A Look Back at 2008's Financial Goals

I can not believe that 2008 is almost over. Less than 2 weeks and it will be 2009.
Last year was the first year that I sat down and made a list of Financial Goals for the year. I started small with just a few goals this year and hopefully they were all things I felt I could truely accomplish.

Here's what they were and how we did on them....

1) Save up to pay our Village Property Taxes due in July. (about $1600)- Done!
Thanks to lots of overtime in June and July.

2) Be able to pay for Christmas completely in Cash. - Done!
But it was not easy and a few things had to be cut. Even as of today I have not sent
Christmas cards out.

3) Keep up with all the bills, do not pay any late fees. - Not done well.
Unfortunately lots of "things" came up this year. And having no savings, every time something came up we had to use money set up for monthly bills to pay for these "unexpected" expenses. None of which was large but add up four $75 items in one month and suddenly you have a $300 bill, which was not in the budget. With our monthly budget as tight as it, after all the regular monthly expenses, plus gas & groceries, we only have about $200 for discretionary spending. So you do the math- $300 of additional expenses with only $200 to pay it and well, something else didn't get paid or got paid late. Just the way it goes.

Not bad for a first try at financial goal setting, but I hope to do better next year.
Later this week I will be posting Five Painless Ways to Save $1000 Next Year, and My Financial Goals for 2009.