As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have been debt free for two years. After two years of enjoying life - debt free -I can state, without hesitation, that deciding to get out debt was the smartest decision I have ever made. I cannot explain how different my life is now. Instead of worrying about interest rates or late payments, I can enjoy the process of saving money and planning for the future.

Clearly, getting out of debt was a big deal. But, my goal is to live without borrowing money. To that end, I have been working my way through the following list of -

10 Things To Do After You Get Out Of Debt

I created this list almost three years ago, while I was still getting out of debt, and I have modified it, several times, since then, adding new goals as my financial situation changed. These are the steps that I am taking (or plan to take) to ensure my family’s financial well-being. I will list the step and underneath each step, I’ll indicate my own progress.

1. Fully-fund an emergency fund with enough money to cover 6 months worth of necessary expenses.
   • Shortly after getting out of debt, I accomplished this step. Since that time, I dipped into my emergency fund to purchase an automobile. I am currently rebuilding a portion of my emergency fund. I have also begun to refer to this portion of my savings as non-retirement savings.
2. Learn more about available retirement options. Consider pre-tax and after-tax retirement options. Understand the account benefits / restrictions.
   • I have chosen to fully-fund a 403b account, a Roth IRA, and partially fund a SEP-IRA account. My wife fully-funds her pension plan and a Roth IRA. The amount that you can contribute to a retirement account will be limited by the amount of money you make and the amount of monthly necessary expenses you have. For me, funding retirement accounts is a ‘must’.
3. Learn more about investing - mutual funds, exchange traded funds, stocks bonds, etc.
   • While I only have a rudimentary understanding of the stock market and how it works, I have decided to stick with low-cost, index-based mutual funds and ETFs. I read several books and websites about investing. Right now, I am working to build up the funds in my retirement accounts and I am ‘keeping things simple’. Perhaps, one day, I will broaden my basket of investments, but for now, I am satisfied with the mutual funds and ETFs that I own.
4. Learn more about college savings options.
   • My wife and I have two children (with a third on the way) and I am working very hard to fully-fund three Education Savings Accounts. I am also learning more about 529 plans and other options for college funding.
5. Create a will and other end of life documents to ensure the safety and security of my wife and kids, should something happen to me.
   • I have a will and my wife does, too. I still need to work on some other end-of-life documents and learn more about this particular subject.
6. Increase term life insurance coverage to an amount that will adequately support my wife and kids, should something happen to me. Do the same for my wife, should something happen to her.
   • My wife and I both have term life coverage - but we need to increase our coverage amount. At present, we both have about 6 times our annual income in term life coverage, but we would like to have about 12 times. I will revisit this issue next October, when our policies are due to be updated.
7. Organize my financial documents. Create a system that I will actually use.
   • I have created my own, very simple, system for organizing and storing my documents. I still need to invest in a safe / safe-deposit box. For now, I keep copies of important documents in two locations.
8. Create and maintain and easy-to-use financial inventory for my spouse.
   • I have created a financial inventory for my wife, but I haven’t updated it in a while. In fact, this post has inspired me to do so.
9. Learn more about taxes and how to minimize my tax liability.
   • I have yet to understand our arcane tax system, but I have learned that I can reduce my tax burden by increasing my pre-tax retirement contributions. Also, I have done my very best to understand effective tax rates.
10. Find creative ways to earn extra income and become financial independent.
    • I have figured out how to monetize my various websites, I enjoy selling items for profit, and I am working hard to make myself an irreplaceable worker. Every day, I move towards financial independence, and every day, I am reminded of both how far I have come and how far I have to go!

Clearly, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but its the list that I’m working through at this time. I want to encourage you to create a list of your own. If you can’t think of your own list - that’s cool - use mine!

If you have steps / goals that I haven’t listed, feel free to leave a comment and share. Combining our knowledge and dreams, we all move forward.

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2007 was an amazing year for me, NCN, and my site, No Credit Needed. I thought that it would be fun to take a month-by-month tour through my favorite posts from the last year. If you are a new reader, I hope these posts will give your a sense of who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m trying to go. If you are a long-time reader, thank you for your support.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from October of 2007.

October 3 - Day 24 Of 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt: Roth IRA - Find out what happens if you invest $4,000 for 25 years at 8%?

October 9 - What Is An ESA? - Coverdell Education Savings Account

October 9 - Reader Poll - Are You Debt Free? Share Your Story - This poll is still open! Over 600 people have voted and several have shared their stories. Go vote.

October 15 - How To File A Fraud Alert With Credit Bureaus - I lost my wallet and I had file a fraud alert.

October 18 - Are You Hiding Debt From Your Spouse? This post was inspired by a segment featuring Suze Orman on the Oprah Show.

October 19 - How I Live Without Using Credit Cards - My Simple System For Living On A Budget - This is one of the most popular posts here at No Credit Needed.

October 22 - I Just Purchased A Mini-Van - How I Purchased A Used Vehicle Without Borrowing Money

Throughout February, I’ll continue to highlight my favorite posts from 2007.If you haven’t done so, please consider subscribing to No Credit Needed. (It’s free!)

Click here to subscribe via email.

Click here to subscribe via RSS.

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I don’t know how many of you are using StumbleUpon - but I’ve been using it for the past few weeks and it’s pretty amazing. Basically, you visit the StumbleUpon website, add the StumbleUpon bar to your browser, and start ‘Stumbling’. You can set up a profile for your favorite types of sites - and StumbleUpon will ‘guide’ you to sites, based on your profile settings. If you want to see my favorite sites - and add me as your friend - visit my StumbleUpon page. If you add me as a friend, I’ll gladly return the favor.

By the way, if you ever see a post that you like here at No Credit Needed - feel free to ‘Stumble It’. I’ll get a web-traffic boost, you’ll help share the debt-free message with the world, and we’ll both feel great!

For those of you into Twitter - I also have a Twitter page. I love Twitter - and yet I don’t know why. It’s a very, very unique service / site. I find myself visiting three or four times a day. Click here to view my Twitter profile and ‘follow’ me.

Finally, if you haven’t already done so, please consider subscribing to No Credit Needed -

You can click here to subscribe via RSS or here to subscribe via Email.

You will receive free updates from your faithful anti-credit, pro-cash blogger, me, NCN!

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My wife is an educator and next week is ‘Open Enrollment’. We have to make a decision about dental insurance - Currently, we have coverage for my wife and my daughter, and we need to ad my son and me to the plan.

Before we make the change, I thought I’d poll my good readers and ask -

How much do you pay (per month) for dental insurance?

What kind of coverage do you have?

Have any of you purchased dental insurance in the ‘open market’? If so, is it any good?

Please note - When you ask a question like this on a ‘blog’ - certain folks will want to fill the comments with spam. So, please don’t link to any dental insurers or their websites. Trust me, if you simply mention a company, that will be cool, and if I decide to check out their services, I’ll be more than happy to mention them in an article. But, if you mention a company and it is clear that you ‘work’ for that company - I’ll simply delete your comment and mark it as spam.

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I have spent the last few hours working on my income tax return.  In an effort to decrease my tax liability for 2007, I have opened a SEP-IRA.  A SEP-IRA (Simplified Employee Pension) can be established and funded by a self-employed owner of a business.  Since ‘No Credit Needed’ managed to make a little money in 2007, I can make contributions, on my own behalf, to a SEP-IRA.

For more information on SEP-IRAs, please see the IRS website or this article from Investopedia.

I used this handy calculator from Vanguard to calculate how much I can contribute to my SEP-IRA for 2007.

According to multiple resources, sole proprietors have until April 15th, or their extension deadline, to make contributions if they want a tax deduction for the prior year.

The real problem that I have - right now - is that I have been trying to rebuild my non-retirement savings AND fully-fund my son’s ESA for 2007.  Adding the SEP-IRA at such a late date is really going to slow my savings progress - and could even jeopardize my ability to fully-fund his ESA.  But, I think that I can manage to fully-fund the ESA AND contribute to the SEP-IRA, if I slow my non-retirement savings.

I have decided to hold off on actually filing my taxes until April - so that I can have a little longer to contribute as much as I can to the new SEP-IRA.  I hate the idea of slowing my non-retirement savings progress, but I hate the idea of paying taxes even more!

Please note:  I am not a tax-professional, and I most certainly do not play one online.  Please, before you make any decision about your taxes, consult a qualified tax-professional.

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I have been so busy the past three months.  So, today, I took a day off.  I went golfing with a few of my buddies.  I didn’t think about money, I didn’t think about my investments, I didn’t think about work, and I didn’t think (much) about blogging.  I just grabbed my clubs, went to the course, and ripped it.  I haven’t been able to play golf in a long time - and it showed.  I posted an 80.  It started to rain after the turn, but we kept hitting it.   I have a pretty decent swing - I hit the ball pretty well with my driver and my irons, but I’m only fair around the greens.  My game has suffered from a lack of practice - but it felt great just to be outside, swinging away.

Golf is a treat - and I don’t play very often.  But, when I go, I really enjoy it.  Hopefully, one day, all of this ’saving money’ will pay off and I’ll get to play more often - much more often!

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