I've been crunching numbers left and right (I have a feeling this will never change in the future... we will always be crunching numbers I suppose). I am taking the advice of many on here, to some extenet, and some of it will be a bit of a hybrid plan (so-to-speak).
Originally I had not included in my plans about adding a Roth IRA. At least not officially until I paid off my mortgage.
But, like many said here, why wait? I know I can't just dive in and start a portfolio that pays out dividends every single day of the week like some people, but I also realize that starting it up... slapping down a few grand and maxing the contribution each year is important to the overall numbers. I also see where a ROTH IRA can be extremely beneficial. Especially if you do your research and capture dividends correctly. I think I get the gist of it. Invest in the aristocrats that are not sitting on over-valued stocks, and gamble from time to time with a few of the younger crowd to grab a few high yields.
So I am going to re-map my next 8-9 years I have left in Active Duty (which will give me 26 years total service time). I'm still planning to pay he house off early... but not nearly as early as I had originally planned. Unless the wife plans on pitching in more, but that's up to her. I'm doing this all entirely on my budget for the first 5 years or so.
But I have shifted gears quite a bit.
I will be working towards maxing my TSP. I won't be able to this year, but will next year.
And I will be starting a ROTH IRA. That's a top goal. My understanding is that I can contribute the $5k all the way until 15th of April (2014) to count for 2013. And then toss another $5K at it on 16th of April. I may do that right off the bat, unless I start tossing money in now. I am going to talk to my bank first to see if they have any deals through them where I can get free trades per month. I have my home loan through them, and I know they offer where you can get a Roth IRA through them. I'm just curious as to what they offer. If they have a good deal, I may go through them for myself, and I suppose opening one up for my wife as well.
That's where I sit right now. Still plan to pay things off (the mortgage will be at a slower rate, the car loan and small CC debt will be first, and finished in less than a year). An upcoming promotion should also help with these goals as well, so I'm looking forward to this.
Time to just update my Excel sheet that I made up. LOL
