I have fallen off the wagon, but I am not blaming my Semitic friends, nor am I calling police officers "sugar tits."

Truth be told, I have felt hopeless and alternately slackful achieving financial comfort. Just like I can never be perfect enough to guarantee a spot into Heaven, I can never be comfortable enough to stop worrying. Nobody stops me from my self-sabotage, because the signs are so small: I am too beset by chores of entertaining/training the young boy, doing laundry, keeping up correspondence to pay attention to finances.

I should feel comfortable: I am WAY better off than my parents were, than my brother is. The Assets:Liabilities ratio is high, and for the first time since February 1999 my debt is below $160,000.
Just looked at a July blog post of mine: $163578 in debt! And here I am with $157087. That's a 4% drop in 100 days!

But I have less than $5000 in my savings account, and need $3550 for contributing to my Roth IRA, and will gross less than $5000 by the time my contract ends. I need a new wardrobe.

And we're not saving much money because I've been in the "OMG must see what I can of the state before I can no longer afford it!" mindset or the "OMG must get most of life as possible before some inattentive dimbulb runs me over" mindset.

Being falsely confident in the overly inflated house value, just because our market has been slow to grow (the dot-com bust of 2001-2002 hit my city HARD) will not help. Believe me, I think of purchasing gold, gold mutual funds, cashing out of some mutual funds -- I am still in some GNMA fund which has had the largest growth percentage of the investments in my Roth IRA. However, with each of my diverse mutual funds representing under 10% of my portfolio I am not freaking out.

My supposition is probably: "Gee, my friends aren't freaking out about their $370,000+ mortgage, why should I freak out about having $4500 in my savings account?"

I have a one week's pay bonus at work, already divvied up in my head: 45% IRA, 35% wardrobe, 20% savings.

Also, thank you LuxLiving for caring. It helps me regain my resolve.

My contract ends in a month. I am not ready. I am to have a resume updated and prepped for circulation. I do not believe in myself. The job market is better though, and my job skills have been updated.

My husband and I have been giving our credit card a good workout -- spouse has tix for spending Thanksgiving back home. I approve only because it's been over two years since we've seen them, they are currently too physically incapacitated to fly, spouse's grandmother is frail and in her mid-eighties. I'm not looking forward to having most of my liquid refreshment in-flight choices be: caffeine, alcohol, or high fructose corn syrup carbonated beverages.

Good news: according to a "what income do you need to afford your mortgage" calculator on interest.com, we can apparently manage the mortgage on my husband's income alone.

Also: mortgage is down to $155,997.41. By this time next year, it'll be below $150,000!

My savings strategy is non-existent. Too much "live now, there's no tomorrow." I'd been hoping that interest rates will rise, as Mr. Turk and Mr. Rubino conjectured in a scenario from their book The Coming Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It, as the dollar devalues, so I may yield more from taxable savings rather than directly paying off the mortgage, but the Federal Reserve has been cutting interest rates down. Who knows, if interest rates go down to 4.00% or lower for 15-year loans, we may refinance.

Six Smartest Ways to Use a Line of Credit

1. Improve value of the home.
2. Pay off high-interest credit cards.
3. Use it for a rainy-day fund.
4. Buy a second home.
5. Put kid through college.
6. Start a business.

Not liking #4 - #6: obviously these are in descending order of smartness. Sir John Templeton, looking at Boston and California's house prices, advised picking them up at a tenth of their 2004 list values. Only a volcano/earthquake combination, or a biochemical attack would bring our house values down 90%.