2010 Financial Goals

2010 is here. 10 years ago I was a junior in high school dreaming about what college I would have graduated from and what my life would be like. This week I spent time visualizing what I want for myself this year and in this next decade. I am also in the process of finishing up my vision board so that I have a visual representation of what I want in my life.

With that being said, here are my financial goals for 2010

1. Build a $10000 Emergency Fund
2. Pay off $20000 in Student Loan Debt
3. Max out my Roth IRA
4. Have a Credit Score of 800 or higher
5. Start a Christmas club/gift account at my local credit union
6. Pay cash for the wedding !

Building the 10000 emergency fund should be quite easy. I have several windfalls that will be coming including a large ( 5600) deposit I put on the resort that we are getting married at, that will allow me to reach 10000 or more, actually I can probably make it to $14,000-15000 but 10000 is playing it safe, I know I can do that.

Paying of $20000 in student loan debt. Each month I set up automatic deductions for all my bills and about 70% of my income will be going to paying of debt (which is loans), I also have 5000 in loan forgiveness credit that will be given to me in September so I will be applying that to my loan.

Max out my Roth IRA. I don't know which is easier putting $416 a month into a Roth or waiting until the end of the year and putting $1000 a month? What do you think?

800 Credit Score??? Can I do it? I think I can. No late payments, no maxing out my cards, and paying down student loans will make me look more favorable to lenders when it is time to buy that next rental property

Start a Christmas club account at my local credit union. I will slowly be moving most of my banking to my local credit union for better rates. One thing that I did this year that I will not do again next year is put Christmas purchases on credit cards. While I will pay them off this month, putting the expenses on credit cards was something that I would not have to do if I planned ahead. My goal is to have $500 by Christmas and that managible.

Pay Cash for the wedding!!! This should be relatively easy because the whole wedding is costing us less than $12000. We just do not want to incur any wedding debt because we are working so hard to pay off other debt. We have spoken with all our vendors and have come up with a payment plan schedule. We are going to cashflow this baby!!!!

Tommorrow I will post my health, fitness, career, and spirtual life style goals. This is just the beginning of a healthy and prosperous year and decade!