Financial Goals for 2009

This is going to be a work in progress. These are the financial goals I am setting for 2009, but about every 3-4 months I am going to revisit these to see how I am doing and if needed revise them.



Last year I set goals that were somewhat general, and did not have a plan in order to accomplish them. This year I am not just setting the goals but how I plan to make them a reality. We have a bit of "alternate income" coming in these next few months that I am hoping will help us to achieve our goals.



Financial Goals for 2009 & The Plan to Achieve Them



1) Set up a Christmas club, have $1000 in it by the end of Oct, so Christmas can be "cash only" again this year without cutting anything out.

Plan: Open account in January with $100. Set up automatic withdrawls into that account from my checking account for $100 each month February-Oct. This will be done through IngDirect. I love IngDirect!



2) Payback a debt to a family member by June.

Plan: This has already been arranged to be paid $200/month January to June. Along with the Christmas club withdrawls, this will be tight but we have some alternative incomes starting that should help make this possible without too much "belt tightening". But if belt tighting is what it takes we can do it.



3) When our Income Tax return comes- really, truely, without fail SET IT ASIDE to pay our Property and School Taxes for 2009.

Plan: This would include our Town Property Taxes in February, our Village Property taxes in July, and our School Taxes in Sept. I am planning to accomplish this by actually giving the money to my mom to hold so we are not tempted to "dip into it" before the July and Sept tax bills come. We do not have an escrow on our mortgage- so we paid these on our own when they are due.



4) Pay off 2 of our credit cards. We are working with a credit counseling service for the bulk of our credit card debt, but they would not take on any credit cards that had balances under $750. So we have 4 cards that we are working on on our own, with balances ranging from $250- $700. It may seen crazy to not just be able to pay off a card with $250 on it, but as I have mentioned before our budget is tight and at this point we have been lucky to pay the minimums on these cards.

Plan: After we pay off the family member, starting in July, I am planning to use $150/month to get at least 2 of these cards paid off before the end of the year.



5) Set up an "Emergency Fund". So that when "things" come up this year-they do not effect our monthly bills.

Plan: Set up an IngDirect account labeled Emergency Fund and have automatic withdrawls from my checking account put into it for just $25/month. I am hoping and praying nothing happens in the first few month of the year. This is what happened last year, everytime I got $100-$200 in my savings, something came up and away went my savings, which was frustrating and I stopped putting money into my savings. Not this year!



So there you have it. My Goals and Plans for 2009!!

I will post updates throughout the year to let you know how well I am sticking to my plans.



Feel free to share your Goals for 2009 in the comments! I'd love to see what others are trying to accomplish with their hard earned money.