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Goodbye 2009! Hello 2010!! As we enter a new year and a new decade, it's important to set and/or review your financial goals as well as your personal goals. Without having goals and plans in mind, you don't have a clear path of what you want and/or need to accomplish in your life.
Prior Months Income. This is new for me. I don't know how it will work out but I am going to give it a try. I used to setup my budget based on the projected income and projected expenses for the month. Now, I will budget based on last month's income. Here's how I'll do it: Each month, I'll transfer the amount I've budgeted for the month into my checking account. My paychecks and any other income will be will be deposited into my Money Market account. At the end of the month, any money remaining will be transferred to savings. Using this method, I can clearly see how much money I have left to spend for the month.
50k Savings Challenge. My goal is to save $50,000 cash by the end of December 2010. I'm currently at approx $37,000. If 2010 is anything like 2009, I am pretty sure that I'll meet my goal. Once that goal is met, I will increase the amount a little bit higher.
Organize and Destroy Paperwork. I am really bad about keeping paperwork much longer than needed. I have a small section in my home office filled with papers that I need to go through and destroy. There is very little in the pile that I NEED to keep. I was looking through the stack and there are still bank statements in there from when I was in college (over 10 years ago).
Consolidate Accounts. Over the years, I've managed to accumulate a number of checking and savings accounts over the years. My plan was to close the old account once I opened a new one but I never got around to it. I am embarrased to even tell you guys how many open accounts I have. Most of them are no longer used and have only a few dollars in them. I plan to narrow that down to only one or two checking accounts and no more than 2 savings accounts.
Have you set your 2010 financial goals?
Great goal's good luck on it. 50k is a nice chunck. I know I want to do the destroy paper thing myself. I also want to figure out my networth as I plan to become a millionare in the next 10 years. So I guess I should figure out my starting point.
Like, your blog new reader.
@Jared: Welcome to the blog! Thanks for reading.
nice post, btw care to xlink with my site???
Goodluck to those list! Well, for me, the good thing about having this so called New Year's resolution is that it's like writing your plans and promising yourself to do it. In a way, it motivates people to be more productive.
I like the prior month's income plan, and have been holding this as a goal (albeit a distant one, since I'm still more or less living from paycheck to paycheck). I'm trying to avoid making large goals since I'm still early in my "era of financial responsibility"...but maybe this would be a decent one to shoot for as a 12-month resolution.
Great article! This is actually my first time reading your blog, and just flipping through briefly, I'm already a fan.
@Justin: Welcome to the blog! Thanks for reading.