What are your financial goals for the New Year?

I love threads like these because you ladies always have such great ideas.

I recently reviewed my budget and it's shameful the amount that we waste on wants/trips to target/takeout/etc.

These are my ideas:
No debt into new year except mortgage/student loans.
Paying CC off completely and then not carrying in wallet.
I rack up too much this way too, even though I pay it off monthly...still feel I use it too much...
I recently upped my 403b contribution and signed up for it to be raised 1% yearly.
Also just signed up for automatic student loan payment every month to knock down the interest rate.
Signing up for HSA and FSA at work for copays and child care/camp.
I bought a yearly unlimited yoga package in advance. This is the main thing I do for myself and I save about $1k this way, plus it's not going on the credit card every month!
Signing up again for automatic savings.
I recently stopped this and haven't been contributing.
I also just cancelled Stitchfix.

Things like not doing a weekly grocery/Target run and limiting takeout I also want to focus on.
I also would love to give up my daily Starbucks stop during the workweek, but that is going to be hard!

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

We have been living fairly frugally for years due to our financial situation. I am finally in a position where I tripled my current salary, but it will only be until June. So DH and I are going to get through the holidays, and our plan is:
-Pay our credit cards down. We are planning on consolidating our cards to the one with the lowest interest.
-Sock money away in our savings.

We only eat out on Fridays, and we make coffee every morning. We both have Thermos travel mugs that keep our coffee hot forever. We only eat lunch out at work once a week also. I'm also addicted to Living Rich With Coupons. I don't get everything they list that is free or cheap, but I am set for shampoo for the next year.

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Not using that Amex!!! Again it's paid off monthly but I do love it!! Lol after rent student loans and car payments we should be saving $2600... Where that goes- target lol and other random stuff. We would like to be saving 2k a month. Our main goal is to purchase a home within the next 6 months!!! In that final stretch of saving :)

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Yeah, we own our home already, but after our bills are all paid, including what I should be putting in savings, I still have about 2 pay checks to play around with.

Granted that has to go to food and gas too but I know I should be doing much better than I am!

This past year I made a seperate checking account for food, gas and entertainment and am still blowing through the other $$$ that should be going back to savings...

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Well since my raise will probably just cover the increase in medical, my goal is to be able to pay my bills and have a little extra when the kids need this or that.

I don't know how many families can save when you have older kids who are not working.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

I am going to try and cook more and keep our food budget down. That being said, I would never stop using my CC. There is too much free money involved with using them, as long as you pay them off every month. If you choose not to use them on everyday purchases, you should at least use them to pay for your phone, cable, and any other auto payments that can go on them. It cuts down on the amount of things you need to pay individually, and you get rewarded for doing it. Win/Win.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Our focus in 2015 is paying down debt. We will be paying our 401K loan off in January with our Xmas bonus and the remainder of that money, as well as our income tax return, will go towards paying off credit card debt. With all the extra monthly money we will have from paying off our 401K loan we will continue to pay as much as possible to our debt until it's gone.

So basically, 2015 is ALL about paying down debt. I'm tired of that financial burden hanging over our heads.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

We have 7 pieces of debt left.
Goals for this year was to pay off 3 (will happen next week)
Goal for 2015 will be to pay off two loans and double our savings.

i also have to curb buying lunch. Even if i bring my own, sometimes i buy lunch just to get out of the office.

also, planning ahead for mandatory outings (birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc.) those always cost us an arm and a leg.

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Save more, buy less, pay off credit cards. It's the same crap every year lol

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Stop giving so much of my money to Target. I'm there like 2x a week. I'd also plan on paying off our Home Depot card, so the interest doesn't kick in come August. Bring lunch to work at least 2 days will help too.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Actually I was thinking of paying off my Kohls and Target card with savings we have so we incur the interest. Instead of just putting $25 towards them monthly, I will just put that back into the savings each month. I can probably put more too if my dh makes more that month.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Finish paying of student loans & not going into financial ruin while going through a divorce.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

I am going to stay out of target for 2 months and see how much I can save.

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

To pay off all our bills, finally transfer my 401k and diversify my portfolio more by tax time.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

make sure my name is changed on all my accounts to my married name.

transfer ira account to different account

save money.

make a dent in student loans.

these are somewhat possible if I work as much as i can or am able to get a full time job. also think about getting a part time job to help with all of the above.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

I got a raise, cut my car exoense and paid off student loans this year so I fortunately dont need to set too many new goals. My onky debt is my mortgage.

I use an AMEX jet bkue card and pay off each month. However, I never use the jetblue points so I may opt for a new card that offers cash back.

I plan to meet with our company retirement plan rep to make sure I am doing well with my 403b.

I suppose I could save more for college. I would love to save for a "real" vacation too.

Because my exDH always owes me $ for expenses related to the kids I have to remain fairly conservative.

Message edited 11/30/2014 9:20:35 PM.

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

FUND having a baby, because within the next year I want to be a mom

I'm not in debt yet, but struggle to get by which is why I work two jobs and still worry. My goals are to find a new job with MUCH better pay bc mine ends in the spring due to grant ending. Better pay so I can stop working 7 days plus a week. So I can pay rent with ease, (wish it was a mortgage ) and find a new place to live. Pay everyday bills including my student loan, my loan is a killer.


I don't know how to make either happen unless I somehow win the lottery :(

Message edited 12/1/2014 7:17:23 AM.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

We are waiting to close on an investment property, looks like it will happen in 2015, so the beginning of the year will be focused on getting that property renovated and occupied.
I'm thinking about giving up cable tv now that we have Apple TV but I'm still on the fence.
DSD is in her junior year of undergrad so we will be starting to look at grad schools and budgeting for that in 2015
I'd like to see my son and his girlfriend be in a more secure financial position in 2015, hopefully I can encourage them to save more of what they earn.
We already gave up breakfast/lunch out. I rarely go to target because it's too easy to waste money there. I was great with couponing at one point but now that we eat differently there are rarely coupons I can use.
Our biggest goal is increasing our savings and investments. My car is paid off and rather than buy a new car I'm putting my payment into savings. Neither of us have pensions. Our retirement is totally self funded so that's the top priority every year.

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

I have a goal number in mind I'd like to reach for our savings account, but I think DH also needs to concentrate on paying down his student loan debt. It's nuts.

In 2014 we put away a set amount for savings each month (a minimum amount) but then we also did a 52-week challenge I found on pinterest as additional savings. Here's a visual:

Basically, you save the dollar amount of whatever week it is in the calendar year. At the end of the year, you have an extra 1378 dollars. DH and I both did it this year and we are using this "extra" money to 1) make an extra mortgage payment 2) paid for our annual trip to Montauk over Columbus day 3) have $1000 left over to use for our Christmas shopping. (We'll use cc's to pay for gifts, but then use the $ to pay them off so we still get rewards/points, etc).

I think we'll do that again! Keep the ideas coming!!

Re: What are your financial goals for the New Year?

What are your financial goals for the New Year?

Any tricks for paying down debt while still saving ? That is where I get stuck. It's like one or the other.