Cool news re: property taxes

We finally got our first property tax bill ever yesterday. It is much lower, about $800 lower, than I thought it might be! Dope! So our savings will not be wiped out after all, thank the heavens. The remainder will provide a nice cushion to my EF (Emergency Fund) that I am currently building. I'm going to pretend the cushion doesn't exist, though. It'll stay hidden over at the credit union where it'll continue gaining interest.

We also got a bunch of other tax items in the mail, such as mortgage co. interest statements and bank interest statements. This is the year I begin making an extra mortgage payment per year. Do you know that if you make just 1 extra payment a year you will knock something like 7 years off a 30-year mortgage, and save thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars??? Increible! And it's so easy to do, just pick 1 month and pay around the 30th, then just keep it up through December. Or, just do it in December!

I'm currently listening to a book on CD in the car, The Wealthy Barber. It's about money management, but to be honest, it's not teaching me anything I don't already know. Still, I enjoy reviewing personal finance tips b/c it just reinforces that I am doing everything I can at the moment. And reading the message boards daily on msn money continues to give me the discipline to budget and get out of debt asap.

Gratuitous pic of the day: Kill Bill Halloween, starring me as GoGo. 2004.