How am I doing on those darn goals?
Save $21,000 in money market fund: Generally on-target. Year-to-date contributions total $3,200 as of the end of February. I am currently 15.2% of the way to my goal, and the year is 17% over…
Max out Roth IRA ($5,000 a year): On-target! I have $1,100 for my 2008 contributions, which means that I’ve achieved 22% of my goal.
Do not make extra payments on student loan: Er… I might have paid an extra month because I didn’t know my automatic debit has kicked in. So instead of 10 years, I’ll pay this loan off in 9 years and 11 month. Oh well. It’s not big enough of a deal for me to go through the hassle of postponing automatic debit for a month.
Keep track of spending: I am so on top of this its a little scary. I have truly gone from 0 (never knowing exactly where my $$$ went) to 180 (recording expenditures down to the penny in PearBudget). And dare I say, it’s even kind of fun. More personal data to manipulate in spreadsheets!
In other news, I do plan to take some classes for personal edification. I want to take a language class at a local college… but I’m a little hesitant because the class runs 5 hours a week for ten weeks. And cost is almost $500 (but that’s very reasonable – less than $10 an hour of class). If I do take this class, I’ll have to significantly expand my education budget and cut down somewhere else.
I want to become proficient (as in, I can put the skill on my resume, write a brief, watch movies, and hold a conversation on politics/investing/popular culture) in 3 languages – English (still working on this one… kidding!), Chinese Mandarin (ni hao ma?), and Spanish (no comprendo mucho).
I’ve taken classes in Mandarin & Spanish, but language is truly a use-it-or-lose-it skill. Unfortunately, I’ve lost my language mojo and now I’ve got to woo it back.
Congrats on being 22% to maxing our your Roth! I just put $1,000 in my 2008 Roth IRA today, so I’m right behind you
That’s awesome you’re planning on taking classes…it makes life that much richer. And think of it this way, the cost of tuition might be almost $500, but during those 50 hours that you’re in class – you won’t be out spending $
I’ve started taking Spanish classes at the beginning of the year – once a week for 2 hours after work.
I think one of the most important things to work out is whether you’ll be able to commit this much time to learning the language. 5 hours a week sounds like a lot, and the last thing you want to do is pay 500 bucks only to stop attending classes after 2 weeks. If you think you’ll have the stamina to attend all (or at least most) of them, then do it! You’ll find the extra money somewhere, for sure.
[...] that she’s using PearBudget, and that it’s working really well for her. In going over her goals yesterday, she got to her goal of tracking spending and had this to say: I am so on top of this its [...]
That’s great to hear about your financial goals!
Wow, five hours in one sitting? I hope it’s on a weekend. I took a French review class a year ago that was three hours one evening after work…and after half the class I think I was done. But I do love language classes. I’ve recently started Italian, not because I wanted to continue it (like my French class) but because it was a language I’d always wanted to learn. Sometime fun in the middle of the week to look forward to and I’m really thinking about continuing it after this session.
Enjoy your class if you decide to take it! And as mentioned above, at least you won’t worry about spending in those five hours!
I need to steal your “not pay extra on loans” goal. I can hardly help myself, though I have improved. Only $20 extra this month.
What language class?
For my “personal edification” (wow, nice vocab) I’m taking a sailing class next quarter. haha. I want to learn Chinese, but I think I just tell myself that, because it makes me feel smart.
I noticed that you are not making any extra payments on your student loans. Can you tell me why? I recently discovered when filing my 2007 taxes that I could only claim $2500.00 of the interest instead of the almost $7000.00 of interest I paid in last year. Therefore, one of my 2008 goals is “to make” extra payments on my student loans. Any extra payments are applied directly to the principal; thus, in the long run accruing less interest (which I cannot even deduct on my taxes). I might be in a slightly different situtation then you, in I owe A LOT of student loans after three years of law school at a private institution.
As far as taking a language class, sounds interesting. I have actually been thinking about it myself after reading “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. You should give it a read. Very interesting book about discovery of oneself, while learning an entirely different language.
Interesting reading your goals.
With regards to language learning, something I’m interested in, I’d say you don’t need to go to a language class. You can learn languages for cheaper (if not free) and often more efficiently by yourself! If you’re committed there are ways. Check out AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com which has great advice for learning Japanese though it can be applied to any language.
I’d love to be taking a language class! I hope to get a chance to enroll next spring, which should be after I’ve applied to grad school. It’ll be useful especially because English PhD programs all have pretty stringent foreign-language requirements, and my German’s gotten really rusty.
Good work on the goals!
I think it’s great you are going to start taking language classes! That is something that will definitely be worth the investment. Espeically if a class only costs $500. That’s awesome!
WOW!! You are doing so well on your goals for the year! I’m very impressed, keep up the great work!
Great job on your goals for the year! I’m with you on the language class, I’m sorrowfully without language skills.
Good luck!
I like the idea of learning new things every once in a while, so good idea taking the language class. I took a photography class at the adult education center this past summer, and hopefully take another class soon. I think it’s fine to spend money on things like that every once in a while. I know that sometimes with this personal finance stuff, we’re always trying to save money, since we know that compounded monthly at x% for y years we would have so much more money…but sometimes I think we can allow ourselves to spend…
Anyway, congrats on your goals so far…and just like you, I’m always tracking my expenses. It is pretty addictive!
ChinesePod rocks! It’s got all levels and teaches you all kinds of practical and cheesy stuff like how to order custom made clothes. Minus the flirtation between Ken and Jenny, it’s pretty useful. They even include the vocab which you can download and practice.
Hello, I’ve just started reading so I have yet to get far back enough for an explanation…
Your goal “Do not make extra payments on student loan”: may I ask what the motivation for that is? Perhaps your loan works differently from mine, but for mine any extra payments are not penalized and knock down the loan sooner. Paying it off sooner means less paid in the long run.
Best of luck with your goals!
Your view on money is so cool, I’m trying to track every cent (ok, I said trying!!!), but it will be fun to play with the figures in a spreadsheet!
Best of luck with your goals. I paid off a credit card this week and am down to two (one blance is for very expensive vet services for my 11-year old angora bunny, what could I do?) The other is house-needs and the house always seems to have needs (vent cleaning, fence painting, a/c service, new paint