How my 2008 goals are going?
By glblguy
Photo by: Morgue File
The Mighty Bargain Hunter posted an update on how his 2008 goals were going. He says it’s a “tepid start at best“, but I think he’s doing great. While he hasn’t fully met his goals, he’s recognized he has some work to do which is important. He’s heading in in the right direction. Also in his update, he decided to “pick on me” and see how I’m doing on my 2008 goal. Seems we both are off to a “tepid start at best“.
In my article, A 2008 financial goal and a chance to win an iPod I wrote about how my primary goal for 2008 was to Pay a minimum of $1,000 a month towards out debt. This will be done by setting up two auto transfers from our checking account towards our debt. Each transfer will be in the amount of $500, one from each paycheck I receive. For the month of January, I’m not doing so good frankly, but plan to fix that and maybe even make up for it a bit in February. I still plan on paying more than the minimums on our debt snowball this month, but it won’t be close to $1000.00. It will be more like $200 – $300. Due to my laziness over the holidays, I failed to anticipate a few expenses:
- Our property taxes were due this month – I knew this a year ago and saved up $1200.00 to pay them. The $1200.00 was based on the cost of our taxes last year. It would seem during the last year, our housing value’s went up as well as the tax rate, and instead of owing $1200.00 as I expected, we owed $1900.00 instead. So that $700 difference really bit into the old budget.
- Our home owners association dues are due at the end of this month – Again, this is an expense I knew about late last year, but forgot until this weekend when I starting getting caught up and getting our finances back on track. I’m setting up an ING Direct sub-account for this today, and will start putting money in there monthly so when the dues come up next year the money is already there. Not sure why I didn’t do this last year.
- Property taxes on our Durango came due – I knew this one was coming, but thought it was next month. Total amount I didn’t plan for: $81.00. I created a tab in my budget spreadsheet called upcoming bills and added the property tax, HOA dues, property taxes, etc. in this tab along with the dates due. I’ll refer to this tab each time I do my monthly budget to help me avoid missing things in the future.
I didn’t start off the year with a bang, but fully plan to meet my goal next month. I’m one to try and focus on the positives and not the negatives and with that in mind even though I didn’t meet my goal this month, I did learn some valuable lessons. I also did what we call at work “risk mitigation strategies” in place to avoid making the same mistake twice. Thanks MBH for “picking on me”. I think it’s important to share our progress (or lack there of). MBH also encouraged me to pick on some others, so I think I’ll do that:
- Lynnae said she was going to to read one personal finance book every month for the year. – How’s that reading coming along Lynnae?
- Jaimie said No more credit card debt – How’s your progress Jaimie?
- Randall told us he wanted to start paying his mortgage from secondary income – How far along are you Randall?
I’ll ask Lynnae, Jaimie and Randall to feel free to “pick on” some others as well.
Readers, how are you guys doing on your 2008 goals/resolutions (financial or not)? Did you set a goal? Feel free to write a blog post or add a comment!
January 29th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Thanks for picking on me. ;) Expect a progress report from me on Friday. As for the reading….Let’s just say I’m going to be spending a lot of time with my nose in a book over the next couple of days. LOL
Thanks for holding me accountable! And I hope you’re able to get back on track and then some for February!
January 29th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Well at least those taxes are paid. And you’re back on the horse/wagon/whatever it is that one gets back on. $200-300 isn’t shabby.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Those darn taxes are a killer. We have Sewer/water and Fire as well. Last year, they decided to roll the Fire tax into the property taxes. I guess it is one less large bill to budget.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I too had a property tax surprise this year. We bought our house in 2006 (new construction) and because of that our first year taxes were low. This year they’ll be jumping from $500 up to $2500. Yikes! Time to start saving for that..
Just found your blog today – i really enjoy it. I’ll be adding it to my daily reads. Hope you’ll check out my new personal finance/christian blog as well. God bless!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hi Pete. Yikes is right!
Glad you enjoy my blog. Already found yours the other day and added you to my google reader. I like what you have going on, keep you the great work!
January 30th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Hi! I came across your site through “I’ve Paid for that Twice”. I browsed through the posts and liked what i saw. I’m subscribed and will definitely be following along. I had just started my own blog on my family’s journey to financial freedom. i’d be honored if you checked it out. http://www.natedavidscott3.blogspot.com
blessings!
January 31st, 2008 at 6:09 pm
@Nathaniel – Glad you found me and glad you subscribed…now tell all your friends! ;-) Your blog looks great, added your blog to my google reader! Sending you an email too…
February 9th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Progress posted, not as good as I’d hoped, but MUCH better than I expected. Probably can’t maintain that level in Feb though.