Last January, I made a list of six financial goals for 2009. Some were major, some were small. Sadly, I only succeeded in couple. Let’s take a look at the areas where I succeeded, and the ares where I didn’t quite make it.
Buy a House: We did it! It took longer than we anticipated, but we closed on our house in late July. We did it with 20% down and some money leftover, which is quite an accomplishment.
Pay Off that Little Debt: We have a $4000 student loan still hanging around that we never did pay off. We opted to keep that money in our house-savings and now in our emergency fund. It’s a small monthly payment and we’ll pay it off when it seems like a better use of our cash, but for right now it’s not going anywhere.
Boost Our Emergency Fund: Despite buying the house, we will have about $8000 in emergency funds. This money was earmarked for furniture, but now my husband needs surgery. We’re saving it to cover any lost wages and get us through the month we’ll have to wait for his disability payments to show up (he gets paid for the time, but California is slow to send the money.) It’s nice to have that cushion, let me tell you.
Increase Our Retirement Savings to 10%: Since it took so long to buy the house and we didn’t want to reduce our taxable income before we closed, we didn’t do this yet. Soon, though!
Buy a New Car: Sigh. No new car for Aryn. My husband decided he needs a new spine instead. I know, the selfishness of some people! But seriously, my car is a Toyota and it’s doing fine, even if it doesn’t have the little luxuries I’d like.
Save for Our Next Big Vacation: We haven’t saved any actual cash for the vacation, but we’re very close in travel miles, so that’s something at least.
I’ll be generous and say I accomplished one and a half financial goals this year. Not great, but since one of those was buying a house, I’ll pat myself on the back anyway. Hopefully I can do better in 2010.
