What would it be? Financially speaking? My brother in law once told me that no matter what happens throughout the year, the one thing he ALWAYS does is to make sure he maxes out his 401(k). And it used to be mine, too! In fact, I took it a step further the last two years and maxed out Both my 401k and my Roth – but that’s kinda hardcore for most, haha… and sadly we won’t be seeing a 3-pete this time around ;)
BUT, what I like about this thinking is that it gets you to set 1 large goal to hit, and it really focuses your energy into accomplishing something great! If you force yourself to make it happen no matter what’s going on around you, you’d be one proud cookie by the end of the year ;) And your net worth will too, depending on the size of it! Going back to the 401(k) idea – you’d be saving $16k+ on top of $16k+ every single year if you continued with it! That’s insane! And it really only cost you maybe $11k or $12k too since it’s pre-taxable money. Not too shabby… And that doesn’t even take in account the growth of your investments over that same time period either.
This year, for me, it’s going to be to put in $11,000 into my SEP (Simplified Employee Pension IRA) – the amount my accountant estimates I can put in based on last year’s earnings (from my “hustles,” not my old 9-5) Doing that will not only give me more investment money not to touch, like I mentioned yesterday, but ALSO a huge tax break of roughly $3,000! As in, $3,000 in real cash I won’t have to pay! I’d say it’s win-win all around :) Just a crap ton of money to depart with if I can’t find a way to bring in more than I am now… but then again, more ammunition to ramp up and kill it, right?! So we have 6 and 1/2 months to make this happen. And I like to think that anything’s possible when you have a mission to complete :)
What one thing would YOU like to do by the end of the year? I want some big a$$ goals up in here, people! Like, cutting out your credit card debt once and for all, or building up emergency funds from scratch! I know you all have it in you. I just want you to say it loud and proud so I can come back in 6 months and ask you about it! ;) Deal?
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My one thing to do this year is pay off our credit card debt, which sould be gone in a few months. Next year should hopefully be to have a fully funded emergency fund. Than it should be maxing out Roths. That’s my 3 year plan.
My goal is to continue to focus on my families long-term financial goals. These include paying down mortgage, add to the emergency fund, add to retirement and college funds for the children, and save for retirement so that it can actually happen before age 60. Not to be overlooked is the necessary investment in myself in terms of health (loosing a few pounds, lowering my blood pressure and geeting new glasses). If I make those investments now, my expenses (associated with health) will be less in the future. Clearly something that cannot be overlooked in terms of long-term financial goals.
I’m going to try to pay for the first year of my MBA program in cash including living expenses, fees, materials, and tuition. Next year I’ll try to pay for the second year in cash too, but that will be a lot harder.
Good luck with the SEP goal! Definitely a good one to have, and you’ll thank yourself in the long run.
Our biggest goal this year is save up a cushion to cover adoption expenses. We are starting the adoption process soon, and we are definitely excited about it! Fortunately my employer reimburses legal fees and things like that up to $8,000, but we have to come up with it out of pocket first. We’re well on our way and have been maneuvering ourselves into financial stability for a while to lead up to this.
As far as goals we are shooting to have both of our roth’s maxed out and have 20% of the principal paid off on the mortgage.
401k’s are great but mine is not so great. My company will only match up to $3,000 :(
My goal is to pay off all my spouse’s and my credit card debt. We have already paid off about $2,000, and have about $10,000 left to go this year. It seems like a lot left, but I know we can do it.
NoDebtMBA, good luck….I am hating my student loans right now. I basically have a mortgage on my brain.
Before going back to school in September (or January) I am going to:
– Pay off my 0% intrest CC (~$4k)
– Repair my totaled car (~$4k)
– Prepay the year’s car insurance ($3k)
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Total Goals: $11k in about 6 months
I did part of my goal this year by Maxing out my ROTH, and then keeping up with my companies match in my 401k. No I just want to start doing something about my morgage I hate the fact that I owe someone else money (Arggggg) Its the only debt that I have and its killing me right now. So my plan is to try and start up the Bi weekly payment system, or some other options…
Long term goal… Get my GF to invest more but I’m not sure my liver could handle it. Is cloths/shoes and investment??? I guess it depends who your asking… hahahaha
Our goals are to have our credit card debt down from $18,000 to $9,000 by December 31st and to have added $9,000 to our savings account by December 31st.
This goals are acheivable – but we are going to have to “work” towards them to make them a reality. We are definitely going to have to start picking and choosing our “wants” and expenditures more carefully if we are going to make it happen.
Goals are inspiring! (As long as they are actually achievable. If I said I wanted to save a million dollars by the end of the year, that would be a pipe dream as that is NEVER going to be reality. At least this year! :) )
My goal is to make more money…which means I’m probably headed back to work in the fall.
Our daughter was born last July (our first of hopefully many kids), I went back to work part-time from November to January, then demoted myself to relief work (I’m a pharmacist). We miss the steady income, but due to my daughter’s health (she had heart defects that are now repaired) and other stressors, being at home was worth it.
But now, we’d like the money to help with savings goals. Whenever we’re blessed with mote children, I’d like to completely quit with no regrets!
Kevin,
On paying bi-weekly, just make sure you don’t pay a fee to set up a bi-weekly payment schedule with your mortgage company. You can do it on your own. My trick, because I get paid 26 times a year and therefore get paid 3 times a month during two months out of the year, is to take the amount equal to a mortgage payment out of the the third pay check during those months. I usually pay one extra mortgage payment and the other month I put the amount into savings. If you do it right and budget on 24 paychecks you never miss it.
Well since we’re baby planning – My goal is to have a 10k baby fund in place.
And have a separate “emergency” fund with 5k in it.
At the beginning of the year, my goal was to achieve $200,000.00 net worth between myself and my husband – and we’ve met that already at the beginning of this month. Woo Hoo!
My second goal is to pay off my student loan debt. I’ve got about $3,700.00 left to go – but my husband’s funding has run out for his graduate program. So it’s going to be tight for a while. Despite that, I still think I can cash flow this student loan by December 31st.
Pay off student loan debt and try to expand my investment portfolio. I only have a Simple IRA through my employer, and I’m not sure that’s gonna be enough to retire on comfortably!
I started out the year $34,000 in debt and I plan to end the year not only out of debt, but with savings of $40,000.
So far, I’ve paid off more than $15,000 and have saved $18,000. I update debt repayment and savings at the end of every month on my blog.
It’s a huge goal, but it’s very possible not only through budgeting, but by finding new streams of income, which I’ve managed to do so far.
My ultimate goal is to knock out the rest of my ~$10k of debt (student loans and cc’s used for new appliances).
Also just increased my 401k by another 2% yesterday (due to raise) and overpaying house payments each month (hope to get this thing paid for in 7 years instead of 30).
Get my net worth to 10k
Wow, perfect timing on this blog post, JMo!
I went to a retirement review yesterday held by the financial advisors at USAA and got good and schooled, let me tell you (in a good way)!
Based on my review, here’s what we’re doing: increasing husband’s life insurance by an additional $250k (that will be done before Saturday because Sat is his 43rd birthday and life premiums increase by $20.xx a month if we wait)
-we will also start adding more to our retirement funds. Both of our 401k’s are maxed, but still not enough (in my opinion).
-once baby #2 pops out, signing him up for a permanent life policy, which we signed up our 4 yr old for last summer.
since we have our emergency fund maxed at the 3-6 months of income, use the overage to save in CDs or money markets…
I have to say, I learned alot yesterday, but I also felt like a complete tool that I wasn’t more on top our finances. *sigh*
If I could get to January of 2012 without anymore car expenses that would be fabulous!!
i’d also really love to pay off at least half of my private student loans.
Totally Doable…but gonna be hard work!!
Our goals are to pay for our wedding (check)
Put at least $10k down an a new car
Have at least $20k in cash (nonretirement, noninvestment) savings
I want to have a Emergency Fund of $7000. I also want our student loan debt to be below $10,000. We are currently at $17,700 for the student loan, and $3600 for the Emergency fund. We need to save around $10,000 to accomplish these goals.
At the beginning of 2011 I set 5 Financial Goals for the year.
1) Save at least $1,000 in each of our 4 accts.
2) Donate at least $1,000 worth of items
3) Save up at least 1 full month’s expenses
4) Pay off MasterCard
5) Meal planning & cooking to save money.
Aside from #5, I would be very happy to achieve all these. Honey’s employer doesn’t do 401K matching. :-( Maybe I should add paying off the new Evil card…
My one thing this year – which I will do – is to find a job paying me what I know that I am worth which should be about $15K more than I make now.
My biggest goal for 2011 is paying off the largest (and highest rate) of my student loans. It was over $7k at the beginning of the year, and I should have that paid off by the end of July. Then I’ll start throwing the former monthly payment of that loan at my other loans and hopefully be debt-free by the end of 2012!
My goal is to go into 2012 with all of my personal loans and parking tickets (those suckers add up!) paid off, and with a cushion of one month’s worth of bills in my checking account so that I can pay all of my bills on the first of every month without waiting for the next paycheck to come in. With this done I can really start to build my net worth.
Reading this blog and the comments every day really helps to keep me motivated and on track.
Student loans paid off 100% would be our goal.
I always, always max out my Roth IRA of $5,000 — that’s a must. Any extra savings I throw towards the ol’ “Let’s buy another duplex/triplex and become the landlords!” fund!
Pay off my credit card, and improve my net worth by $30,000 (I think I wrote that on one of your previous posts as well).
Kinda hard to do being unemployed, but I’ll get there :)
Goal is to have $10,000 Emergency Fund in place. We have nothing right now. Zip. Nada.
But I have a grand plan to sock all of my husband’s income into finishing paying off our car, then putting it all into a separate account for an Emergency/Winter Fund. His work is mostly March thru October. We have wiggled our budget around enough that my steady income is enough to pay all the bills and cover our budgeted expenses like food & gas. But it takes almost every penny of my income. So if anything unplanned pops up, like it inevitably does, we need to have a good emergency fund to get us through November – February…plus Christmas. I can’t wait to get that money in the bank. I keep thinking about the feeling of security & peace that I can have this winter not having to worry about $$ so much. That will so totally be worth it. It is a Peace of Mind fund really.
My main goal is more of a summer goal, since it’ll be easier to accomplish with my husband deployed. That goal is to pay off the credit card…. Again. -.-” (We got screwed on the last used car we bought when we traded it in for the new baby.)
I’d like to hopefully get that new car loan under $40k this year. That’s just a horribly scary huge number haha.
My student loans will probably come due this fall…. Uncool since I’m not quite done with school, I’m just not a full-time student anymore. But the credit card will be gone by then so I’m sure I can figure it out.
Then a couple of fun things: An exhaust and access port for the new car, plus a few extras. (No, we cannot leave anything stock. And she needs an exhaust.) I want to get the new front end for my project car and work on saving for her new paint job, as well as getting her brakes done. Not sure how much paint will be, but the parts will be around $3k I think (front end and brakes) and about $2.5k for the STi.
Most of it should be sorted out by October, I hope. :)
Oh, and getting my emergency fund to $1,000 would be nice too, lol. $1500 as a stretch goal for that.
Paying off my car note: $5,357.60 to go. I’m on track to pay it off by September…3 years ahead of schedule.
Good evening J. One big thing I have been working on this year is getting rid of what I call ‘negative wealth’ – in normal speak it is a loan that just has to go.
My #1 goal is to pay off my car. I’m on track for december 31. I can’t wait til that day when i can say I DID IT.
I need to reach $500 in monthly income by the end of the year. Right now I’m base $300 and only making the extra $200 if I pick up one-time jobs.
We would AT LEAST like to have our credit cards paid off! Less then $6k. My husband is in the process of loosing his current job and working on a different job.
We would hope to be pregnant before end of year with #2 and already have an emergency fund at least half way there or at least at $5k. I know this is doable, if hubby a) gets a different job b) a job that pays better [that one shouldn’t be too hard].
I’m loving these, guys!!! And I can’t wait to post again in 6 months for a check-in! ;) So keep workin’ hard my friends!!
@Niki – Sexy!!! A 3 year plan is even better!
@Steve – For sure, looks like you’ve gotten a good overall game plan set up :) Just a matter of time until you get “there.”
@No Debt MBA – WOAH. Now *that* is a goal, my friend! A very VERY impressive one too – let us now how it goes?
@The Tax Guy – Awww I like that one! I know adopting is expensive, but have noooo idea how much. Thought it was around $10k, actually? Am I way off? I don’t even know what exactly you’re paying for,haha… you should write a post about it ;)
@Matt – Ahhh, well the Roth maxing is certainly killer. And the 20% mortgage too, JEEZ. I like everyone reaching for the stars here!
@Candace – Yes!! You can!!! Bits and pieces at a time :)
@Chris – Nice! Keep us updated on how it all goes!
@Kevin – Hahahaha that’s too funny. I hear ya on having the mortgage be the only debt – it’s great and frustrating as balls at the same time. Esp since it’s such a HUGE chunk of money, ya know? I’m not good at paying it down either… the one thing I really need to work on.
@Katie – Haha, amen sister. Gotta set high goals for yourself to keep it challenging, but also not too high to just piss yourself off or give up ;) I think the two you’re working on right now sound great.
@Maggie – Yes! That freedom of having options like that would be great. Work and save alot now, and then it pays off forever! Congrats on the baby! :) So glad to hear she’s healthy now!
@Lynn – That’s a good point. Some places charge you to set up bi-weekly payments like that, def. not worth it UNLESS you’re unmotivated and there will be a chance you don’t follow through. Then the automation can help ;)
@Dani @ OK, Dani – I like it! How much do you have now?
@Sarah – Oooooh yeah that would be great!! No studen debt anymore? S-E-X-Y.
@Austin – You’re a smart guy, sir ;) Gotta add in all different areas to make sure you’ve got enough. Never know what the future’s gonna bring!
@Jen @ SheBloggs – WOW. That’s def. incredible so far. I actually just checked out your “about” page ;) So cool you’re working on that turnaround!!! The good thing is you’re SMART! Haha… I’m gonna include it in my next roundup, actually. I think it’s pretty inspiring and can help a lot of others that may not realize what they’re getting into. Esp since they’re making $100k+. Keep workin’ it!
@Erin – Damn girl, that’s great! Smart to up your 401k w/ raises (congrats!) cuz it’s so easy and you don’t get a chance to miss it yet ;)
@Rafiki – Great!
@Trinnie – What? You are better than like 80% of the people in this country! haha… I’d give myself a huge pat on the back if I were you :) Just the fact you ATTENDED a review like that makes you smarter, haha… and good catch on that $20/mo extra if you waited, that’s crazy.
@Brandi – Is it wrong of me to say you’ll probably pay off your student loans before you stop incurring car issues? haha… you know I love ya ;)
@C – Nice. Esp that wedding one – I’ve been to some that cost $30k+ though so you’d have a lot of savings to do if you’re ridin’ in style ;)
@Matt – 6 and 1/2 months to go, you can do it!!
@Jen – A woman on a mission, I like that! Is the “new evil credit card” different than that Mastercard at #4?
@Sandy @ yesiamcheap – Yayyy!!! Step up in the money department AND career – that’s some forward thinking, my friend :) I hope it happens fast for you!
@Jenna – Woohoo! Debt snowball, baby!
@Amy Lou – Awww, I’m glad :) But man, how many parking tickets do you have?? haha… maybe you should sell the car ;)
@Leslie – Sweet! I gotta check out your blog again too, been slackin’ a bit on my reading :) (Woah, it looks so different now! haha… I’ve heard of tweaks, but boy ;))
@Paula @ AffordAnything.org – Smart lady! You can buy mine if you want ;)
@Cassie – Awww, it’s just a phase my friend! Switch to 5 years from now and you will be lookin’ good! Ow ow! Haha…
@aj – YES, and peace of mind is very VERY important. Usually money can fix that ;) And once you have a nice egg saved up you can work toward *other* goals too! And if you dip into it, then just fill it back up and keep on pushing forward. (Is your husband a fisherman? I know they have diff. work schedules… oh, or a landscaper maybe?)
@Meg – Haha, you and your cars – I love it :) I swear I still need you to come out and pimp out my Caddy! I would gladly unleash a few hundred to do something fun… even just some chrome rims! haha… def. more than a few hundy though.
@Sandy X – W00T!!!
@MariaN – Yes! I like! And good evening to you too, Ms. out of country ;)
@Mama Geek – That’s a GREAT goal because it keeps paying forward (quite literally) every month. Very very smart :)
@Ally – Nice! On the baby making too – I love kids ;) Though I hear they suck up some money too, haha…
J. Money-
Yep, totally different card. It’s the one I speak of yesterday’s post: The Life of the Evil Credit Card-part 1. But I am still using the MasterCard to maximize my reward earnings and paying it off right away. Just kinda using it instead of debit cards. No interest but lots of rewards. :-)
My #1 goal this year is to be totally out of debt except for my student loan!
I’ve paid about $10k off in credit card debt this last couple of years, and I have $850 left on one card and then a $6,200 car loan and I owe my dad about $4,500.
According to my calculations, I may end up running into January/Februray 2012 but I’m REALLY trying to figure out any ways possible to make sure it’s FINISHED by the time New Years hits! I’d love next year to be debt free!!
1. Get our emergency savings up to 6 months of expenses (now its just at 2)
2. $5k in college savings for our kids
3. $5k in our Roth IRA
4. $3K in our HSA acct.
5. Increase giving by $1k over last year
My goals for 2011 are as follows:
1. My ‘move in with the boyfriend’ fund at $2,000
2. Pay $1,200 off my student loans by the end of May (check)
3. Begin contributions to my retirement fund in the new financial year
4. Build my short-term Emergency Fund to $1,500
5. Build my long-term Emergency Fund to $2,000
All of these are well on track but I’ll be absolutely stoked if I complete numbers 1 and 4. I’m already super excited that I managed to save $1,200 to put towards my loans. :)
@Jen – Smart woman ;) I do that too with my main credit card. Load it up on every day normal stuff, and then pay it all off and steal that free money!
@Anne – Yay!! I’d love you to be debt-free by then too! :) Keep on focusing and working toward it, you can do it!
@Tyson – Nice! That’s a lot to knock out in a year, but all most excellent goals. Esp #5, that’s hard to do!
@Louise M – Sweet! I bet your boyfriend would be super stoked too ;) Nice to start living together with a good financial head on your shoulders. Then you can concentrate on the heart! (awwwww)
Pay off all of my debt and go back to school without any debt or loans. :)
My main goal is to have my OSAP paid off by the end of the year and at the rate i am going right now, it’s totally dooable.
Just paid off one of our cars, and for the rest of the year we plan on continuing our IRA contributions (not maxing for 2011) and paying off one student loan in full, as well as half of the last student loan on the list. Then we will start saving like crazy, hopefully by April 2012.
Cash Flow our wedding and full fund out Emergency Fund.
My one major goal this year was to pay off my credit cards before my Birthday in August. And thanks to the IRS finally giving me my first time homebuyer credit I am going to be able to pay them off this month! (Now I just need to get the check into my bank account!)
The one thing I want to do is find the right balance month to month between spending vs saving/paying down student loans. The last few months have been a struggle trying to get a grip on things. But when I take a look from 40,000 feet in the air I see the issue is in my hands. Gotta get a grip, and a consistent one!
P.S. I was so much better with money when I blogged about it daily and was constantly mindful of every aspect. Just goes to show you pf bloggers know what they are talking about, when they are doing it!
P.S.S – J$ , I’ve been M.I.A. figuring life out but I got back on my reading game. Glad to see you flourishing more and more everyday!
I would like to pay my car off and add and attitional month’s living expenses to my emergency fund. It would be nice to squeeze a nice vacation in there too but that can take a back seat for now!
If I could only make one big financial move this year, it would be to pay off 15% of my mortgage. That’s $60k! I’m halfway there so far, just have to stay the course. It will be a little bit difficult considering I’m due to give birth any day now, but I think I can do it!
I agree having one big goal means that you are more likely to get that done. I’m hoping to pay down a big chunk of my student loans before 2012.
@LB – Go for it!!
@Erica – Awesome! Although no clue what OSAP is ;) Canadian thing?
@Brian – Ya got the game plan down, bro! Hope you rock it!
@South County Girl – That would be sweet :)
@Mercedes – ROCK!! Well done!
@S – Dude, I’ve missed you!!! Went to your site the other week and saw it was down :( I know things have been rough lately though bro, just know I’m here for you anytime, okay? For real. Call/tweet/email/whatev. I’m a good listener. Esp with beer in my hand :) Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me know you’re still out there doing your thang bro. Let’s chat real soon, okay?
@CrystalH – No car payments are HOT, yo! One of the best feelings :) Well, so are vacays, but those are more short term haha… see if you can pull off both!
@Jennifer Lissette – Wowwwwww… on both being pregnant and the mortgage ;) haha… hope both go smoothly!
@asgreen – Hey girl! Man, I think we’ve known each other for like 3 years now, isn’t that crazy? We’re both going strong still – woop! :)
It’s the ontario student assistance program. basically i borrowed money from the gov for school and 6 months after i grad I have to start paying it back.
Ahhhh, I gotcha. Man, 6 months doesn’t seem like a lot of grace period, but I guess it gets you to hurry up and start paying it off! Probably good motivation to go out and get a job fast too ;)