2008 Financial Goals

My financial goals for the year are still a little up in the air because some things in my life may be changing between now and then but for now, I'll mention some goals I would like to achieve by the end of 2008 and I can modify them along the way as the future becomes a little clearer.

Roth IRA
I don't know if I can fully fund this by the end of 2008, though I may be able to fully fund it for 2008 by 4/15/09. Regardless, my goal is to earmark at least $3,000 for my Roth in order to be able to buy into a Vanguard fund (most likely in this Target Fund). I'm planning on starting this ING sub-account with some of my tax refund and have bumped down my Roth 401(k) contributions from 10% to 6% (employee match magic number) and will put the difference in there too. This Roth 401(k) adjustment has to do with reaching the $3,000 buy-in for Vanguard by the end of the 2008 and not with market fear.

Roth 401(k)
If the market cooperates (not likely), I think I can get this to $5,000 by the end of the year, even with the adjustment of my contribution to 6% of my salary. It is at around $3,240 right now.

Student Loans
I am currently putting at least $1,000/month on the remaining $6,200 of my loans. They are at 4.5% and 5% and I know there are plenty of arguments against paying them off early but the way I see it is that I know I would not have been diligent about putting $1,000/month in the bank or into the stock market over the past six months. Paying these loans off gave me a concrete goal to focus on and actually sparked my interest in personal finance. So, there are worse things, no? These should be gone by the beginning of September 2008 so long as I can keep up my diligence through the coming summer months :)

Emergency Fund
It's actually at $3,600 right now ($3,300 in an E*Trade account at 3.45% and $300 as a cushion in my Citibank checking account which pays no interest). It was at $4,700 until I had to put down a hefty security deposit on my new apartment. I'm fairly comfortable with this number because I plan to get it back up to $4,500ish in the next month or so and a) I do have people to fall back on in case of job loss and b) I think this will cover expenses (not income) for at least 3 months. I have been putting $100/month in the E*Trade account but may start to funnel that money over to the Roth IRA sub-account (see above) instead. My reasoning for this is that, until I have the $3,000 for the Vanguard fund, I will have access to the Roth IRA money as cash so it can serve as a buffer to my Emergency Fund. And by the time I use that cash to fund the Roth IRA, my student loans will be paid off so I will have quite a bit more discretionary income with which to pad the E-Fund, max out my Roth 401(k), travel the world, etc. This should be the case even if I end up switching to a lower paying job (more on this later...).

Holiday/Gift Fund
I am currently putting $50/month in this ING sub-account in order to make birthday/holiday expenses a tad bit easier to absorb. So far, so good - I have about $100 in this account. It's not a huge amount but when I don't touch it, it grows consistently with every paycheck...hmmm, funny how that works... My goal is just to keep this up. It will obviously fluctuate and I don't feel the need to get it to or keep it at a certain amount (other than one above $0!)

Moving/Computer Fund
As I said, a move is in the future. Moving costs money :( I also have a computer that has come back from the dead numerous times. My guess is that it will need to be replaced within the next year but I'm happy to keep it for as long as it continues to do what I need it to so we'll see... Anyway, $44/month is going into this ING sub-account right now and should help with these expenses when they come up. This will function similarly to the Holiday/Gift Fund - the amount will fluctuate and I'm more concerned with it keeping me from having to dip into E-Fund savings than anything else.