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I completed another one of my goals this quarter: increasing my savings by $4000 in 2008. I’m happy about that, and hope to continue increasing it. I think I’ve finally gotten the automatically-send-money-to-savings process down. I look forward to writing my check each month and mailing it in. Maybe I should make “pile up money” a new goal. Here’s how my entire goal list stands this quarter. Items that are crossed off are completely done.

• Open a new IRA for 2008 (probably a Roth) – DONE
• Fully fund the new IRA – DONE
• Increase savings by $4000 in 2008 – DONE
• Purchase 1-4 tax liens – DONE
• Purchase at least one share of stock – DONE
• Purchase at least $8000 worth of treasury bonds – IN PROGRESS. I’m still at $500 here. I intend to buy more, but probably not another $7500 worth.
• Pay $35 extra per month toward mortgage, and send additonal to savings each month – ONGOING
• Continue tracking & evaluating expenditures each month – ONGOING. I love my charts & spreadsheets. They’re very motivating.
• Continue saving each month for vacations & irregular expenses – ONGOING, and even more important now that we’ve spent so much recently out of those funds.
• Continue paying for all bills and expenses in full and on time – ONGOING
• Reduce expenses to $1500 per month or less (excluding vacations.) – IN PROGRESS. I’m getting closer here. I’m at $1634.20 in regular expenses now. I could cut that down quickly by eliminating unnecessary stuff, but I’d rather find a way to keep the stuff and just reduce the cost. I also beat my unwritten goal of spending $2000 or less in a month a couple of times. (Although not this month by any means.)
• Increase income significantly – IN PROGRESS. I’ve increased my income somewhat so far this year but not “significantly” enough for me to consider crossing this off. In order to have a shot at that I really, really, REALLY need to put in some major effort at a couple of side projects. In a hurry. Guess what I’ll be working on for the foreseeable near future!
• Continue matching contributions to my son’s college & car funds – ONGOING. I just need to encourage him to make some more contributions.
• Increase my 401(k) contribution amount – DONE

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