2009 is coming to an end and it's time to set some real goals for next year. Here is my list my personal finance accomplishments this year (2009) followed by my list of goals I plan to accomplish next year (2010). I have spent 2009 learning to save, paying off debt, and appreciating wealth. I made a lot of changes including the decision that I don't want to be poor living paycheck to paycheck, I want to own the things I have and not pretend like I do, as so many indebted Americans do. In my quest to attain wealth I did the following in 2009.
1. I increased my pretax 401k contributions from 1% to 5% taking advantage of my employers price matching of up to 4% of my contribution on July 1, 2009 at one of my company's two open enrollment periods.
2. I maximized my Health Savings Account pretax contributions taking full advantage of my company's 100% price match on January 1, 2009.
3. Over the course of the year I began to setup automatic savings plans for my Roth IRA, my Investment Account and multiple Online savings accounts. I started with one account at a time and increased how much I put more into savings and investments little by little.
4. I paid off my highest interest credit card as well as another credit card account, and implemented the practice of paying off any balance in full every billing cycle. I still have one last credit card with a balance that I am working on.
5. I made the decision to go back to school and have almost completed my first semester back in six years (Fall 2009). I am also shooting to get my moneys worth out of school as an adult. I have a few weeks left of school and am looking to finish this semester with great success. I am expecting a 4.0 GPA for this semester and I have high hopes to continue my success until I attain my Bachelors. Sacrificing free time and my personal life in order to study more is helping me to spend less because I can no longer go out and spend money regularly.
6. Although it hasn't been fulfilled, I did converse with my boss about a raise, and even though I did not and will not attain this in 2009, I have had very promising discussions with my employer the possibility of it in the future, sad to say it may not be near future, but through my discussions I received acknowledgment of my constant hard work and excellence at my job which at least was very rewarding even without a raise.
Below are my goals for the year 2010.
1. On January 1 my first Open Enrollment for my retirement plan at work I am going to increase my pretax 401k contribution from 5% to 10% of my pretax income taking more advantage of paying myself fist by saving more money before taxes.
2. Based on my 2009 automatic Roth IRA contributions I set up in the middle of the 2009, in 2010, I will Maximize my Roth IRA automatically with my automatic savings plan at Sharebuilder.com.
3. If possible, with any extra money and extra income I plan to maximize my 2009 Roth IRA contributions before the April 15th deadline.
4. I plan to further pursue a pay increase with my employer, especially if the economy starts to turn around. With our current economy my company is currently in a slump and that has a large effect on the freeze of pay increases.
5. At the second Open Enrollment for my retirement plan at work, July 1 2010, I plan to maximize my pretax 401k contributions to my company's max of 15% finally reaching my goal of truly paying myself first.
6. Finally I plan to come up with new ways to reduce my spending and still maintaining a lifestyle I can enjoy. I will continue to practice and develop good habits for saving, investing, and growing wealth.
Through the above goals I plan to increase my net worth, improve my savings and investments, make the most of my retirement accounts, and eliminate my leftover debt.
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