Animal posted:

Yes, once you come to terms with the fact that you have less "play money" every month it feels great knowing that you are not only getting money for your investment, but not throwing your money away to the government so they can pay for a small fraction of a JDAM bomb.

Oh and did I saw $130 less taxes a month? Its actually per paycheck, $260 a month that I get to "keep" now. Over $3,000 a year plus the higher tax return. Thats nothing to sneeze at. Now I understand why that book "Millionaire Next Door" was so adamant about finding ways to lower your taxable income.

IllegallySober posted:

2018 Goals

1. Pay off $11,144.12 in credit card debt which will make me debt-free. This is a returning goal from 2017; I didn't have a very good year income-wise in 2017 and lost my roommates as well in November which tripled my rent so there's some work to do just to stay afloat in the short-term. I don't want new roommates right now so I need to increase income to match as well as pay off the last of my debt from years ago (this credit card).

2. Related to the above, do not add any new consumer debt. I want to stay debt-free, so no new car purchases, credit cards, etc. The only possible exception would be if every other goal is hit and I wind up in position to purchase a home somehow in 2018. I do not expect this to happen.

3. Max out IRA contributions. I have both a traditional and a Roth but have never come close to maxing either and need to start. 34 is too old to not be doing this every year.

4. Lose 20 pounds and maintain a weight of 170 pounds and body fat percentage of 18% or less.

5. Related to #4, no alcohol in 2018 until I reach 170 pounds.

6. Spend less than $3,000 total between restaurants and bar expenses for 2018.

7. Increase officiating income (income stream #2) to $4,000 in 2018. This would be an increase of around $750 over 2017 and just requires me to work a few more games this year.

8. Create a third income stream that provides a minimum of $10,000 in 2018. Details to follow here.

Stretch Goals

9. Save a minimum of $10,000 towards a down payment on a house.

10. Increase total combined income to $100,000 via a main job change. I make far less than I deserve and I need to look into what groundwork I need to lay to drastically increase my income and prepare for a career change.

Good-Natured Filth posted:

- Try to get at least 6 weeks of paternity (my company has no paternity leave policy). Worst case - 2 weeks off, and 4 weeks work from home. Best case - 6 weeks off with sporadic working from home when I can, but not 40 hours per week Talked to my manager about this, and I have informal, verbal confirmation that the latter plan is acceptable

22 Eargesplitten posted:

How do you get a higher tax return? I thought the withholdings would adjust to your lower taxable income? Or is it an itemized deductible thing?

moana posted:

January Update:

My new goals for 2018:
[list]
[*] Optimize a dental plan for my husband for the next few years. Ugh, it's going to be 5k or so, and it's "cosmetic" since having your front teeth is apparently a cosmetic thing??? So we're going to shop around. The low-income dental plans don't cover this stuff and it reminds me how awful poor people have it when it comes to dental stuff. Remember Cornholio and his rotted tooth?

moana posted:

Okay, for the college savings plan thing - we've had multiple people gift us money for our daughter's "College Savings Plan". The issues I'm running into:
- Our state doesn't give any tax breaks for it
- All of the plans are domestic only, what if she wants to study abroad? Or do something other than college (who knows what things will be like in a couple of decades?)
- The only financial incentive seems to be that the gains on the investments are tax free if she uses the money for school (in the US).

So I'm leaning toward not setting up a separate plan for her and just paying for school if she needs it in eighteen years. But then we have these lovely family members asking if we've set up the plan yet and if they can contribute directly. Which, I totally understand them wanting to know that we're not spending their $25 check on weed and beer or whatever, but like, it's stupid to go through the hassle of setting up a college savings plan for a few hundred dollars that might not even be able to be used for its intended purpose eighteen years in the future. Should I just set up a savings account under her name? Is that a thing?

Edit: I'm just going to set up a savings account under her name with Alliant so it can be linked easily to ours. Arguments otherwise?

EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:

Oh man, exciting stuff!

By end of Q1:
- Pay remainder MBA tuition in full. PAID IN FULL AS OF THIS FUCKIN SECOND.
- Begin a taxable investment account. Account opened! It's a taxable account, what investments make the most sense here?
- Document approval and payment status for student loan forgiveness. My paperwork got hosed up, so I have to do this over, but it's all printed sitting on my desk, just needs mailed!

By end of Q2:
- Breach zero net worth.
- Acquire MBA

By end of Q3:
- Pursue baby 2.

By end of Q4:
- Our 403 (b)s fully funded.
- Under 80% value remaining on the mortgage so we can refinance if we have to.

Yearly Goals:
- Acquire second medical directorship, commensurate pay increase and administrative time benefit. Administrative time earned, pay increase requested, timeline for another medical directorship uncertain.
or
- Leave and found a startup. Probably not!

Things we will not try to do:
- Acquire any new debt. So far, so good. No debt is good debt.

Stretch Goals
- 457 plan launched at work. University president has agreed, uncertain of the timeline. No movement on this, shocker.

Stretch Personal Goals
- One muscle up I am proceeding apace on the timing for this goal!
- Thirty (30) new books read I am way ahead on this goal!
- Rower used 100 times I am on pace for this goal!
- Cook 48 meals I am on pace for this goal!
- Clean basement to where I would be comfortable hosting a World Cup viewing party slightly behind schedule but I have begun cleanup in earnest. I think I'm going to buy an obnoxious foosball table and big television for this one.
- Write a book to self-publish Two chapters written, behind schedule, but it might have to wait til I've earned my diploma.

Good Will Hrunting posted:

Finance:
1.) Make $5500 contribution to ROTH (MIGHT be eligible by about $2k since I forgot I took extra time off between jobs) - Just finished taxes, can contribute by about $5k
2.) Max 401k again - On pace, easy
3.) Monthly budget of $1400 for all non-rent expenses (lol @ bad mental health plans) - On pace, easy
4.) Buy new MacBook Pro upon release as I have no laptop (~$1400) - Waiting for new ones and maybe even a bit after
5.) **If 1 falls through due to bonus** Contribute $5500 to regular brokerage account - See goal 7
6.) Contribute $10,000 cash to my down payment account - $0 so far
7.) Contribute $5-10k to regular brokerage account pending ROTH contribution - Opened Vanguard brokerage, $3000 contrib so far - going to be a goal of $5000 for the year due to ROTH contrib
NEW! 8.) Rebuild PC - $1700 budget - You should treat yourself when you work hard right? I love playing games and my old PC is on its last leg so I'm going to build a new one

DJCobol posted:

If you don't change your taxable withholdings by filling out a new W4, and you find ways to lower your taxable income, your return should get bigger and bigger. I've claimed 0 on my W4 since forever, and changing my HSA or 401(k) contributions doesn't change the gross paycheck amount that tax is withheld on. At the end of the year, you have a bigger gap between gross pay and taxable income, and you get more back. At least in my experiences.

Good-Natured Filth posted:

In regards to potentially not using it, you can change a 529's beneficiary at anytime

One interesting note: the new GOP tax plan allows 529's to be used to pay for primary and secondary education on top of higher education. Whether or not that stays in effect remains to be seen, but if you're putting your daughter in private school or something, this is worth considering. (I don't personally support most of what's in the new tax plan, mind you, just an interesting note.)

moana posted:

Interesting, thanks for the advice. I hadn't considered it, but it might be worth it to invest some money to gift to our friends' children if that's allowed under any plans.

And yeah, I agree, all of this poo poo is horribly regressive and only benefits rich people, but I'll take advantage whenever I can regardless.

EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:

Taxable account

Guest2553 posted:

1) Save 24k plus whatever I get from my tax return Only managed to save 500 out of 2000 this month because of some unplanned expenses - had to replace a dead phone/tablet and buy back some pension.
2) Get recommended and selected for a promotion at work Won't know until 4th (calendar) quarter but I'm on the straight and narrow so far.
3) Finish a book every month Jan book - Catch-22.
4) Get (back) into shape and look good naked by 1) completing at least three rounds of an intense workout program like insanity or asylum during the year Halfway through Insanity, but gonna change this to 'work out at least 5 times a week' because things like work travel get in the way of following a program religiously. Which I did last month
2) eating a big-rear end salad for at least 5 days a week. Done~

Stretch goal is to do a 2-3 backpacking trip per month once the weather gets warm and go on a hunting trip. Still a few months a way from non terrible weather

Hoodwinker posted:

Hella psyched about such a thread:

2018 plan:
- Max 401k + 403b - Both my wife and I have our allocations set to do this.
- Max Roth IRAs near the beginning of the year. - Taken care of with plenty of money to spare.
- Break $100k personal net worth. - This happens mid-March.
- Get another $20k put together towards house down payment.
- Pay ~$5-7k for some optional surgery.
- Change apartments to reduce rent from $14,400 a year to something closer to $12,000. - Looks like we probably won't save on rent but we will save time on commute which given our rate of saving is absolutely a worthwhile trade for me.
- Try to convince wife to start looking at jobs that don't suddenly stop providing 403b matches, do improve her professional skillset a bit more, and aren't a hellish commute. - Her company is turning the 403b match back on and she got a 3% COLA so that's a nice little 7.5% upward adjustment.
- Possibly reevaluate our monthly budget and costs after we change apartments to see if shifting some of our e-fund towards either taxable investments or into the down payment pool makes sense given our risk comfort. - I'm starting to realize more and more that I should be putting our excess funds into a taxable brokerage. I'll probably start this around March.

Non-finance:
- Finish working on this programming curriculum and mentorship by end of Q1 to feel more confident as a high journeyman/budding master instead of highly competent junior/fresh journeyman. - 2.5 books left and then a bunch of exercises left to do but much has been gained already.
- Get all the major design work done on my board game so I can begin the process of marketing and release before we start having kids in the next couple of years.
- Maybe start learning Unity so I can tool around with making that Metroidvania I've been wanting to make.
- Oh yeah, do a gently caress ton of reading on everything I need to know about home ownership and purchase so I hate myself less (or maybe just make my hate more refined?)

22 Eargesplitten posted:

2018 Goals (Actually these start in December but whatever):

1) Start actually following the budget rather than just acting like there's $X not dedicated to bills until next payday
2) Move closer to work
3) Save up ~$2,000 in cash (roughly 1 month's cash expenses)
4) Pay off credit card that I've been trying to pay off since I first posted here in 2014 (raising [seriously last resort] emergency fund to $7600)
5) Start contributing 6% (employer match) to 401k.
6) Either build up more savings or pay off more debt (going to ask for the wisdom of goons in my thread)
6) Maybe start saving up for a car that won't be 19 years old?

BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:

Long time reader, first year poster. Editing a little bit to clarify and operationalize some items. Thank you to all posters in these annual threads as well as the rest of this sub for sharing your goals and successes. I have in many ways patterned my goals and financial life off of the advice and plans set forth in these threads.

State of the Union January 2018:
-Married, no kids
-Two professional incomes as of last year
-Student loans for both, mine refinanced to 3.5% and hers currently eligible for PSLF and an underserved repayment program
-New house in late 2017, own three properties with three total rental units. Mortgages at 5.0%, 2.6% and 2.9%.
-Almost maxed 2017 403b/401k/solo 401k despite job change and both being ineligible for employer sponsored plans for part of the year
-Boring old US/intl/bond portfolio spread around between taxable and non taxable spaces

2018 Financial Goals:
1. Hit $500k household income, stretch goal $550k. Income here defined as active professional income exclusive of rental income, loan repayment checks, and passive sources such as investment dividends.
On track to stretch through January, busy month and small sample size though
2. Increase NW $250k, stretch $300k. NW here defined as mint account NW inclusive of net real estate and vehicle equity.
Well, after Jan 1 the Zillow/Mint algorithm decided that all my property values would fluctuate wildly and decrease in net by about $80k so this is going to be a really hard goal to reach after that. I will probably calculate this both with and without real estate just to give myself a fair shot. As of right now, negative ~$30k progress
3. Reaccumulate $50k cash after house purchase and 12/31 tax prepayments (thanks Trump)
Good progress
4. 75% of take home, post estimated tax payments to debt reduction, savings, or investments
I think I am going p. good but I will calculate this quarterly vis a vis estimated tax payments and dicing principal out of loan/mortgage payments which Mint does not do automatically as far as I know
5. Debt reduction strategy dictated by loan interest and tax considerations, will divide monthly savings after mortgages and car payments between student loan and cash investments at present
still working on 3. until this takes major effect
6. Max backdoor Roth IRAs
Still working on 3.
7. Max combination of Solo 401k, 401k, 403b, and mega backdoor Roth
On track
8. Work credit card sign up bonuses and 0% APR periods to maximum advantage, 2017 was a great year for points
Amex Plat 100k signup bonus reached and points incoming
9. Attempt to do all travel this year on points or expensed, spend less than $5k cash on travel
So far so good, just went to Vietnam on all Chase points minus $400 for hotel and about $300 for food, used Amex travel credit for first class seat upgrades too. Airfare to Mexico also booked all on points except for shared portion of AirBnB about $500 and food expenses TBD
10. Investigate establishing LLCs for rentals and retitling for tax benefits
Verdict: not worth it at this point but may acquire future properties in LLC going forward
11. Investigate converting some or all of my wage income to 1099 income for tax benefits
Probably not possible due to group insurance underwriting
12. Try to increase professional side hustles e.g. consulting, maybe expert witness?
CVs out and joined expert panel
13. Consider adding a rental property, cash situation and opportunity providing
The house next door is for sale as a flip and I am interested in buying it but I think it's too expensive and I'm currently in a bad cash position. Watch and wait.
13a. Consider consolidating IRAs/403b/Solo 401k to purchase rental property in self directed plan
See above
14. Make appointment with my lawyer to do actual estate planning
Called him but didn't set a date for a real sit down
15. Consider trading toy car for less expensive toy car if I can walk away with cash.
Nah, I like it too much and what's the point of owning over the winter and selling right when spring starts?

Non-financial Goals:
16. Work out six days a week consistently
Doing good, hit 6 days most weeks, missed a couple due to travel but probably made up for it with tons of walking etc
16a. Build a cheap gym in my basement to facilitate this goal.
Haven't done any serious work on this except for googling treadmills and asking friends for recommendations
17. Run two races after a fat sad zero in 2017
Signed up for a 10 mile race in April!
18. Make friends in the new neighborhood
Planning to host a housewarming party and have the next door neighbors over for dinner but no solid dates yet
19. Do some improvements to the house and yard, possibly revamp the deck, do some gardening and landscaping
Taking bids on a driveway improvement to make 15. easier to use
20. Try to cook more regularly
Got a meal kit delivery and we have been cooking 3x a week, so far pretty happy with it
21. Lose 10 lbs as a result of 16 and 20
No progress largely thanks to travel and too much food
22. Fun splurge for anniversary or birthday at a Michelin star restaurant, location TBD
Making reservations for a cool authentic Kaiseki restaurant for wife's birthday, it is this comical elaborate process where you have to speak to the owner and and they only serve 2-4 guests per night

moana posted:

Interesting, thanks for the advice. I hadn't considered it, but it might be worth it to invest some money to gift to our friends' children if that's allowed under any plans.

And yeah, I agree, all of this poo poo is horribly regressive and only benefits rich people, but I'll take advantage whenever I can regardless.

BAE OF PIGS posted:

drat, I had been waiting for someone to make this thread, and I just noticed that this had been up at the top stickied.

2017 was a good year for me. Net worth more than doubled from $16k to $37k, got an 11% raise, and paid off several of my student loans. Time to start getting high scores.


Current figures: 31 years old, make 50k/yr. No debt other than one student loan.
2018 goals in order:

Pay off remaining student loan, preferably by my birthday on April 23rd, currently at $2491.Done! Larger than expected federal return helped me knock it out.
Max Roth IRA contributions No progress, currently working on getting 2017 roth funded as much as possible before April 15th
Get emergency fund up to $10k (currently at $8k) Up to $8200
Up 401k contributions to 5% (currently set to 3% to max employer match) no progress
Start house down payment fund no progress
Continue to never carry a balance on CCs. Still no revolving debt

Non-financial goals: Take a nice vacation somewhere, preferably tropical nothing planned
Get weight back down to 143, currently at 155.Currently at 153

quote:

2018 Goals-

Financial-

-Increase direct deposit to $100 per check Haven't done this yet. I still need to see how this new tax plan will work out on my paycheck. So far, it looks like I might actually be able to increase this to $150 per check. I'll see how this goes before deciding.
-Keep paying $100 extra against the mortgage every month Rather than pay $100 extra every month, I decided to bite the bullet and do probably one of the least fun (but arguably one of the most beneficial) things with $1200 ever- threw it at my mortgage principal. Yeah, that was a huge hit to my savings, but it saves me more on interest than if I had divided this up into $100 extra payments every month. So I guess I can call this one mission accomplished! Plus, any extra I might pay per month is just more gravy on top of it all!
-Have $10k in total savings by Dec 31, 2018 Since I spent so much on the mortgage last month as I stated earlier, I'm actually farther from this goal than I was at the beginning of the year. But, I consider it a good trade off. Besides, I still have plenty of time to bring this back on track.

Housing Improvements-

-Paint and lay new carpeting in spare bedroom. Add new shelving in closet Not much progress on this one. I cleaned out the room, but my wrist has been giving me problems and I need to let it heal before I do any painting.
-Replace front windows and add new blinds Doing this in the spring. No way am I having new windows installed in the middle of winter in Michigan.
-Paint upstairs bathroom Zero progress.

Miscellaneous-

-Spend Jan, Feb and Mar putting on muscle, then spend Apr and May cutting body fat. Be swole as gently caress for summer. I'm getting stronger and doing well so far, but again I'm letting my wrist heal for the next few days so this one is temporarily on hold.
-Keep learning swing dancing. Want to be able to dance as well as some of the people I see at events. Haven't been making much progress on this. I've usually been busy on Friday nights, the nights these lessons are held. Didn't go tonight because of a major snowstorm. Gotta get back to this...
-Read at least 1 book a month Doing well so far, finished one last week. Hit up a used book sale at the local library and scored a poo poo ton of books for under $10. Should keep me occupied for a while
-Spend at least 10 minutes a day learning Spanish I've been slacking on my lessons lately. I need to get back to doing my daily lessons. I want to able to attend a local Spanish speaking meetup group's meetup events and not make a total idiot of myself.
-Get a girlfriend I still lead a lonely life... I'm going to revive my efforts at online dating, but it's changed so much since I last tried it about 3 years ago. OKCupid seems to have really taken a turn for the worse with its' new system.

Subjunctive posted:

First time doing these, but I could definitely stand to be more structured about how I approach my finances.

Age: big four-oh

Goals:

- increase monthly charity to 10% of net (currently about 5%); would like to get to 20% but baby steps and have to solve a cash flow issue
- purchase condo for my sister to rent
- get will and trust for my kid set up
- fix years of messed up tax stuff
- renovate bathroom
- structure consulting business properly

Liabilities:
- $100K investment loan for work, will increase to up to $350K over next 5 years
- commitment to donate $500K over 10 years to a college (not legally binding at this point but still)

Assets:
- House appraised at $1.7M
- Car blue book of $130K
- combined taxable and sheltered investments of $2.2M

Income:
- salary $350K, $175K paid in spousal and child support
- unpredictable consulting income, unlikely to exceed $100K in 2018
- carried interest from our funds, don’t know how to estimate how much and when

(All in CAD.)

Subjunctive posted:

Ended up on unpaid medical leave, so my charity %age hasn’t increased. Taxes more sorted, but not completely. First tranche of the college donation made. Desirable condo hasn’t surfaced; I’m picky but patient.

Rocks posted:

2018 goals:
- bathroom renos
- kitchen reno
- have a baby
- keep, scan and track business and personal receipts like a motherfucker
- max out IRAs and 401ks
- get a promotion
- increase net worth to 500k
- do a better job of staying in touch with people
- run a half marathon and triathlon
- continue reading
- score a sweet flight on points
- pay off some of the remaining medium interest loans I have
- write a blog once a week

Spokes posted:

Spokes posted:

So it's been.. almost a week. And this is really difficult. I'm largely on track but I realized that I must have been eating fast food literally 15 times a week before this. I'm concerned that my goal might be too difficult but I know any mature human would be able to do it with no problem so I'm going to keep it in place and if I don't hit my milestones on 1 March I'll do an autopsy on my lovely spending habits and figure out the easiest places to stop going over budget and if THAT doesn't work I'll create my own thread so everyone can heap judgment upon me

paternity suitor posted:

2018:
Max out 401k - on track
Cash savings back to $15k (Currently $10k) - about $11k
Payoff second mortgage (~$37k) when taxable account hits about $240k. Taxable account right now = $220k - about $230k
Finish roofdeck (~$3k) - not yet, but I plan on getting this started in March
Income goal: $130k - I'm off track on this, I haven't worked enough OT, but I have an idea to get me over the goal line for the year
New secondary income idea (old idea from ~3 years ago is being ended) - nothing long term yet, but I have a short term idea

howdoesishotweb posted:

Bi-monthly update

Goals:
- Pay off an extra $4000 per month towards the student loan, with goal payoff in 3 years. Stretch goal: Extra $5000 to payoff in 2.5 years on track for 3 year payoff
- Increase 529 to 400/mo/child done
- Fight lifestyle creep tooth and nail. In particular limit house furnishing budget on track
- Increase charity to 5% net pay behind, will probably make up for this later in the year due to pay structure
- Keep my '06 Acura until my student loan is paid off. I was rightly mocked on this forum for buying this right out of school, however it has lasted 8 years with minimal repairs beyond brakes and tires. Overall a+ purchase would buy used Acura again struggling not to buy some black German sports car, but glancing at the jpeg below helps
- Carry less cash in accounts converting to taxable

howdoesishotweb posted:

Normally I wouldn't update for awhile since my goals are not exciting, but.. for the first time since becoming an adult, I'm worthless!



Could pay more toward student loans, but instead directing any excess into a taxable account.

howdoesishotweb posted:

Normally I wouldn't update for awhile since my goals are not exciting, but.. for the first time since becoming an adult, I'm worthless!



Could pay more toward student loans, but instead directing any excess into a taxable account.

Grumpwagon posted:

2018 Goals
1) NO NEW DEBT - On track. Planned a vacation to Vermont that should fit easily in budget.
2) If company situation continues to deteriorate, switch career from Software QA to Software Dev - Planning on sticking around for at least a few more months, as I'm due a promotion at the next review cycle. In the mean time, I've accelerated my learning schedule from Q2 to the present. I found a really cool Udemy class (Colt Steele's web development bootcamp) and blew through the first half, that was mostly review, in a week. Working on the new stuff now and feeling good about it.
3) Bring emergency fund up to $19k - On track, at $13.7k now.
4) Max out Roth IRAs - Auto-debits set up. On track.
5) Max both our 401(k)s - Currently set up to max both. We'll see if we'll be able to maintain this through the whole year, but so far so good.
6) Increase NW to $215k/~50% savings rate - Still a few more things coming in here, but NW is around $158k, so on track. Savings rate is on track, but only because of a bonus and some reimbursements making income higher than usual. January wasn't great, February was much better, but not perfect.
7) Lose 10 pounds and keep it off - Becoming a theme, January was bad (even gained a few pounds), but February reversed that and more. I'm down about 3 pounds so far for the year. Very consistently running, 3 times a week, since Mid-January and closing in on 15 miles a week. Unfortunately, I also hurt myself on Monday. I already feel a lot better, but it's going to keep me off my feet for a week or two.

Misc goals
Stay current on YNAB, stay current on birth control (i.e. no kids please), keep learning in and out of my career (emphasis on house maintenance this year). No real progress here, except the in career learning mentioned in #2 above, but as far as I know, no issues either. On track?

metallicaeg posted:

December '17: $31,981 in credit card debt, spread across 11 accounts.
Early January, sitting at $31,317.
End of January: thanks to selling off some things I don't get use from anymore and putting those funds toward my debts, I'm at $30,607.
As a result, I'm now looking at two accounts gone by March, a $2000 balance gone in June, and another $1000 balance that I'll have done in July where less than a month ago I was budgeting for some of those accounts stretching into late summer.
I started a high yield (1.4% as high, oll) savings account and have $100 in there, with the idea of it eventually being a 3-6 month "oh gently caress my company is now bankrupt" fund.
With continued discipline by end of year I should be under $25k in credit cards.

gently caress this debt blows. My company is also swirling around with bankruptcy rumors and I don't think the transmission in my car has another year in it left.

Animal posted:

Here are my goals:

HEALTH
- Make my teeth good

quote:

DEBT
- Finish 2018 100% debt free: ...or at least pay off all of my current debt and not acquire any new debt unless its NECESSARY and at a decent interest rate. I already paid all of my student loans on 2017, so this is perfectly doable.
- $4,700 car loan at 1.5% APR: hopefully when we move we won't find we need to trade for another vehicle. This is a 2013 vehicle. KBB value is currently around $7,200.
- $5,000 credit card at 0% APR until September 2018: I don't gently caress around with this. I will be plunking down at least $1,000 a month so that its paid off in the first half of the year.
- $3,000+ at 0% APR on a CareCredit medical credit card: This will be paid by the HSA which I will be fully funding. Part of this goal is to keep good documentation of my HSA withdrawals and then payments to the credit card, so as to not anger the Tax Man.

quote:

INVESTMENTS AND SAVINGS
- Emergency Fund increase from $5,000 to $8,000: the question is whether I should prioritize paying low APR debt over this? STRETCH GOAL: $10,000.

- Roth IRA: $2,400: fully funding my HSA and FSA will be a bit of a burden so I am being realistic and bringing this down from max. Stretch Goal: FULLY FUND
- 401k: increase 1% yearly: currently at 10% for the match. Increasing to 11% should not be a big deal. STRETCH GOAL: increase to 12%
- Max out HSA and FSA: To pay for my dental procedures. These have already been selected during my benefits open enrollment. No turning back now. These will be quite a big burden but at least its all pre-tax.
- Open taxable investment account at Vanguard: Even if its just $1,000. I wanna start saving for a future home investment or something.
- Save for moving out of NYC: Honestly this doesn't need much. Just moving out in itself will pay for it, as the last month of my apartment lease is already paid, and I should get my full months deposit back, that will be close to $4k.

quote:

QUALITY OF LIFE
- Help my girlfriend find a new job that she loves
- Help my girlfriend with her finances
- Go on 2 short Vacations
- Lose 10lbs and exercise semi-regularly

BAE OF PIGS posted:

drat, I had been waiting for someone to make this thread, and I just noticed that this had been up at the top stickied.

2017 was a good year for me. Net worth more than doubled from $16k to $37k, got an 11% raise, and paid off several of my student loans. Time to start getting high scores.


Current figures: 31 years old, make 50k/yr. No debt other than one student loan.
2018 goals in order:

Pay off remaining student loan, preferably by my birthday on April 23rd, currently at $2491. Done
Max Roth IRA contributions Still working on 2017 contributions, so no progress until April
Get emergency fund up to $10k (currently at $8k)Currently at 8.6k
Up 401k contributions to 5% (currently set to 3% to max employer match)Done, should take effect next pay check
Start house down payment fundNo progress. GF has a promising lead on a job that will basically double her pay if she gets it. I've got my fingers crossed, but if she does, we can start this up pretty quick
Continue to never carry a balance on CCs. Still good here

Non-financial goals: Take a nice vacation somewhere, preferably tropical Got one planned for next month for.... Minneapolis. I have some friends who live there, and I spent my freshman year there. It's a good city, and it's close. Just to get out of town and see something different.
Get weight back down to 143, currently at 155.153, no progress since last post