth for a couple of years, then purchased a house that cost just over 100k instead of just over 300k, but I really did think we were being responsible and moving toward our goals by purchasing a home that satisfied our “wants” for the better part of our lives, while only costing us 12% of our income per month in expenses and coming home ecstatic over our property everyday. I also figured that a 300k house while appreciating would be more equity to tap each year for investments than a 100k house. Any thoughts on this?

BTW: Let me know how the ‘checklist’ works for you …

I was listening to music on the Bose, and I got a little excited.
I jumped up and grabbed this ledge-thingy in my living room, intending to do a pull up sort of thing. (Don’t ask me why.) I swung my leg and my slipper flew off. The slipper flew across the room and hit a glass of water which spilled onto the Bose! Talk about a buzz killer.