2013 Financial Goals

I did pretty well with my 2012 goals. I didn’t accomplish everything on the list but I got very close. 

Just setting those goals set me up for a very successful year. Since I was working toward accomplishing something rather than just haphazardly spending my way through the year I made actual financial progress.

Since I like how that felt I’m planning to do it again. This time I want to set even bigger goals for myself.

Pay off my student loans.

I considered not including this goal, but ultimately I crave debt freedom. I’d like to be completely debt free without any payments or obligations to anyone. I feel like debt freedom would give me a huge amount of peace of mind as well as the ability to do more with my income. My student loans that are left do not have a huge interest rate. I think it’s under 5%. However, mentally I think being free of those loans will provide me more of a benefit than keeping them around to earn more with investing.

I’m definitely with Dave Ramsey on this part of his plan. Debt freedom, here I come!

Buy a new car. 

I currently walk and use public transportation in addition to driving a beater car. The car is running fine, but it has a few missing elements like airbags. I don’t feel entirely safe driving it but it does get me from point A to B. That saves a ton of time versus using public transportation, but I’d prefer a slightly better car that has never been in a wreck. Oh yeah, and has a radio.

The car goal does not involve making any payments. I refuse to get a car loan despite friends encouraging it. My best friend recently talked to me about making a car affordable… by having payments spread out over 7 years. NO THANK YOU. I’ll pass on the payments and save up as much as I can. When my beater car beats the dust or our situation changes I will buy a car with what I have saved. I expect our next car to be in the range of $3-5,000.  That will buy us something decent.

Hit $20,000 saved for retirement. 

This is a bit of a stretch goal considering I do not have a 401k at work. I can contribute another $5,000 to my IRA which would put me at $16,000 without growth, and depending on stock market performance. I would like to stretch myself and put more into retirement than I’ve ever done before. This will require me to hit my next goal as well as possibly opening a retirement account for some blogging income.

Last year my goal was to hit $10,000. I did it! I was so proud too and really excited that I made progress toward taking care of myself in the future. I’d like to double that amount in the next year through contributions, new accounts, and investment returns. I think I can do it but it will take some extra work and thought. I’m up for the challenge!

Earn $30,000 online.

This is my BIG goal. I would like to earn $30,000 online to basically prove to myself that I can make a go at working online. I love the people I work with but I don’t like my job. I would like to quit in 2014 to work for myself in some capacity. I know financially this probably won’t be the smartest idea, but I’ve never been a person who could work a job I dislike. I’m going to try to stick it out for the year while also building my online income on the side. 

The goal is to make $30,000 total. Last year I made…. $4,500. That’s decent for not putting much effort into it. However, it’s hardly anything and it’s definitely not enough to live off of. However, I think I can grow that if I work harder and actually consider this a business endeavor rather than a hobby. Could I even grow it to 10 times that? In a year? It’s a big dream for me and I really want to make it happen. It’s time to think of this as a business and stop dabbling.

(ps – If anyone wants to help out with this goal and send writing work my way… let me know!)

Those are my 2013 financial goals. I can already envision myself hitting them all and it feels SO GOOD! I can’t wait!