November 2008: Progress Update

Photo Credit: ivanx

We’re on the home stretch! Octoer has been a busy but fun month. I set aside more time to work on the content and design of ths blog and I’m enjoyng it. I’m not an expert in XHTML or CSS, but I can understand a few of the basics when I see the cod. I’ll be tweek the site a bit more this week witht the color scheme. 

Our goals for 2008 are coming along, so there aren’t too many changes. 

Let me first review my goals for this year. As readers have been noticing, they have been adjusted to fit our circumstances:

• Income: The goal is $60,000 for the year as a family.
• Spending: I’m going to continue cutting back on eating out to twice a week, including weekends.
• Investing: We’ll contribute to our retirement funds.
• Saving: We’ll have 3 months expenses in an emergency fund.
• Debt: I would like to pay off my car loan by December 31, 2008.

Overall, I’m proud of how it is going. Here’s how I’m doing now:

• Income:  I’m optimistic, so I can’t wait for my year end review.
  
• Spending: I’m doing pretty good with this. I’m also doing Ramit’s save $1000 in 30 Days Challenge, so I’m cutting back a bit more for this month.
• Investing: As expected, our portfolios have declined a bit more due to market conditions, but slow and steady wins the retirement race.
• Saving: Our joint savings with ING Direct is went down a bit as we spent money to replace the VW’s timing belt (it has over 120, 000 miles).
• Debt: The car loan balance is now $1,187.90 (I just checked agan this morning at 7:40am and th interest is slowly climbing). It’s looking good and I’m happy and seeing this amount decrease. 

How are you working on your goals? How have you’ve you coped with unexpected changes?

 

Green Panda Treehouse Stats Update

Most Popular Posts in October

• Gas Prices Are Down, But I’m Being Careful 
• Should I Pay Debt First or Build Some Savings?
• 5 Things to Do to Build Wealth in Your 20s 
• Saving on Your Grocery Bill
• Joint Accounts: How We Budget Deposits and Withdrawls * A September Post

Top Referalls

• My Dollar Plan
• Four Pillars
• Broke Grad Student
• Paid Twice
• Mrs. Micah

Thank you to all of you readers for your support. You’re making 2008 a good year!

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