2013 Financial Goals

[Kat]

Hi, everyone! The 2012 success thread (along with heydude's 2013 budget thread posted awhile ago) got me thinking about my financial goals for 2013. I only work on a very part-time basis, so our goals will pretty much be "keeping our heads above water." I do, however, hope to put a little aside for the kiddos' college. Here is what I came up with:

1. Keep emergency fund fully funded (it is fully funded as of right now, but I want to make keeping it that way a priority)
2. $1200 in DD's college account by August 2013
3. $700 in new baby's college account by December 2013
4. Pay cash for nursery remodel (the room is old and needs insulation, new electrical, etc.)
5. Pay off all medical bills related to the birth by the end of the year (though saving cash in advance would be better. I'll work on saving, but I think the pay-off is a more realistic goal.)
6. Pay an extra $2000 on the mortgage

Anyone else care to share their goals? They can be big or small! :-)

[cattledog]

I just mapped out our annual expenses for 2013. Assuming nothing major happens, I see an extra $300+/mo I can put into savings, unless I enroll DD in preschool. If we put DD into preschool, I still think we can squeeze at least another $200/month from other categories, maybe more. That would mean we wouldn't do much extra though (no trips, very little eating out, no clothes, etc.).

Assuming everything stays the same, I'd like to:

1) Add $200/mo to taxable investment accounts
2) Increase DD's college savings by another $50/mo (she already has a sizeable amount, so I'm not sure how much more she needs)
3) Put $100/mo into a vacation fund

I estimated $1500 a year for clothes, but I think that's generous. DH has to buy some work shoes and I'm sure we'll get a few items along the way (new underwear, socks, tees, etc.), but I don't think we'll spend nearly that. I also estimated $1000/yr. for gifts. I'm not aware of any graduations or weddings we have to go next year, but, regardless, I don't think we'll spend that much either.

[awakenedsoul]

I start the year with $25,000. from my retirement money. I'd like to save $3,000.-$5,000. of that. I need to repipe the house. It still has the original galvanized pipes. I really like them, but it's probably time to upgrade. I want to buy some more tropical fruit trees for my orchard. It's really saved me a lot of money, and it's been super convenient. I'd like to get cherimoya, lychees, cherries, and loquats. I think that would run me around $150.00. I don't think I'll need to buy any clothing or furniture this year. My main goal is to spend less, so that I can use the balance at the end of the year for home maintenance. I need to do some termite work, too.

[citrine]

We plan on paying at least $400 extra a month on our mortgage....and maybe increasing that to $600/month.
We plan on adding quite a few built ins, painting, adding a kitchen island, and building raised garden beds....I think $1500 should be good for this including the vegetable plants, mulch, soil, and rocks for our pathways.
We also want to put away an additional 6 months of expenses by the end of 2013 as well as maxing out our Roth IRA's.
We also plan on taking an all inclusive trip to Cozumel again with the boys and my dad....the tax refund will come in handy for that.

[dmc]

Ive been retired now for several years. I quit working in 2006, I was 49. So my financial goal is always to not run out of money. I figured I had a pretty good cushion, but I started flying and bought myself an airplane this year. So even after paying cash for the plane, I figure it will cost me $24,000 a year to own it. But my goal next year is the same as always, not run out of money. Actually I like to see my net worth increase year to year. I spent quite a lot this year and it still is up some, but I'm not as optimistic about next year. It manly depends on how my investments do.

[Blackdog Lin]

My household goals for next year are to get our financial house re-set on autopilot. I retired 2 months ago, and it takes "the system" at least 6 mos. to finalize the monthly pension amount. I'm pretty sure my interim payments right now are close to what the actual amount will be - at least I'm certain that my pension will be at least more than I'm receiving now, not less. But I don't know the exact amount yet. And while federal taxes are taken out, state are not, so right now I've beefed up our monthly "freedom acct." payment - will have to visit with the accountant at tax time to figure out our tax situation so we don't get hit with any surprises.

I've always known roughly how much discretionary income we have to spend on wants (as opposed to needs), but now with this state of flux I don't have that sense in my head. So we're right now trying to live low on the food chain, till I get our monthly financials all settled.

I also have a goal of continuing ALL of our monthly savings amounts at the same level as pre-retirement, minus the large monthly IRA payment i.e. the travel account, the emergency fund account, etc.

[Simpler at Fifty]

- Our CRV will be paid off in October. DH drives a 2003 Camry which we hope to keep 10+ more years.
- add $2000 to the emergency fund
- save for putting drywall in the garage
- do more canning in the fall
- start working parttime 2 nights a week
- get DH onboard with online accounts/passwords and when bills are paid etc. I think he would feel better if he knew how to get to all of our accounts. I have odd passwords for the accounts and he uses the same generic PW for everything. He does not see the importance of changing PWs and making them secure. He has his head in the sand about our finances.

[larknm]

Finish paying off smaller of two mortgages by May 15, hoping for sooner.
Put the amount I contribute to that into emergency fund as long as I can.
Spend less this year than last year. Not that last year was real expensive, it wasn't, but just as a good way to do things.
Take good care of what I do have, while doing simple things that make family members happy.

[rosarugosa]

One goal in my sights relates to the 2012 "tax holiday" which increased my net pay. I directed all of it into savings by upping my automatic monthly savings transfer by the same amount of the increase. It sounds like that is going away in 2013, but I'm going to try to maintain my monthly savings at the same rate. I've also made a resolution with one of my employees that we will both have wills by the end of 2013.

[Selah]

I want to earn back everything I've spent on getting my three different small businesses started, which totalled about $600, and then move into profit. After that, I want to bootstrap absolutely everything from that point on. I am about $400 in the hole on a credit card (UGH, bleachh!), so I'm 33% of the way back out of the red, but I'm not there yet. And I just lost my one and only private student today (client number one of one of my businesses), so there's that bit of income gone until I can hustle up some more business. Rats!

[shadowmoss]

Sell house in Nashville (going on market soon), pay off Jeep (paycheck this Friday will do it), keep out of credit card debt (paid off a couple of months ago) and get an emergency fund of at least $10K. I also want to open a Vanguard account and start putting money there.