Okay, so January isn’t quite over yet, but you get the idea.
I didn’t really have any New Year’s resolutions, but I did lay down a few goals for 2008 and I guess now is as good a time as any to see if things are still on track…
Eliminate all credit card debt by the end of June 2008. Current credit card debt is $10318. I’m aiming to achieve this goal slightly ahead of schedule, by about a month, according to the snowball plan I started in November.
Progress is far ahead of schedule on this goal. This morning, my total credit card debt is under $5000 and with Thursday being another pay day, it’s likely to fall even more by the end of the month. I’m hoping to have all of this wrapped up by the end of March now.
Eliminate PMI from the Mortgage by the end of December 2008. Right now, it’s costing me over $1000 per year. For what? Nothing. To meet this goal, I’ll have to contribute an additional $160 per month towards my mortgage.
I’m on pace for this, though it doesn’t really feel like it. At the start of the year, I began throwing $125 towards the principle each Monday. So, with the extra payments this month, I’ve climbed $500 closer to my target of $6100. In total, I have $5124 left to go.
Pay off my auto loan by the end of December 2008. Current balance is $7418. This is also included in my snowball plan and it’s scheduled to be paid off in October if all goes as planned. I’m not looking to speed this up; just finish it off.
Nothing worth mentioning on this one. I’m just making the payments…nothing extra. This goal comes in a distant second to the credit card goal. Current balance is $7177.
Increase my 401k contributions to 15%. This way I’ll receive the maximum match allowed from my employer. Right now, I’m contributing just under 10%. I’ll plan to make this move once the credit card debt is eliminated. Achieved 12-27-2007
I achieved this goal before the year even started, but with the way the markets have been going, my increased contributions habe only resulted in larger losses. That’s okay though — in the long run, it will be a very good thing that I got this back up to the full match percentage when I did.
Increase my passive income. Now that I’ve dumped my largest client, the hockey team, I’ll soon find myself bringing in a lot less income. But, I also find myself with a lot more free time. Free time that I should use to optimize my other ventures to make up the difference; except now I’ll focus on more passive income streams because, in all honesty, I’m tired of working so much. Right now my 100% passive income hovers around $50/month. With the least effort possible, I’m looking to triple that in 2008 and pick-up a few low maintenance clients as well.
I’ve made a few moves in the past couple of weeks to get this goal on track, but nothing really impressive. I missed out on a generous advertising opportunity last week because I took too long to respond to the email offer — but that won’t happen again. I’ve got everything forwarding to one address now so nothing sits and waits for a week. Eitherway, things are headed in the positive direction. Passive income for January is looking to top out around $80.
$10k in savings. This is my lofty goal. I’m not sure it’s even possible. Right now my ING account is holding a mere $1k. No matter how far rates fall, with a 5-figure balance working in my favor I’ll have to be making atleast $1/day in interest and for whatever reason, I like that. I’d also like to pay for some still needed interior renovations in 2008 with cash and this is where I’ll draw from.
I’m tanking on this goal. On January 1st, I had around $1000 in savings. Today, I’m well below that, and the interest rate is falling so I’m not real *excited* about trying to right the ship on this one. I haven’t thrown in the towel just yet, there are 337 days remaining in the year, but I’d be shocked if I come close to realizing this goal.
Posted on January 29th, 2008 at 10:50 am by Brainy Smurf
2008 Goals, 401k, Credit Card, Finance, Mortgage | No Comments »
I updated the progress bars on the right this morning and you’ll see that I didn’t pay off the credit card balance in full with my last paycheck like I had originally planned on.
With all remaining bills for 2007 paid already, it’s time to start looking ahead to 2008. This will be my official “Goals for 2008″ posting. Earlier this month, I had a 
