Are you still on track?

[Deleted]

I know some of us made financial goals for 2011 and since the first quarter of 2011 ended not too long ago, I'll ask: are you on track to reach them?

My goal this year was:
- Get out of our money pit apartment ($1,670/month)
- Pay down our credit card debt (8K)
- increase net worth

Result
- Still in our money pit apartment (but in our favor our lease is not up till June)
- Credit card is still there and only managed to reduce it by $700 (7.3K) since we had other expenses come up that took money away from it (car repairs to the tune of $1,856).
- Last but not least, we are on track to increase net worth. We increased our net worth by 10K and that is mostly due to our 401k/ROTH IRA contributions. Only 145K left to be in the positive net worth.

At least we have 1/3 covered so far ;D

[marvholly]

I am on track, not a good one but on track.

My goal was to NOT go into my savings/EF while unemployed except for my 2010 IRA contibution, real estate taxes and home owners insurance.

So far, so good.

[Deleted]

Our goals are pretty simple. We can't control the returns on our investments but our savings are on track (my goal is to increase them by 3% every year). We haven't touched the savings for day-to-day living expenses and we don't have credit card debt and we get by on what I budget for monthly expenses. I'm happy with that

[Cookies Galore]

I don't like setting too many goals, mainly so if I fail it's not a big deal. ;D That said, my goal this year was to pay off my last EVER interest-accruing credit card (I have a 0% card with our vacation deposit on it that will be paid in full in September, so I don't consider that part of my debt) and increase my 403(b) contributions once that money was freed up. I will be making my final CC payment May 26 (not like I'm counting or anything). Woo hoo!

[crystal1588]

Our goals were:
Save 10k by the end of the year in our ING account
Continue to contribute 15% into 401ks (not including the 3.75% company match)
Generally cut expenses so that we are in a position for me to work part time starting early next year (baby)
Put wood floors in both of our upstairs bedrooms (around $3000), new patio doors in the kitchen and 2nd bedroom (seal broke on them, they are all cloudy) $800 and new dishwasher ($600).

How it's going:
Have $4800 saved so far. Adding $800/month + any bonuses. I believe we will have closer to 13k by the end of the year.
Contributing 15% into 401k. This is automatic, so no reason to not achieve it.
Generally cut expenses-- Cut cable which saved around $80/month. We looked at what we were actually watching and found that most of what we watched was on regular channels. We also got Hulu for $7.99/month, which has everything else on it.
Saving money for the home repairs/remodel: We are funding that with the 3rd paychecks in July and December. It will cover all of it plus some, which will no doubt be used for other home projects.

I'm happy with our progress!!

[HappyLady]

Yes! My goal was to max out my 401k by June. I've been able to make that happen!
My other goal was to redistribute my savings in better investments. I'm still working on that, but should be completed by the end of the year.

[Deleted]

My primary goals for 2011 were to pay off all of my credit card debt (goal met: February 2011), grow my emergency fund to cover 6 months of expenses (I am up to 3 months right now), increase my retirement contributions by 2.5% (this will go into effect June 1st) and pay down my student loans.

The student loan thing will be a longer road - my loan has been in deferment since I went back to school. So I am in the process of paying off the interest that accrued during the deferment. I used the break from my SL payments to get out of consumer debt, so it wasn't a total loss, but it will be May before I have the interest paid off and can start making forward progress.

It's a start!

[busymom]

I'm very thankful to say, we are on track, and even a little ahead. CC #1 is fully paid off, CC #2 we are ahead of schedule on, and if there are no changes in the next 7-8 months ALL CC's should be paid in full. Next goal is paying off my car, and then we're throwing most everything at paying off the house (we do need to set aside money for DH's next vehicle 'tho, as his current ride is deteriorating rapidly).

[phil5185]

We increased our net worth by 10K and that is mostly due to our 401k/ROTH IRA contributions.

LOL - you might want to rethink that, where did the $10k come from?
A $1850 car repair? An unscheduled failure?

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2011 11:49:52 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

We increased our net worth by 10K and that is mostly due to our 401k/ROTH IRA contributions.

LOL - you might want to rethink that, where did the $10k come from?
A $1850 car repair? An unscheduled failure?

Nope, nothing to rethink:
- 2k into each ROTH gives us a total of 4K (most of it came from our tax refund which was 3k)
- Increased both 401k contributions from 10% to 25% so from putting away 720/month into our 401k's we started putting away $1800/month.
- Also my employer contribute 2.5% of my salary and my wife's employer contribute 2% of her salary.

As for the car, yes it was an unscheduled failure and it sucked big time.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I cannot recall if I posted goals for this year, so hopefully I don't contradict myself.

Goals:
Increase vacation fund to $3500 by July 2
Restart 403(b) contributions
Decrease BofA consolidation loan from $23,000 to $15,000

So far:
Vacation fund to $1250
403(b) contributions Mine~$50 per month; DH~$75 per month
Decrease BofA~On May 1st will be @$19,750ish

Still Underwater, but can see the surface

[phil5185]

How much would your NW have increased if you hadn't put that $10k into your Roths/401k's?

[ameiko]

hard to say.

On the one hand, I am paying down my house and beefing my accounts according to schedule. However, breaking into the writing business is tough.

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2011 12:18:48 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

How much would your NW have increased if you hadn't put that $10k into your Roths/401k's?

Based on past habits, it would have increased only by the 720/month from our 401k's and whatever small amounts that goes toward the principal for our
- student loans (at this point barely anything)
- car loans (about 300/month for my car, not sure about my wife's)

So about 3K or so.

[phil5185]

So about 3K or so.

What would happen to the other $7000?

[Gardening Grandma]

My goals this year were/are:
Get our new popup trailer paid off early - so far we are on track to have it paid off by Aug or Sept ( 6 mos early)
Limit IRA withdrawals to 4% - on track
Continue contributing to the g'kids college funds - on track
Take out an umbrella policy -done

Sofar so good......

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2011 13:07:20 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

So about 3K or so.

What would happen to the other $7000?

- vacations
- eating out
- frivoulous spending
- and god's knows what.

Same thing we did in 2008, 2009 and part of 2010. We've only started getting serious about our savings/spending last August when we realised that after two years of marriage we had:
- no savings
- close to no retirement (started mine in june and my wife started in september)
- nothing to show for it.

Basically ever penny we made went topaying bills and spending.

[Deleted]

The last 6 months has been a journey to switch priorities and realize the goal of purchasing a new primary residence. $1200/mo sport car (GT-R) - sold, $450/mo sport DD (G37) - sold. Unlocked $37,000 in equity in those vehicles. Replaced with more practical $348/mo Honda Accord. $10,000 in photography equipment (just a hobby) - sold. Road some VERY favorable terms in our companies stock purchase plan to a 66% gain - $26,000 when sold. All in all, we were able to put together the $102,000 downpayment on the new residence without reducing our dual maxed out 401k's. The house will be complete in late June and that will mark our goal accomplished.

[midjd]

Our only real goal is getting our NW to 0 (currently -$12K or so). We increase it by about $1K/month IF we stay within budget, so I doubt we'll get there in 2011... but should be there by this time in 2012!

[Apple]

My goal was to get more paid onto the new house and not waste much. So far doing well with both. Unexpected overtime (lots of it) has really helped with that. Hoping to have the house livable next summer so that I can move in with a temporary occupancy permit, sell the current house (or rent it out but I really don't want to be a landlord--might ask my dad or BIL to manage it for a percentage, dad's former RE agent, BIL has been/is a landlord, but for portions of the house he lives in--MIL-type apartments). Spending has been way down, shopping only when needed.

Once the house is finished I can get a mortgage on it and work on some other goals, like having the money to buy my neighbor's property if he decides to sell (I really don't want neighbors!) and retiring early.

[sapphire12]

My results are mixed:
15% of gross to TSP on track.
10% of net to EF on track.
Extra 10% to EF currently on track, but this might miss the mark slightly. This has been an expensive year housewise. I had to replace my furnace, sump pump, garbage disposal, and lawn mower. So my maintenance fund is no more.
Then there are a couple other maintenance items on the list. Oh well 2 out of 3 is decent.

[IPAfan]

My financial goals for the year/near future are to:

1) Pay off interest accruing debt (paid off $10-$12k of CC debt, still have $1,500 at 0% which I'm leaving for now)
2) Build 3 month EF including business expenses. (Have got about 1 month)
3) Save a 5% DP for a house (no progress yet)
4) Fund 2 ROTH IRAs (no progress yet)

Don't know if I can make all of these goals this year, but hopefully we can at least get a decent sized EF and fund the ROTH IRAs. May have to worry about a house DP next year (and I would love to save 20%, but that could take a few years of saving and paying high rent.)

[tskeeter]

Primary financial goal was to grow our retirement and investment accounts by 12.6% through a combination of additional contributions and returns/appreciation on invested capital. Actual year to date as of 4/15/11, balances up 5.3%. Target increase for this point in time was up 3.6%. So we're ahead of the plan so far this year.

Also converted a smaller 401K rollover account to a Roth to improve our tax diversification during retirement.

[mesquite77]

We set annual goals on a June 30 YE, we surpassed our 6/30/11 goal sometime in January. We're about 40% to our longer term 6/30/12 NW increase goal, but we'll need to update an annual goal in the next 10 weeks. Will be a little difficult to gage as my wife will be let go in late May.

[fuel100]

Everytime I see this thread in the directory, I think it's asking me if I'm still on CRACK.

I'm not BTW. As far as you know.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

We're getting there. I have a retirement account now thru work, DH has life insurance. We're finally settling into our new post baby budget. I've been tamping down the grocery bill and even saved $1.50 with coupons (it's a start!).

We're not near where I want to be, but I've learned I have to set little goals that lead up to my big goal otherwise I will drive myself insane.

[jospaced]

Not quite .
I set my goals of what my end of year account balances (savings, investments) will be. I'm getting behind because of unexpected car and dental expenses. Don't know if I will be able to catch up because it's turning out to be an expensive year with gas prices, etc. and the unexpected expenditures.

[shanendoah]

Yes and No. We're on track for the track we had planned to be on for the year, but it looks like the track is changing paths.

April was a big month for us:
1) Flood prevention work done on the basement - we had the cash to pay it out of pocket, but with 1 yr SAC financing, we decided to keep the savings. Payments start next month
2) Had enough (more than enough) saved to pay taxes
3) 403(b) contribution increased by 1% (already receiving full company match, this is an automatically scheduled annual increase in my contribution)
4) Pay for DH's college tuition in cash. Spring quarter paid for. At the tuition rates that were listed at the start of the year, we have enough in savings to pay for 3 full time quarters, which we shouldn't need to touch as our budget has us putting enough aside each month to pay for his tuition as we go.

Here's where the road has changed a bit: Increase in gas and grocery costs is messing a bit with our budget, but my raise (which I'd hoped could go straight to additional savings) will cover that.
The state passed a new budget which cut funding to the state colleges by 50%. This means that DH's tuition rates for 2011/2012 will not be what was published in January 2011. Not certain yet what they will be. Based on our current savings and the amount we had planned to save, we should still be able to pay. However, we will have to pull from savings in addition to paying as we go, so our savings will go down.
We have filled out a FAFSA for him, and he will be eligible for work study. That's actually what I'm hoping for most from financial aid. We'd like to not take out any more student loans, and while grants would be nice, not really expecting them. Work study would be ideal because not only would it be a little extra income, it would be a job to put on his resume after 2+ years of being out of work. Best of both worlds, really.