Green Panda Treehouse

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Photo Credit: It’s Greg

A lot has happened in March! We moved out of state last month and I started a new job. I like the new city, but I miss our friends. Since it’s the beginning of a new month, I wanted to give an update of the progress so far.

Let me first review my goals for this year:

• Income: I would like to earn $37,000 for the year.
• Spending: I’m going to continue cutting back on eating out to twice a week, including weekends.
• Investing: I’m going to enroll in my company’s 401(k) and meet the employer match. I’ll also continue to contribute to my Roth IRA.
• Saving: I will have $2,000 in my emergency fund by September 1, 2008. I would also like to put our income tax return into our house fund.
• Debt: I would like to pay off my car loan by July 31, 2008. I would like to have my car loan out before I have to start paying student loans.

Here’s how I’m doing:

• Income: My new employment will put me close to this goal. If continue working on the blog and doing some side jobs, I should be good to go. I’m grateful for the regular and visiting readers. If you have any feed back or suggestions, let me know.
• Spending: March was a great month for me. I saved on eating out in no small part to the generosity of friends and workmates who took me out. I’m hoping to keep I contact with everybody.
• Investing: Here is the bad news. New job means I have to start over again on the SEP IRA and wait a year to qualify. I’ll focus my retirement savings on my IRA.
• Saving: With my raise I should reach this goal. I’m continuing to automate my savings to protect myself from me.
• Debt: March was a great month for killing debt. My husband and I put the income tax refund toward the loan and we knocked 20% off the loan! Thanks to Jamie from Paid Twice, I’m snow flaking little savings towards this car loan. I’m pushing back the car loan pay off to August 31,2008 as this move depleted some money from our savings and I want to build that up a bit.

March has been good and I’m hoping April continues the trend. How have you’ve been doing with your goals?

Photo Credit:  It’sGreg

It’s March already! I’m waiting for the weather to be consistently warm instead of this 20 degree fluctuation we keep getting in this area. Work has definitely been keeping me busy. Since it’s the beginning of a new month, I’ve decided to do an update of my 2008 goals. Here are my goals:

• Income: I would like to earn $37,000 for the year.
• Spending: I’m going to continue cutting back on eating out to twice a week, including weekends.
• Investing: I’m going to enroll in my company’s 401(k) and meet the employer match. I’ll also continue to contribute to my Roth IRA.
• Saving: I will have $2,000 in my emergency fund by September 1, 2008. I would also like to put our income tax return into our house fund.
• Debt: I would like to pay off my car loan by July 31, 2008. I would like to have my car loan out before I have to start paying student loans.

Here’s how I’m doing:

• Income: I haven’t reached my monthly goal. I’m working a bit more, so I have seen a small increase in my income. I’m also working on improving this blog and making it a win-win situation.
• Spending: I did really well in February. I went out an average of once a week for lunch. I was diligent on saving leftovers and it is paying off. I also saved money on gas, as I didn’t have to drive around to get my food. I work on a rural area, so this helped out.
• Investing: I did enroll in my company’s 401(k). I’m currently putting in enough to get the company match. I’m also making minimal payments to my IRA. Once I eliminate my high interest debt, I’ll go ahead and divert some in my retirement accounts.
• Saving: I’ve been automating my emergency fund deposits, so I’m doing alright. The tax return refund is now going to be used to pay down the car loan.
• Debt: I’m better now that my car loan payment is a bit more realistic. It felt good to reach my goal, instead of failing like I did in January. I also placed that coffee cup up and while I would love to use it on some sugary caffeinated drink, the money will go towards killing the car loan. Please do not free obligated to donate. I just put that there so I’m covering all my bases on destroying this loan.

As you can see I still have a lot of work to do, but life is like that. If you have any suggestions to help me reach my goals, please share. I hope everyone’s Monday is starting out alright.

How about you? How are your financial goals going so far this year?

Pinyo: Laura, did you pay $700 in January?

I’ve got bad news for Pinyo and others. I did not make my goal.

I was really psyched to go ahead and knock this car loan off as soon as possible. I felt like Rocky going against Apollo Creed. I was planning on giving a fierce right hook, instead I jabbed.

My goal was to aggressively pay $700/month towards my car loan bill and pay it off by July 31, 2008.

I did not pay $700 this month on the car loan. I paid $335, not even half of the amount. I feel horrible. Wow, I need to change how I’m doing things.

Reasons  Why I Failed:

1. I counted my chickens before they hatched. Technically my chickens didn’t hatch.  I’ve been swamped at work, but after realizing the consequences, I’m going to talk to HR tomorrow. Maybe they need my diploma. I’ll ask.

2. I wasted money by eating out. We have good food at home. Seriously. We also have a friend training to be a chef. I’ve been careless and could’ve saved some cash for debt elimination.

Until I see an increase in my paycheck, I’m going to go ahead and make a goal based on my current income. (Duh, I should’ve done this in the first place.)

I will pay $385/month on paying down this car loan.

This is a doable on my budget. The car loan is the monkey on my back and it’s at a higher than normal interest rate. I’m going to take a tip from Trent and put a picture of a car on my check card. That way I’ll remember my goal.

It’s still possible for me to reach my goal date, but I learned my lesson. I’ll close my mouth until it actually happens.  (See, I can learn.)

Thanks Pinyo for checking in on me. I needed the check up. If you want to see if I do better this month, please subscribe and get an update to your email.