Blunt Money

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I’ve been experimenting with focusing on one goal at a time, with mixed success. (I did finish funding my IRA, but had trouble sticking to that as the priority, so I did some other stuff too. Darn.) Here is my goal update for now (things that are completely done are also crossed off).

• Open a new IRA for 2008 (probably a Roth). - DONE
• Fully fund the new IRA. - DONE
• Increase savings by $4000 in 2008. - Whee! I’ve increased savings by $1 more than I started with originally! (Which is better than the previous update, where I’d gone backwards.)
• Purchase 1-4 tax liens. - DONE, plus one more.
• Purchase at least one share of stock. - DONE
• Purchase at least $8000 worth of treasury bonds. - I’m at $500 here. I’m doubtful about the wisdom of continuing to aim for this goal at this point, but we’ll see.
• Continue paying at least $800 extra (combined) toward our mortgage/mortgage fund each month. - Revised: Our new goal is to pay $36 extra per month, and put the rest (and more) towards savings instead for the next 3 years. - Ongoing
• Continue tracking & evaluating expenditures each month. - Ongoing
• Continue saving each month for vacations & irregular expenses. - Ongoing
• Continue paying for all bills and expenses in full and on time. - Ongoing
• Reduce expenses to $1500 per month or less (excluding vacations). - Doing a little better here, but still not close enough.
• Increase income significantly. - I’ve made a slight bit of progress here, and will be hitting this hard by summer’s end.
• Continue matching contributions to my son’s college & car funds. - Ongoing
• Increase my 401(k) contribution amount. - DONE