Addendum to 2008 Goals
I’ve already stated that I’m throwing in the towel on the $10k in savings by the end of the year. At the time, it was still remotely possible to achieve, but now, a few weeks later, it’s not a goal that I’m confident that I can accomplish.
And I’m not sure if anyone has noticed that I’ve mysteriously misplaced a couple of my original goals…
One was to run a marathon in a competitive fashion and the other was to increase my passive income.
The first isn’t happening. No way, no how. I’ve got the shoes. I’ve got the time. But I don’t have the stamina. I’ve given it the “old college try” a few times this summer — running 6 or 7 consecutive days in a row — but an eventual bout of asthma always put a stop to it before I really got into a good routine.
It’s just not there anymore, and this late in the game, I’m not sure I could even get up to speed to run that far in time for the NYC Marathon in November (sponsored by ING — how appropriate!). Maybe next year.
The other goal was to increase my passive income considerably. I stated that I wanted to triple it in 2008. Yikes! What was I thinking?
So far, I have definitely increased my passive income over years past, but not by a whole lot. Certainly not triple. From day one, it was an unrealistic goal.
That’s okay. As long as I’m working less and still making a few bucks as I sleep, it’s all good. And I think the entire idea stemmed from the fact that I knew I wanted to work less — I just didn’t want to earn less too. So, looking at it that way, I half-way accomplished the goal since I am definitely working less. Kinda? Sorta?
But the new goal I’m adding stems from a comment made by Coupon Artist earlier this month. She inquired as to why I’d increase my 401k contributions more (I’ve already hit the maximum match) when I could be contributing to an IRA instead.
I admitted to my ignorance on the subject, but having read up on it a bit over the past few days, rather than strive for the $10k in savings this year, I’m going to instead open a Roth IRA with Vanguard and contribute the full $5k before the end of the year (though I’m aware I could wait all the way up until April 15, 2009).
I still can’t really grasp the advantages of a Roth IRA, but in the long-term picture, having some money there certainly can’t hurt.
