I am borrowing this format from Laura at
NoMoreSpending to help me stay accountable to my
2012 goals.
1.
Pay off credit card debt this year. Yep, it has got to go. We have about $11,5000 in
stupid credit card debt. With our current living arrangements (we moved in with my sick parents to become their caregivers) our expenses are low(er).
There is some good news here. We have reduced the credit card debt to $7900.00!! I moved some money from savings and with the extra money from my mom we were able to get the balance down quite a bit.
2.
Increase Emergency Savings from $1000.00 to $3000.00. Right now our emergency fund carries about $1200.00, but by the end of the year we would like to increase that to $3000.00 for a little more piece of mind.
Emergency savings is at $1000.00. Any extra will go to debt, at least for now.
3.
Building online income. My work situation has changes totally. I am now a fulltime care giver for my dad, and soon for my mom. I will be able to (hopefully) find time during the day and night to learn more about HOW to successfully do that. You know I did join the
$30,000 Online Income Challenge, right?
Job situation has has changed AGAIN. I was employed but very briefly. Still unsure which direction I will be going. Online income is small, but I am grateful. For February, it was about $100.00.
4.
Christmas 2012. I again will be working my
$500 Holiday Challenge. I was able to stay pretty close to the spending/ shopping budget this year, so I am pretty happy about that. Acquiring gifts all year round at deep savings really helped the bottom line.
Still NO shopping yet, but I am still auto-transferring to my Christmas ING account.
5.
Have more fun! Life is short and I know that saving money, budgeting, and being frugal is important. But.... having fun and enjoying life is just as important! Living in Central Florida provides many opportunities to visit theme parks and be a kid again. We have not yet decided which park we are going to get a year long pass for, but I am leaning towards SeaWorld. And next year.... Disney World. I will be getting passes for me, my husband and my grandson. Money well spent.
DONE. Right now my daughter's family and myself have the SeaWorld pass. When my husband does go, we will get him one too. His work schedule is a little crazy right now.
6.
Plan a Trip out West. We want to go to San Francisco, visit Alcatraz ( I find that place to be very fascinating), Cross the Golden Gate Bridge, to name a few. It may not happen this year, but it will happen. I plan to save at leat $4000.00 dollars towards this goal.
Back burner for now. Need to secure stable employment first.
7.
Roth IRA..... hello.... you remember me, don't you? My retirement planning has taken a BACK seat lately. Time to get all that back under control. I have a 401k with a previous employer that I need to do something with..... and I do recall a Roth IRA too. I am a huge slacker when it comes to this stuff. Help please.
Fail. There is the rest of February to get it changed. Lets see what I can get done in March.
11.
Get our wills done. Enough said. This has been on my goals list for the last two years.
Nope, not yet.
So, there you go. Not much progress, but that is okay. These last few months have definitely been different. Looking forward to normal again.
