May Financial Update

Financial Goals

Now that I have moved into my new house, I am ready to tackle some of my financial goals. In order to keep myself accountable, I wanted to write them all down without getting into specifics.

Dave Ramsey style goals
1. Pay off all debt other than my mortgage. Wahoo!
2. Fully fund an emergency fund by the end of December 2010 - Started the month at 55% of goal, ended at 65% of goal.

Retirement
3. Achieve 100% of goal for retirement savings by the time I turn 30. Basically I think it would be cool to achieve a certain number by the time I am 30. Right now I am at 80% of this goal. -
Right now I am looking at about 82% of goal.

However, given market fluctuation can be unpredictable, I have secondary goals.
a. Open Roth IRA account - Haven't opened one yet, but I did make progress by combining my 2 accounts from my earlier jobs into 1 account.
b. Max out this account for 2010. This may be ambitious but we'll see how far I get.
c. Contribute 2% more per month to 401K. Right now I am contributing the maximum employer match but I can be doing better. - Haven't started this yet.

Some other misc. goals I'd like to make progress on, but may end up being a little ambitious for this year - definitely possible in 2011 though!
4. Start making an extra principal payment per month before the end of 2010 - Not yet
5. Start contributing the equivalent of a car payment per month into a savings account by the end of 2010. My vehicle is 7 years old and shows no sign of stopping but eventually it will need to be replaced and I would like to pay for it with cash. - Not yet