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Archive for January, 2009

A new year means new goals!

January 2nd, 2009 at 07:18 pm

Haven't written in awhile. I made it through the holidays alive but with a little bit of credit card debt. It sucks but I'm not that disappointed with myself. I was able to get my family useful presents for the cheapest I have ever been able to manage around the holidays.

I think I had the reigns a tad too tight in 2008 and that's probably why I splurged at the end of the year. Basketball Boy and I have worked fun money into our budget but in a *healthy* way. For every hour or more that we work out, we earn 5$ to spend however we would like. We cash out our 'workout days' at the end of the month and the money needs to last us until our next cashout. We aren't in bad shape by any means but we would both like to start the year out in a healthy way.

I did set some new goals for the new year. But I want to reflect on 2008 first.

I got myself out of about 3K in CC debt. I paid my car down by about 7K to just over 10K. I started and ING account in June and was able to save 4K towards that. Amazing!

For 2009 my goals are as follows ...

- open a joint checking account with Basketball Boy
- add Basketball Boy as a joint holder to my savings account
- save an additional 6-7K to bring the ING account to 10K
- pay off my car
- up Roth IRA contrib. from $150 to $200/mo.

I started on these goals by firstly changing my withholdings on my W-4. I should now see an additional $175ish per month and owe/get back very little on 2009's tax return. I will be getting back around $2500 for 2008's tax return which has been earmarked as follows ...

2K to car loan
$250 to savings
$250 to spend!

I bumped up my monthly auto deposit to savings from $150 to $250 and attempted to up my Roth IRA contrib. from $150 to $200 but couldn't figure out how.

There's my quick update, ttfn and I hope everyone has a wonderful new year!