(Nate’s note:  This had been sitting in my ‘draft’ folder since Jan 11th, 2009.  I figured I would post it and then do a followup post on how things have progressed so far.)

In keeping with my whole MO for having this blog (to collect my thoughts), I’m listing out where I am putting my money in the first half of 2009.  I’m not going to say how much, just where and the reason why I feel these moves are justified.

To start, I suppose I should list out my financial goals and their timelines.  In no particular order:

• Downpayment for house #2 (12-24 months)
• Maintain six month emergency fund
• Max out 401k and IRA
• Pay off student loans (five years to go)

As you can see, I don’t have too many goals listed.  With that said, I’ve already bought and sold a house in my lifetime, I have six months of expenses saved, and I’ve maxed out my retirement funds the last three years.  In other words, I’m doing ok financially, but you can always do better.

I’ve saved up enough to put money down on another house, but I’m holding off more for lifestyle reasons.  I keep this money in a 12 month ING CD at 4%.  I also keep my emergency fund with ING