My Goals: 2010

I can hardly believe we’re more than half way through January and I’m just getting around to documenting my goals for the year. They’ve been floating around my head for months but I’m just now writing them down. I’m one of those people that loves setting goals. They ground me. They keep me focused and moving forward. And with a few notable exceptions, I’ve been pretty successful in achieving goals I set for myself. Let’s hope 2010 will be no exception.

2010 Goals

Emergency Fund – Set aside 9 months living expenses in Emergency Fund (roughly $30K)

Pay down debt – Add $130 to boat payment. This alone will shave 5.5 years off the loan and save nearly $12,000 dollars in interest.

College Savings Fund – We’re expecting our first baby in May. Although we won’t be able to contribute much this year, saving for college is extremely important to us and I don’t want to put it off. Establishing an account will also give our family the opportunity to contribute if they choose (I’ll elaborate on this in a later post).

Personal Finance blog

• Post daily (except weekends)
• Develop readership of 1,000 subscribers and 10K visits per month (note: I have no idea if this goal is realistic. It may be shooting too high or too low, but I wanted to give myself some sort of target to push me forward.)
• Generate additional income from the Personal Finance Blog to put towards paying down debt and savings

Medium Term Goals (2-5 years)

Emergency Fund - Set aside 12 months living expenses in Emergency Fund (roughly 38K)

Save a 20% house down payment (est. $50K – $70K) – Our goal isn’t necessarily to buy a house but to be prepared to buy a house when the time is right. There are a number of factors that will influence this decision:

1. Our ability to get financing based on the past foreclosure
2. The overall state of our finances
3. Knowing where we want to live. Our plan is the next house that we buy will be the house we retire in so we need to be certain about where we want to live, whether it’s in California or somewhere else.

Pay off debt – Pay off the boat. This is a stretch goal that will require we find additional sources of income.

Barring any unforeseen expenses, we should be able to achieve most of the goals I’ve set out here. There are a few that are stretch goals and will require some creativity on our part. But there’s nothing like a challenge to get the creative juices flowing! Here’s to a great 2010!