Which is the best financial move you can make in 2007?

[veronak]

I saw this on another forum and just wanted to know what everyone else was doing

[tinapbeana]

um, i need an 'other'! mine is some weird amalgam of pay off debt, keep my job or find a decently paying replacement, and work on getting back into the retirement savings game...

[meaghanchan]

I put down 'aggressively boost my retirement savings', though in reality I'm not really boosting it... Just committing to stick with the 15% I started with after I finished paying off all my debt.

That, and continue to save a little for a far-future house purchase.

[JanH]

I put pay off my debt. We have already boosted our retirement some at the end of this past year, so I am now seriously tackling the debt. The more debt paid off, the more going into retirement.

[disneysteve]

I would vote "other." We own our home. We aren't planning to shop for another car anytime in 2007. Our only debt is our home and I'm in no hurry to pay that off as the interest rate is well below what our investments are earning. We already max our retirement plans and I have no plans to leave my job. So none of the choices apply to me.

My main financial goal is to trim spending, particularly on groceries and, probably, insurance costs. My wife is becoming a SAHM again next month, so our income will fall and although we are doing just fine, we want to tighten the belt just a little.

[Ima saver]

I voted to save for retirement. Since we will pretty much have to live on our savings the rest of our life.

[Aleta]

I voted to boost our retirement. I had become complacent there for a while because of the returns and realize now that I need to boost the input and to trim spending where we can.

[Bookie]

I don't know where it's the *best* financial move, but this will be the year I completely eliminate all my remaining ccard debt. The end of a 5-year project.

[pearlieq]

2007 will be a debt reduction year for us. I'm definitely getting rid of my student loan and hoping to make a good dent in DH's. Getting rid of the payments will be nice from a cash flow perspective.

[veronak]

I think I am the only one saving for a house, interesting...but I am a late bloomer when it comes to finances

[jodi]

Definitely get rid of as much debt as possible. We just got DH's tuition statement from his school for tax purposes - $15,800 paid last year for tuition. About half is student loans, some was paid, and the rest is sitting on a 0% cc. We plan to wipe that out by summer then attack the student loans with a vengeance!

[tabbycat31]

I need a better paying job that actually utilizes my skills.

I am at a commission base job (ok a small base salary) until April, then I have to start searching agian.

[veronak]

Good luck with the search

[Broken Arrow]

This year's battleplan consists of upping my retirement AND trying to pay off all of my debt. We'll see how that works out....

[PRICEPLUS]

Aggressively save up for retirement now that I am out from under!

[MonkeyMama]

Car - check, house - check, good paying job - check, debt- semi-check.

Leaves me with mortgage and retirement. Going for retirement!!!!!

Actually frankly I am gung ho on building a substantial e-fund, because we have always had one, in recent years, and I am missing it. BUT any money remaining goes to retirement AND the money we are putting aside now is training us to put aside for retirement. Just working on saving overall. we have been saving for so many short-term things (house and maternity leave) it is nice to move forward and focus on longer-term goals, like retirement! Usually we just put what is left over into retirement as we focus on more pressing goals, but this year we are making retirement at the front and setting a goal to save a certain amount.

[Ima saver]

Retirement saving is my main goal, but I do want to become debt free. I have paid off my land and now my focus is my car being paid off. I have to realize that with my husband, I will probably always have a car payment. Cars are his passion. You might think I am nuts to let him buy a car whenever he wants, but when a man works 7 days a week (he use to work 18 hours a day). feel he deserves his passion. He has done this all his life. so I hope to pay this car off, then start a car fund for his next car. I am going to keep making my land payment to myself and put it in the new car fund!

[veronak]

way to go Ima you inspire me

[LuxLiving]

I voted the retirement goal as that is where I should be putting all of our efforts at this date...however, I hate owing the mortgage. It's a psychological Damocles sword hanging over my head...I think it is a woman thing. I would love the security of knowing that if anything were to happen to The Hubster that I would have a place to live irregardless of other circumstances and still have our emergency fund and retirement funds in place. We could pay off our house today w/the e-fund money, but that would seriously dent it!

I also logically know that I can (and currently DO) possibly do better with our investments than the 6.75% interest on the mortgage. I KNOW IT, now I need to make myself own it and act more on it! (The mortgage paydown is a sure thing and the investments can always fluctuate downward so that does give me pause. SIGH!!)

I also know that I could go back to a soul-sucking job and increase my income, and probably will for a while, but that really does not appeal to my spiritual side!

[aurielle]

I voted for saving for retirement but I'm actually building up my EF first. When that's funded, (somewhere around the middle of the year) I'll begin to sock away alot more money into my IRA. Although I just recently set up my IRA to auto-deduct $50/month from my checking. I also just opened up a savings account with HSBC. Good steps in the right direction!