My Financial Plan

A financial plan is more than just planning how to budget your money. It is about what you want out of life and what you deem to be important. As such, one plan is never better than another and as life evolves and priorities change it is important to revisit your plan. While, I try to revisit my plan and goals once a year it doesn’t always happen. But I don’t feel bad about it. The point is to be aware and review it, not hold yourself to a strict schedule.

I’ve had a financial plan since I started blogging in 2008 and so I’ve learned some things about myself. I’ve found that if I have too many goals I end up failing at them and that there is nothing wrong with just holding steady.

You really never know what life is going to throw at you so trying to plan for everything is impossible. Instead, you just have to be aware of where your money is going, make some decisions and hope for the best.

So without further ado here is my financial plan:

2011-12 Goals
Focus on funding to my joint savings account with my husband. We started this account with the generosity of our friends and family’s wedding gifts and we both been contribute a certain amount each month. I don’t know what our future holds, it could be a down payment or it could be something else. But whatever it is having a substantial amount of joint savings will be helpful.

Paying down my student loan. My loan has been in deferment for the past two years. So while I haven’t been paying the full amount I have been paying $50 a month to cover interest and pay down a small bit of the total. Now that I’m going to have to start paying this again I’d like to be more aggressive in paying it off. Right now I owe $11,649. I would like to get that number to 4 figures by 2012 (and yes $9,999 counts). I’m going to start paying it down in July so I only have half a year to do this.

Building back up my emergency fund (new addition as of 8/11/11). My emergency fund took a big hit this year so my new goal is to build it back up to $4,000 by 2012 and then continue to build it back up slowly after that.

Holding Steady Goals
Retirement - Continue to put away 17% of my salary into my 403b.
Mortgage - Continue to pay my mortgage every month on time.

Professional Goal
More Responsibility/More Money - I’ve had a very busy, productive and great year at work. I’m also about to finish up my degree. And so, I’m ready for more responsibility. I hope to find this at my current position, but if not I’ll be looking for a new challenge. In either scenario I would also like to make more money. After the year I just had I feel undervalued when it comes to my compensation.

Personal Goals
Enjoyment -  After two years of working full-time and being in school part-time, DH and I are looking forward to enjoying all the NYC can offer. I’m looking forward to taking a break from a crazy busy schedule and relaxing.

Running/Health - Unfortunately my running dropped off these past two years and since I’ve gotten married I’ve gained five pounds. It is not a lot of weight, but it is enough to make me fees gross. So I want to focus on getting myself healthy and back in shape. Plus I miss how it feels to run five miles without feeling completely wiped out.