December 2008: Progress Update

Photo Credit: ivanx

The year is almost over! I’m going to do a review of my goals on December 31, 2008. Hopefully you’ll see how well everything is coming along. 

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:  We’re doing well this year, but I don’t think we’ll make our goal. 
  
• 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. I reached my goal and then some! 
• Investing: As expected, our portfolios have declined still a bit more due to market conditions, but slow and steady wins the retirement race. 
• Saving: Our joint savings with ING Direct is holding steady. Once the car loan is eliminated, we’ll build this back up.
• Debt: The car loan balance is now $$958.23 (I just checked this morning at 8:04am). 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?

 For those who want to see how I made my goals for Ramit’s 30 Days to Save $1,000 Challenge:

•  Reusing & Reducing Saved Us Money on Living Room Redesign
•  How We Saved Money By Creating Our Own Cable, Phone, & Internet Bundle
• No Spend Days and Gasoline Hedging 
• AT&T Wireless: Can’t Quite Optimize, May Leave for T-Mobile
•  Involve Your Friends with Saving 
• Selling My Stuff 
•  Turn Your Thermostat Down 
• Pack Lunches for the Rest of the Week,Really?
• How Am I Doing With Ramit’s Save $1,000 Challenge?
• How Am I Doing With Ramit’s Save $1,000 Challenge? Part 2 

It was a ton of fun and I’m glad, I’ll still get to save month to month with some of his tips. 

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