New Changes
January 30th, 2012 at 02:48 amIn the past two weeks I have started a new job which increased my income, decreased my medical costs while adding in dental and vision, and set up an HSA for the deductible. That’s three of my temporary goals in one shot. I finished my second job since it was seasonal, and my old job is now becoming a night job which, hopefully, once things get settled, it will be just one night a week.
It was a hard decision - hard to make, hard to implement, and hard to let go. I basically have been working three weeks straight with this last week being all three jobs. I’m tired, but excited about the change.
Happily, I finally get to make concrete goals! Here are my 2012 Goals:
1) Complete a checking cushion of $500. This will help with small unexpected expenses and cash flow.
2) Complete a Puppy Fund of $750. This will help save up for her one year shots coming up, and any unexpected expenses that have a habit of popping up.
3) Payoff Student Loan B. I’ve renumbered the Student Loans from last year. The lettered ones are the direct loan ones that were broken out into subsidized/unsubsidized groups. Student Loan B only had $500 when I listed my dream goals in January. Now it’s down to $250. Since we’re still in grace/deferment, I’ve taken the amount we’d pay monthly, applied it to the outstanding interest, and the remainder to the principle. I’ll be excited to see this little one gone.
4) Payoff Student Loan C. There is $1750 left on it right now, and it’s the second smallest we have.
5) Complete the emergency fund. There is $1500 in it right now, but as I’ve said before, I’d like this to be $3000 where I’ll feel more comfortable. This is already set up on auto save and should be done by the end of the year.
6) I want to have a fully furnished HSA by the end of the year. In order to this, I set it up with my job to withdraw more than the deductible by the end of the year so I’ll have some extra for next year, even if I have to use the full deductible.
7) Save for a real live vacation where we travel somewhere that we haven’t been. This might be funded by the extra income we might find this year, and not by any auto savings. I’m not sure yet.
As usual, I have some dream world goals. We might get to parts of these, but probably not. They will be in my mind as the year goes by.
1) Payoff Student Loan D, $3100 left.
2) Payoff Student Loan 1, $3600 left.
3) Payoff Car Loan 1, $7200 left.
4) Payoff Student Loan A, $8525 left.
5) Complete Car Fund to $2000.
6) Complete Moving Fund to $1500.
Oh, and my February Goals are:
1) Get a handle on my new job.
2) Kill Student Loan B.
3) Pack lunches at least 15 days.