Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year Resolutions

For the past few years, I've been trying to write down my new year's resolutions and have tried my best to keep with them. 2007 was a good year for keeping with resolutions. 2008 wasn't as good but I did meet just a couple. Hopefully 2009 will be a good year as well. I am trying to be specific with my goals but not to extreme. So here goes....

I've broken these up into 3 parts: debt, savings and personal
1. Pay down debt:
a. Pay off visa which has shy of $2k
b. Pay off half of Amex which has shy of $6k

2. Build up savings:
a. Increase my CD funds from $13.4K to $20K.
a1. Any interested earned on the CD goes back into the CD
b. Build up SB savings account by direct deposit from paycheck - $250/mo.
b1. use $75/mo of these funds to go into the emergency fund
(I have now set up an E-trade savings account that earns 3.01%)
c. NO SPEND TUESDAYS.
This is a completely new one. I read some blogs on different ways to earn extra money or save extra money. One suggestion was to pick a day to become no spend days. So I've decided to take this on. And the money I would normally spend on this day (lunch, bus/subway fare, etc) will go into my savings account.
d. Extra income earned through ebay business/surveys/cash back/etc will go be split - 50/50 debt and savings.
e. Save $5 bill. This will be deposited into my piggybank.
Another idea I found through other blogs.
f. Any change (coins) will also go into my piggybank.
g. If any bonus is paid at work, 50% will go to debt, 15% CD funds, 10% savings, 10% me.

3. Personal:
a. Lose another 25 lbs. (approx 2 lbs/moth).
2008 I completely plateaued. 2007 I lost a little shy of 60 lbs. So I need to get back on the losing track.
b. Join 2 classes at the gym - mini trampoline class and another (perhaps pilates or yoga)
c. Run at least one 5K in the spring, summer and fall
d. Check out new single events -- or venues to meet more people (ie...wine tasting event...my church's monday night coffee house

And that would be it, folks. Wish me luck!!!

1 comment:

  1. Hate to be a niggler...but I'm having trouble understanding why you want to hold so much in CDs @ 4%-ish when you've got CCs charging you 8-10%? Especially since it looks like you've got a terrific CD savings cushion! Do you ladder them?

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