I have stuck my head into the sand lately pertaining to the big picture of our financial life. I get bogged down by the little things and have this black/white all-or-nothing mentality. I have a list of things that I should do and justify not doing because I confess I am a "chronic starter over" as I mentioned in some of my previous posts.

I paid off half of our debt (roughly)last week. We acquired this debt when DH was unemployed and we had $10K in real estate taxes, $3K parochial school tuition, and COBRA to the tune of $1,086. I have enough money in the bank to pay off the remaining debt but I have clung to that money for dear life as a safety net for "JUST IN CASE". I am using it to pay off the remining debt so I can really start over with a clean slate.

I have halted the traditional IRA contributions to Vangard and decresed the contributions to the HSA by 1/2 so I can get a better grip on things. I decreased DH's 401K contribution to 6%. Why? I have done this in order to have three months of as much money as possible. I am going to ladder three 1 month CDs for our EF. I have to pay some medical bills (small but several) that I make minimum payments on.

I need to incorporate some Mary Hunt for a freedom account which is where I am thrown for a loop at times. I reread Dave Ramsey and felt OK about suspending payments for the next few months.

I can ideally get things on track and then use the rental property income simply for savings/far future expenses (like 09-10 school year and 10 property taxes).

In order to move on, I am paying off everything - the $700 on Kohl's, the medical bills $500, the remaining balance on AmEx blue to the tune of 3.99% incterest. By July 1st, I will have it all paid off. Scary, but exciting.

I did have DH check into his company's severance package - and it is 2 months - so that helped me overcome some of my angst!