Monday, December 31, 2007

My official New Year's Goals!

I hestitate to call them resolutions as I think they are much more like goals, I'm sure you would agree (insert your nod and smile here.) First off, I must say that I stole a few of these from a great article I read over at MSN Mone about 10 Resolutions to Fix Your Finances. I do so love the folks over there. The rest have come out of necessity in taking the last few weeks to really look at what are some of my underlying issues.

Goal #1 - Get organized.
My info is all over the place. I can't even tell you how much digging I am going to have to do to find receipts and such for taxes. It's silly. I'm heading over to Staples today to get a large binder, some tabs, and those tab pockets where I can store receipts. This will allow me to have an "at a glimpse" look at all my info.

Goal #2 - Stick to my budget.
My budget is finished! It will be posted later today, worry not. The key is that I need to use it to plan, time bill payment and to figure out where and how to cut spending. I manage a 7 million dollar budget at work. I can do this. It will also help me if any "found" money comes in, namely should I get a sizeable tax return. I want to look at the budget and see where the best place to put that money is.

Goal #3 - Find my next great stock.
I put a whole whopping $25 a week into my Sharebuilder account. Hey, it's $1,275 a year! I want to find the right stock to put that money in this year. I really want to look into solar energy for two reasons. First, it fits into my personal goal of living more greenly this year. Second, our state, and many others are passing laws saying that the installation of solar panels cannot be prohibited and many cities are pushing for the change. Interest will grow. I think in the next three years, the use of solar energy is going to increase greatly. I want to find the up and coming company that will take us there. Thanks you to Al Gore and his PowerPoint...

Goal #4 - Have $100,000 in retirement savings.
That is such a pretty little number to me. I fully plan on maxing out my 401(k) contribution this year. Out company also just went to a new plan with Ameriprise and the match has changed. I get $.25 on the dollar up to 4% of my income. Even if I don't get a raise this year, that an additional $3,240 inmy account! Perfect. I have a state retirement pension from when I was teaching with about $4,000 in it that I need to roll over. Add my Sharebuilder and that's $24,015 that I will have go into my account this year. Damn skippy! If I can manage the investments so that they grow well, I think I can get there.

Goal #5 - Find the right credit card.
Oh, Discover, it's not that I don't love you. I'm just not sure you're the one for me. I did not do as much research as I should have in choosing my credit card. I need to spend a good amount of time reading up on these, apply and transfer my balance so that I win in the long run.

Goal #6 - Earn at least $200 a month supplemental income.
This goal is a necessity. Any and all online income goes right to my credit card debt. The first things to be paid off will be the two retail store cards. They have very low balances. From there, it's hit the big guy hard. It's only a matter of $2.400 a year but it helps and I have to see it as important. Tomorrow, I'll give an update on how I did for the last two weeks in December. I'm optimistic and think this is very realistic.

There you have it! I'll give quarterly updates, though you'll get more info than that as my figures will always be in the sidebar to the right and I'll give a few regular monthly updates. Check back with me and I hope that this New Year is good to you and that we can reach all of our goals meeting happiness, fulfillment and prosperity along the way!

3 comments:

BudgetBoy said...

Good luck on meeting those! Also, for the credit card have you thought about the Amex Blue Cash Card? That cash back adds up over the year for a nice little present later!

budgetboy
wwww.budgetcents.net

Neil said...

Good luck on your New Year Goals. Seems like you know what you're aiming for. I think I should be thinking about some short and long term goals for 2008 too. Thanks for checking out my page also. Hopefully NetworthIQ is useful to you and can help you out.

Stevie Denny said...

When you look for a new credit card, be sure to look at all the terms -- not just the interest rate. Fees, how payments are applied and the kinds of charges you make on the card will make a big difference in the real cost of the card. Check out my blog at http://downondebt.blogspot.com/ for more info.

Also, I know the PMI on your house is over $200 per month. I don't know all the specifics of your mortgage, but some lenders no longer require PMI after a certain period of time if you've made all you payments on time. (It could after one year, but it may differ by lender.) Anyway, they will never volunteer this information -- you have to ask and then follow up when the time comes. But for $200+ per month, it's worth checking out.