What you've accomplished this yr?
Find a Conversation
What you've accomplished this yr?
| Tue, 11-22-2005 - 8:28pm |
Hi, all. Just thinking back, and wanting to take a positive look at what all you have accomplished this year. What is the one thing you're glad you did, and what do you want to do differently for '06? For me and DH, it was getting a fixed rate mortgage, and saving in my 401k. Goals? To stop raiding the credit union, period. My biggest mistake was getting a card from the credit union so I could withdraw money from it. If I can accomplish that, it will be a lot. BTW---Happy Thanksgiving to you all. It has been an inspiring, learning experience, and am thankful for it. Whiz.

Pages
What a great question, Whiz. In looking back we had a lot of ups and downs in 2005. The one thing I am glad we did is sign up and participate in Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey program). DH has been much more involved in our finances and I feel like we are working together for the first time in this particular area. What we want to do differently in '06 is to enjoy our lives again and not be burdened by debt. So we are planning how to pay down our debt while enjoying everyday life. What a concept. I also plan to really use the "snowball" effect in paying our bills next year. (We fell off the snowflake wagon in '05) LOL
Susan
<ahref="http://www.TickerFactory.com/debt/wJLmWvM/"><imgborder="0"src="http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/t/wJLmWvM/debt.png"></a>
I feel really good about this year.
Looking back over the year, I am thrilled that I told my Dh about the debt we had. I look back now, and it boggles my mind that I didn't tell him sooner. I wish I had. Sure, a year later, we still have debt. BUT....our relationship is SO much stronger. We went back to being "friends" again....laughing together, joking with each other, sharing our lives together. It feels like we went back to how it was when we were dating, when we just enjoyed spending time together. I think we had lost the "friendship" part of our marriage under the crushing stress of me losing my mind over the debt, and him not knowing what was wrong with me.
Also, we paid off a car this year, paid off my son's martial arts tuition contract, refinanced our home to combine our first and second mortgages, paid down $3000 on our credit card, and saved up a nice downpayment in order to buy a much-needed car, being able to keep our payments low.
What a great year it's been!! :-D I can't wait to see what next year brings!! :-D
Pat :-D
This year was full of ups and downs, but we did accomplish a few things...
When I was sick, I had money in savings to cover all of my copayments, AND was able to pay off all of my dr bills within 3 months!
We DH started contributing 5% of his pay to his 401K plan (which is matched 100%)
Our cc balances went down $5000.
We started transferring money to savings twice per month (though it gets wiped out fairly frequently)
When the oppotunity arose (rare) for me to meet with one of the top autism experts in the country, I was able to go to the bank and take the money out of savings to pay for it...on one day's notice!!!
This year we have not accomplished as much as i wanted to, but when I look at some of the bigger accomplishments, I am still happy at how far we have come!!!
Heather
The biggest thing I accomplished this year from a money stand point is actually finding out where I stand. I added up all my debt and nearly had a heart attack over it but at least now I know. I'm getting organized with it as well, I have most of my finances put into Quicken which hopefully will help me track my expenses and find even more ways to cut back on my spending.
I also began to put a plan together to get myself out of debt and on my way to financial health. I've paid off one card already, admittedly a small card but every little step helps. I've set up a $50 a month transfer to a savings account at ING which will become my emergency fund, I'm also planning on putting another $50 a month aside into an account I have at BOA in order to keep money on hand for non-regular bills...like insurance and taxes and such. I just checked my 401k balance and I'm within $400 of making my goal for this year. I try to set a goal on that every year; makes me feel like I'm making strides toward the future at any rate. I will also be cancelled out of all the mail order clubs, I'm part of (ie Doubleday Books, And some recipe clubs.) by the end of the year. I have one more to go that I'm waiting for my last payment to post on.
As far as next year goes, my goals are as follows. Pay off two - three more credit cards. Should be doable as long as I don't fall off the wagon. Continue to save the $100 a month as detailed above. Not pay any late fees, or bank fees related to not having enough money in the bank (I have overdraft protection linked to the account I'm keeping the non-regular bill money in but each time they take money out of that account it's a $10 fee). I'll also be moving back home in July, so I'd like to have my apartment purged of all the stuff I won't need anymore and will be having a garage sale in order to get rid of some more stuff. Any money made will go against either my debt or savings. I'd also like to find a 0% interest credit card to transfer some of my debt to in order to pay it off faster.
Lets see...DH quit job as he reinjured back, income dropped in half. DH got a contract haul for a few hours every day, so that helped the income picture greatly. Non mortgage debt finally dropped below $40,000. I've been counting months to be debt free & am down to 25 months! Have $1000 in EF & a cushion in the checkbook. All the bills are paid on time.
I feel on track & organized & feel that DH is on board and we are finally working towards a common goal. It's about time we've been married for 22 yrs!
Great guestions WHIZ!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
cindylee
What is the one thing you're glad you did?
I'm glad I started to pursue my business idea. It's turned into some excellent opportunities (specifically the job offer I received and have discussed on this board), as well as some extra cash. It allowed us to pay for our new air conditioner without breaking a sweat (and without breaking out the ccs!!), as well as financing a number of other things and paying down our debt more quickly.
Goals for next year?
To begin pursuing activities based on our values rather than purely on the income or other material reasons. We will, with any luck, be paying off the rest of our debt in 2006 (hurray!!), and that will free us to do more of the type of work that we believe is important in the world, rather than just the jobs that pay our bills.
The thing that I am happy about and glad that I did is that I scrimped and saved and will have $13,500 in my emergency fund by the end of the year. I have never had more than a couple thousand saved in my life and now that I am a single mom, it feels good to have that cushion. The other thing that I am glad that I did was to cash my cd that held most of the money and opened an account with Emigrent Direct for a much better interest rate. My cd was paying 2.6% and Emigrent pays 4%. I felt that was a good move. It's also linked to my checking account so I can make transfer between accounts and keep adding to the balance. I'm also glad that I paid out the $400 to sue my ex for sole custody of our kids. I won a default judgement because he doesn't obviously care, but I feel good knowing I have some control over his contact with them because he is so, shall we say, "unhealthy" and "untrustworthy".
The one thing that I regret is that I didn't pay off my credit card debt with the insurance money I received in September. I had $2500 in credit card debt at the time and could have paid that off and had money left over. Instead I blew the money on shopping for me and the kids (Kohls just came to town recently lol!), a big weekend vacation for me and the kids, paid to get repairs done on my car, and used some of the money toward my attorney bill that I had left over from the custody stuff. So overall, the money went for good things, I just wish I had paid off my credit cards too.
My goals for 2006 is to continue to put money in my emergency fund, pay off my credit card debt, which now stands at about $2000, continue maxing out my 403B, and start a Roth IRA. Another goal of mine, which will be a LOT harder to accomplish is to try to get some child support from my ex. He is in contempt of court already, but they can't do anything right now because of a loophole in the system. But I will continue to work hard on my own so I don't have to rely on him also.
Pages