Happy New Year! I can't believe how much different my outlook is this year over where we were last year. Last year we had a goal of paying down $40,000 of $46,000 in credit card debt... a goal we accomplished in July of last year. We also paid off most of our car loan ($1,800 of ~$14,000 is left).
This next year we are ratcheting back up the retirement savings, increasing the 401(k) savings back up to 15% from the temporary cut down to 6% in 2010. We are also picking up our Roth IRA contributions where we left off, hoping to fully fund our 2010 Roth IRAs with $10,000 by March 31st and our 2011 Roth IRAs by December 2011.
Some challenges for the coming year... my annual bonus at work will be about half of what it was last year. We also won't receive much, if anything, back in a tax refund. Those aren't bad things necessarily, but they did give us a lot of momentum last year in meeting our goals.
I have two kids vying for my attention right now, so cutting this post short!
1 comments:
I'm so encouraged by your blog. I subscribed over two years ago, but it wasnt until very recently that I've taken a really close look at the amounts of debt that you've been able to pay off.
In the years past, any ideas of saving, budgeting, or putting money aside has been extremely painful -- yes, just the thought. But this last year, I've really made an effort to examine my spending habits and pay down debts semi-aggressively. This year, however is a WHOLE new game. This year is the year that I will pursue it and eliminate it AGGRESSIVELY. I've really felt the need to step it up in those areas as well as downsize in other areas. So far, so good, and I'm proud about the changes that are happening financially.
I'm a 25+ yr old recent grad with 16K in loans and 4K in CC debt - not bad, but, trying to live BELOW my means and beef up some investments.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
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