We did follow your 1, 2, 3 steps. Upped our 401k plan to 6%, and figured how much money we had left after expenses monthly and sat in awe, looks real good on paper, where’s the rest going? We quickly figured out and started an automatic savings plan putting $100.00 dollars in savings monthly, reassesed our credit card debt and began our plan of attack. Awhile back we decided to rid ourselves of alot of unneccessary bills and it helped alot but, now we feel as if were getting somewhere. Because, we never used the savings wisely. We currently own two homes, one is a rental. Unfortunately we have a second mortgage on the rental property. So we have three mortgages. Each are tax deductible and we take a loss on the rental property. We have such good renters we are hesitant on upping the rent to compensate. Any ideas you may have to get the most benefit out of this situation would be most welcome. We have always been able to pay our bills with money to throw away, now you have helped us to act wisely on how to use what’s left to our benefit. Thanks for opening our eyes. Our goal is to be credit card free in a year and to have 2 savings accounts that are substantial and also to up our 401k plan over 10%. And we have realized that it is doable.