What are your financial goals for 2010?

[firefly615]

I was looking at my expenses for 2009 started planning out my 2010 budget. (A good reality check during the holiday season!) I wonder if anyone else out there is in 2010 planning mode?

What are your goals and hopes, financially, for 2010?
How do you plan to meet those goals?
Have you updated your budget for next year? Care to share?
Can you tweak it even more to achieve your goals sooner?

January is only 5 weeks away! Let's get on it!

[madhen]

One of my new year's resolutions is to manage a budget. I have drafted it and am taking it for a test run this month.

SO, financially, in 2010, I intend: a) have a working budget; b) get my EF up to $2,500 by the end of the year; and c) to pay off my last nightmare cc.

[Lady_V]

My financial goals are kinda simple and common sense...

~ Pay everything in full and on time.

We don't have CC's, pay cash for everything. We do have the reoccurring utilities and stuff.

Other goals --

~ full-size fridge
~ 3 carpets
~ full-size sofa
~ camping trip

~ SAVE, SAVE, SAVE !!!!

That's as far as we got right now...

[sinopa27]

Thanks for letting us know that January is only 5 weeks away.
I hope to learn how to live beneath my means. I hope to learn everything I can about managing debt. I hope to live on a budget. I hope to get my EF established and pay off credit cards. I hope to be celebrating by 12/31/10. I hope to teach my children the truth about debt.

[piney]

My financialgols for 2010 is stay with in my budget,start an emergency fund try save at least $1000.Eather buy or make at least one gift a month for Christmas 2010. Save some money each month for Christmas 2010 may just be change but something.Try pay a little more each month on credit card bill and maby hospital bills.

[scottp999]

2009 was a pretty good year. 2010 will be all about saving. I used to have a couple of hobbies I spent quite a bit on. Quit one in full in 2009, and will not spend a dime on either one in 2010.

I want to double my emergency fund, in 2010. I want to not use credit cards for anything. I know if you pay in full they are like a free short term loan, but I want to quit relying on these vulture banks for anything. Thay can stick their FICO where the sun doesn't shine.

For fun, I want to pay cash for a nice vacation.

My debt is just a mortgage at 99k, 5.5% fixed and I have no interest in prepaying.

[Palooka]

Curse off doctors bills in 2010!!!!

Cut up a credit card. (I will gladly post a slashing bloody pic, any one else game?)

Build EF this year without withdrawal.

Take a simple vacation with just the dh to get away from stress.

[sabrelvssammy]

i have spent all of 2009 'hunkered down' paying off all CC's and the plan is to have the last of them completely gone by feb 2010...

then the focus will be on saving all the money that i can get my hands on and keeping it well invested and managed to the best of my abilities....while taking on absolutely no new debts (hopefully this will be possible-citing only emergencies)....

i will not let up on my 'extreme frugal ways' because i have seen what i can accomplish with a little sacrifice...(i say 'little' while others may see me as almost an 'extremist') however after a full year on this path, i now KNOW what i can and cannot live without...where i have to 'draw the line' before true discomfort kicks in (and i have to tell you that in reality it was nowhere near where i thought it would be...i can tolerate much more than i imagined)....and sometimes when i start to feel 'sorry for myself' i pull back and look at the big picture...at what i ultimately want to accomplish...and that keeps me going down this sometimes wet, muddy dirt road....

so cutting back, not spending, continued education on this lifestyle, the on-going process of ridding my life of useless clutter and making the most of each day (both financially & emotionally) will be my goals throughout 2010.....

[lovestolaugh]

Well besides the usual goals of cutting debt and growing savings, the biggest goal I have is to go the full year without charging one thing. I mean it, not one bloody thing. We have an emergency fund and a slush fund so there is NO reason to use the charge. Not even for the "points" you earn. I would rather just pay cash. I can't wait to pay them all off so I never have to make another payment to those vultures again. I am canceling each card as we pay if off. I know this will screw with our credit rating but I don't care. I want to be rid of them once and for all.

[savvy_sniper]

In 2010 the following items are in the budget:

1. Hospital bill paid off
2. Start paying extra on the Harley
3. New A/C
4. New roof
5. Extra insulation in the attic
6. New freezer
7. New used vehicle (more energy efficient & reliable)
8, Sell my truck
9. Get a part-time job (so we can get out of debt sooner)
10. Lower electricity usage (#3 & #5 should make a MAJOR dent in our summer cooling bill)
11. Build EF back up
Items 3-9 are contingent on closing on the sale of my mother's house BEFORE THE END OF 2009.

[marjorie]

1) Pay off remaining medical bill (whopper)
2) Pay for new furnace
3) Carpet one room if possible- current one is well over 40 years old

[jas]

Thanks for starting this thread! I have been getting a plan in place for 2010. I have been adding up some expenses from 2009 and seeing where I need to change. Eating out is my big one.

I want to fine tune the food costs and the stockpile. I am seeing more clearly what we used this year and what is still sitting there waiting to be used up.

I guess for me slow and steady is the way. Keep chipping away at the debt and add no new debt. I have seen some of the totals that others have posted on how much debt they have done away with this year it is inspiring for sure. We don't have quite the extra that some have to throw at the debt, but we could have done better than we did.

We have several ING accounts set up for reacurring payments and I want to set a few more up this years for gifts ects. It really does make a difference to set aside the money ahead of time these things are not surprises we know they will come up. It is just the discipline to do it and keep at it. It really is worth it.

Can't wait to read what others are going to be doing in 2010.

I am going to get my new 2010 desk calendar tomorrow. I get two. One for my desk and one I hang on the wall and write down what we had for dinner each night or if we ate out. I can go back and get a good idea of what things we eat over and over again. And also if anyone says I have not cooked in a long time I have proof of it.

[dcompton]

After paying off the debt and being pretty good for quite a long while, 2009 turned into a support the national economy year, even a support the international economy -- I ordered ink direct from England (and saved a good bit doing that as unlikely as it seems).

I pretty much worked through a wish list, and it was indeed wishes. None of it could construed as needs. But I continued saving, incurred no debt, and well, just did it. Things for me, things for the apartment.

A couple of days ago, I ran through my mental list of all the things I love that I am inclined to spend on, and there was more than enough of each of them for the coming year (and for ink, well beyond!) So in 2010, I hope to pull expenses back down to mostly needs, and throw as much as I possibly can into retirement savings.

I've made one big resolution, beating the rush for New Year's. Except when I am on extended vacation (like now), I'm packing the computer away at home. I have plenty of downtime to surf at work. I'm putting the finances back into pencil and paper. I did it for years and they are hardly complicated. And somehow, it seems more real written down on paper than on a screen. Nuts, but there it is. I'll still bank online, and check to be sure all is well with the accounts - and that my pencil math matches the banks. But I think this will help focus the money flow.

In short, 2010 - saving.

[madhen]

Cut up a credit card. (I will gladly post a slashing bloody pic, any one else game?)

I have a pattern for making earrings out of chopped up cc's. I am thinking I may use some of mine as templates.

[frugalwarrior2]

2009
-paid off new roof and chimney
-2 setsof wisdom teeth extractions
-purchased new/used car
-paid off medical bills (mine)

2010 projected
-Finished rebuilding E-fund
-payoff CC #2
-continue to paydown other debt.
-start saving for furnace
-continue helping w/ DD tuition
-repay DS college fund
-keep food budget under control by wasting less
-vaccinate all cats