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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Financial Goals

Jeff and I have been married for over three years now, and we've talked about owning our own home.. what we want in a home, where we would want to live; that type of thing.  Well, for the first time, we're actually planning ahead for our future home!  We finally decided it was time we started to get serious about saving and we've made a goal.  We want $10,000 in savings by December 31, 2009.  I'm sure we could have much more by then if we really tried, but I think with all other things, we need to take baby steps.  So, what I'm doing now is taking 8% out of every paycheck and putting that into savings.  Jeff also gets alot of mini bonuses once a month, so I plan on taking 20% of those and putting it into savings.  I'm going to do this and see how well it works, and if it works out, then I'll up it from 8% to 10% and 20% to 25% respectively.

Our other goal is paying our car off.  We got a five year loan for it in September of 2005, so if we continue paying the due payment, it'll be paid off in 25 months.  While it's only an $80 a month payment, we'd rather not be tied down with a monthly payment.  The payoff amount is $1,800, but if we continue on with the payment plan, we'd wind up paying a total of $2000.  Thats a savings of $200; and therefore that's $200 more that can go into savings!  So our short term goal is to have the car paid off by March 1st, 2009.  We'll pay extra on the car loan, and then whatever balance is left over when we file taxes, we pay it off and then put the rest of our tax return into savings.

What's nice is that we don't really need to budget, scrimp and do extra savings.  We still have a lot of flexibility within our lifestyle which is great.  I'm just glad we don't have a money monkey on our shoulder.

1 comment:

Butler Family said...

That is so COOL amber. That will make you guys so happy to have a house and to call it your onw is AWESOME!! Goodluck with it all!! I know you guys can do it