So it's the New Year and like I said, I'm getting caught in the trap of making New Years Resolutions. But I like to think of these as Goals, not Resolutions!
1. Finish paying off all debt. Barring any disasters, this should be completed with our tax return, leaving us debt-free, except the house.
2. Fully fund our emergency fund. This is likely going to take the entire year, although about half of it should be effortless. Brad currently socks away 10% of his income in the employeee stock plan and has for the past several years. We have always taken that money every 6 months and used it to pay the credit card debt that we accumulated from living beyond our means. Now that we have learned to stick to a budget, we should be able to just hold on to that money (note: I realize that this is not what Dave Ramsey would consider "liquid" because it isn't just sitting in a bank account. However, if we need to access it, it has never taken us more than a week to get to it).
3. Save money to buy Brad a new car with as little financing as possible. Brad's car should last at least another year, but it is already a "beater". He's going to need another one soon. If we have to, we can just use the money from the emergency fund that we will be building. I would rather be back to "square one" with the Emergency Fund than take on another debt!
4. Set up an IRA. We currently contribute 6% of Brad's income to his 401K. I have an old 401K from my old job. I want to roll that over to an IRA so that once our Emergency Fund is full funded, we can start to throw money at that. We don't intend to increase Brad's 401K contribution, as he is maxxed out with the Employer Match. Better to put it somewhere where we will have more control.
5. Increase my streams of income. One way I can do this is to get more exposure for this site. I just have to figure out how to do it without becoming a total AnnoyingMomsNeedToKnowPimp
Those are my goals. I will be revisiting these on the first of each month and hope to be able to deliver good news on each.
In case you are wondering, I do realize that some of these are out of order from the Baby Steps. Brad never agreed with the idea of suspending his 401K contributions while we worked on our Debt Snowball and by continuing to contribute 10% of his income to the Stock Purchase Plan, we made an easy 10% on his contributions (which we cashed in immediately and used to pay debt). It may not be perfect, but it works for us!
What are your goals for 2009?
Jennifer Y.
I just want to say that you are totally awesome and should be very proud of what you have accomplished this year. My goal this year is to start doing the envelope system. I have been thinking about it for years, but can never seem to actually DO it. This year I am going to take charge and just do it.