Struggling to be debt free

I had to take my 12 year old car in for maintenance this weekend and boy it was expensive, to the tune of $1,302.  I had an oil change, new spark plugs, rotation, all sorts of fluids flushed, etc.  Don't let anyone ever tell you that aging cars are not expensive to maintain.  Vehicles are costly little buggers.  However, I looked through my old service records and I don't think I've ever had the spark plugs replaced on that vehicle (which now has over 120,000 miles on it). I plan to pay for the maintenance/repair work out my 4/1518 paycheck which means less will go towards retirement than planned.  I'm okay with that though, because I'd rather have one expensive car repair/maintenance bill  a year over $6,000 in new car payments for the year.  I'm off to work.  Have a great Tuesday!

 I have maxed out my 2017 Roth!  I have been tracking my contributions all year and they are as follows: 4/14/17- $1,004 5/15/17- $1000 6/15/17- $1,000 7/15/17-$1,378 8/15/17- $1,118 So now I will work on getting another $2,000 into a taxable brokerage account.  This morning I transferred $695 into my taxable account. My hope is to contribute $9,500 into retirement for the year.  I did $2,000 into my 2016 Roth, $5,500 into my 2017 Roth and hope to get $2,000 into a taxable account. Next year, I plan to contribute $10,000 towards retirement and I plan to add $500 a year to that total each year until the number becomes completely unrealistic. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I am saving enough fast enough.

So about 2 weeks ago, after work, I went to pick up some Chinese food for dinner. As I was pulling into the parking lot my battery light on my car dashboard lit up and then went out.  Then it came on and stayed on.  I pulled into a parking spot and pulled out my manual and it said something to the effect of pull over immediately and call for help.  Well, I am stubborn.  I first picked up the food I ordered and then drove 25 minutes home in rush hour traffic.  It was a stressful, nail biting experience, but I made it home.  Once I got home I started googling the battery dashboard indicator light in Toyotas.  I found that it mostly likely meant that my alternator had gone bad.  I deduced this because for about 2 months I had been hearing a whirring noise after long drives.  I had googled the whirring noise, but didn't find anything significant and it wasn't too annoying.  Well, FYI, a battery light and a whirring noise means your alterna...