I'm actually a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions...I like lists and goals and feeling accomplished. So, here are my goals for 2011.
1. Pay off my car! Barring any crazy emergencies, this one should happen pretty easily. I. can't. wait.
2. Increase amount I am contributing to my retirement accounts to 10% of my income. I am starting my 403(b) in January at about 5%, so once my car is paid off I want to start increasing the amount I contribute.
3. Increase the amount I pay toward my student loans by $100 per month as soon as my car is paid off. My interest on my student loan is crazy low, so I'm okay letting this take a few more years to get completely paid off. I am thinking about leaving the official payment lower and then just contributing extra toward the balance so that none of the extra is going toward interest.
4. Finish and PASS National Boards. This is my last hurrah, and since I'm only six points away I'm going to make it happen!
5. Get a raise via salary points by the end of this school year. This will result in close to $200 extra per month, which would be awesome and would help me with other financial goals.
6. Start a travel fund so that I can begin to save up for a bigger trip in the next couple of years. Ideas include Europe (Germany, Amsterdam, Austria, Poland) or perhaps the Philippines with a friend from work who goes every summer. I've been on big trips before, but I've always at least in part financed them with my credit card, so I want to change my patterns in that way.
7. Put less than 8,000 miles on my car. I did not make my goal of 100 No Drive Days last year, so I am going to switch to making my goal about the miles I drive rather than full days of not driving. I actually don't know how many miles I put on my car last year, but I know I have 70,000 on my car from the last four and a half years. The first two years of that were when I lived 25 miles from work, so that put TONS of miles on my car. Anyway, I really don't know if 8,000 miles is realistic, but I figure it's a place to start.
I love hearing about the different educational/teaching system of yours. Most of the things you speak of: Boards, points etc don't exist in our system and I find it fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAnother way of looking at car use could be amount of money spent on gas. I don't mind putting mileage on my car if it's used for long trips. I am trying to curtail my city driving - which uses more gasoline. And this way seems to keep with trying to be more green.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your goals this year! I'm sure you'll do great :)
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