I Paid Off My Mortgage!!

On August 18, 2015, I had made two big decisions: to pay off my mortgage as quickly as possible and to contribute $3,000 per year to my Roth IRA account.  On that same day, I also set a goal to pay off my mortgage by the end of 2019.  It has now been a little under a year and I have done it!  I have officially paid off my mortgage today!  I can't even describe how wonderful the feeling is... it's like this weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  I feel this sense of freedom and joy I never imagined I would feel.  I now can sleep better knowing that if something were to happen to me or I were to lose my job (God forbid), at least my family would have a roof over their head.

Big Decisions Finally Made

The good thing about this blog is that it chronicles my life and my thoughts along the process to retire by age 56.  Hopefully, one day when I look back, I will see the decisions I made, the actions I took, and the fruits of my decisions.  And hopefully this blog will be a source of encouragement for others as well.

After much contemplation regarding how to deploy my cash and how to invest in my Roth IRA, I have come to the following decisions:

Saving For (Possibly) A Future House - Cash Or DG Stocks?

Eventually, I may have to buy a bigger house to accommodate a possibly larger family.  Depending on how many children my wife and I have, we may need to move.  If that's the case, I need to start saving up for a down payment.  I could sell my current primary residence to come up with part of the funds for the down payment on the future house, but ideally, I want to be able to purchase the larger home and not have to sell my current place.  That way, I could have two rental properties.

The problem is I don't know if we will need to move in the future or not.  If I knew for certain that we didn't need to move, I would put more of my cash to work right now by investing it.

I've been contemplating different options: