The Plan

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of what we're doing on a day-by-day basis to move toward our Rabbit Hill, I thought I should outline our plan. Do you have a plan for your life? Obviously, as much as we'd like to control every detail, we know that our plans are subject to change. However, having a step-by-step guide helps us make decisions while keeping in mind our larger goals.

So, our plan, should it happen in the best possible way:

STEP 1: Pay off debt
STEP 2: Quit my job, stay at home, homeschool
STEP 3: Have more kids
STEP 4: Finish renovating current house
STEP 5: Find and buy "forever home" — our Rabbit Hill

We've also got a general idea of how long these things will take us. For instance, if everything keeps going forward as it has been, we should be completely out of debt by the summer/fall of 2012. Our son will be 5 in June 2012, and since we want to homeschool, I'd like to be at home with him before he starts kindergarten in the fall of 2012, so I'll plan on quitting my job before the end of next year. Once debt is paid off, we'll have more free cash, even after I've quit my job, so that money will go toward the remaining renovations on our house, and some of it will be saved for a down payment on Rabbit Hill. Before we have a third kid, we'll want to be in our "forever home," but that timeline starts to get a little blurrier. We'll have to work it out as we go.

So, that's the overview of where we're headed. I'm going to do a post about each of these topics to get everyone up to speed on the W's of each one. Then, like I said, we'll be off to the races with the day-to-day progress toward our goals.