12.15.2005

Doing some Financial Planning (or Goal Setting for 2006)

It's time to tighten down the spending, smoking, and overall carelessness with regards to my personal situation. I am very knowledgable in financial planning, but I don't practice it professionally or personally. I really need to get on track in regards to personal finance, the smoking thing, and blogging regularly. So here are some of my goals (financial and personal) for 2006:

1) Pay down all of my credit card debt. This amount is just north of $15,000. I really want to take care of this next year and wipe it out. We'll see how this goes. I have a bonus coming soon, and Restricted Stock from my company that I can exercise. This could knock the number down near $10,000, which from there, I think this goal is definitely doable. Paying off all of my cc debt is going to be my main financial goal for the year.

2) Keep track of expenses daily. Not only personally, but for my "house" account with my girlfriend. We are using the spreadsheet method for budgeting and it has worked. However, I would like to actively track our, and most specifically my, spending. This will be one of the only ways for me to monitor and figure out how I will be able to pay off my credit card debt.

3) Set aside $1,500 for an emergency fund. I know I should have 3 to 6 months of expenses as emergency fund, but this amount will have to do while I am focusing on paying off my credit card debt.

4) Begin saving for major purchases. This will be a general fund of which possibilities include, house, engagement ring, etc. Keep in mind this is a secondary goal to paying off credit card debt.

5) Negotiate a promotion and raise with my boss. This will be the best way to increase my income for 2006 and I think I can achieve this in June.

6) Start and maintain 5 niche blogs or websites. I've got some ideas and one is actually under way.

7) Be Healthier. This includes quitting cigarettes (I've spoken about this before) and going to the gym regularly (3 times a week). This goal also includes losing 40-45 pounds, hence the weight loss pie chart (isn't that kinda funny) in my Progress Report.

That's it for now. Perhaps these may be a little ambitious. But they are out there now and the gauntlet has been laid!

2 Comments:

At 12/16/2005 04:53:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good luck with all of your goals! Especially getting a raise and losing some weight. I linked to this post on my blog, I think we could all use a reasonable goal list for 2006. Best wishes!

 
At 12/20/2005 03:02:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can make it a goal to talk to your boss before the year ends.

Best of luck on the others.

 

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