Finance Travels

My blog aggregator has been getting hit almost hourly with personal finance blogs listing financial goals for this year, so I guess I had better get with the program! This year will act as a benchmark for the next several years because for the first time in a while, we don’t expect any major life events. This will be the first full year living in our new house and having my wife working more than 3 days a week, as she has for almost the past 3 years. Therefore, I’m not quite sure totally what to expect, but I’ll make some pretty general goals known:

• As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to increase my net worth by 24%. I will have to average monthly gains of approximately $3,000 a month and I’m not quite sure how realistic that is, but I figure I’ll set my goals high and see what happens.
• I want to increase our liquid assets (checking & savings accounts) to a solid $10,000 for emergency expenses.
• Continue increasing my interest income through high-interest savings accounts such as Emmigrant Direct and ING Direct.
• My Prosper.com philosophy will remain the same until at least July. I will continue transfering the minimum allowed ($25) every time my Prosper balance hits $20. Once the transfer is complete, I will bid $50 on the best loan I can find. This way, I’m not losing any money by having it sit in their accounts, while still minimizing my exposure to unpaid loans. So far, I’ve been lucky with Prosper, having all of my loans being paid, but I’m still cautious of the business model and will wait before increasing my position there significantly.
• Grocery and gas spending will be decreased. I’m working on a budget now that will hopefully lower our grocery spending by 5% or more. With my wife’s new position, her daily work mileage will decrease over 70%. This will help save money not only in gas, but also in vehicle depreciation.
• No major purchases planned – the only thing I can think of is a new electric motor for the hot tub ($300-400), but that can wait until the Spring or Summer. As long as our vehicles are self-propelling, we will be keeping them another year
• Keep my 401(k) funded at the current level and deposit at least $2K each in both or Roth IRA funds.

I think most of these goals are obtainable. The main goal will depend largely on how the market does this year, but I think it is a possible reach.