July Status of 2008 Financial Goals

I have started to report on a monthly basis the status of our 2008 financial goals. I have noticed confusion on my part about how much progress we are making on our goals (especially on our house savings goal) so reporting status each month would help me keep it straight and see how we are progressing.

Here's our latest status:

1) Primary House Down Payment Goal ($80,000) - Started year at $36,500. There was a modification to this goal as we redirected $13,750 of our house savings to cancel PMI on House #3 so we are counting that equity as part of the available cash for our house downpayment. We also raised some cash this month by selling some stock. Current Status: On track ($75,437/$80,000)

2) Fully Fund wife's 2007 Roth IRA contributions ($2,900 left) - Current Status:Complete ($2,900/$2,900)

3) Fully Fund my 401(k) ($15,500) -Current Status: On-track ($11,146/$15,500)

4) Fully Fund our 2008 Roth IRAs ($10,000) Caught up a bit by making an extra contribution to my wife's Roth this month. Current Status: Slightly behind ($5,300/$10,000)

5) ~~Fully Fund my wife's 401(k) to Max Permitted~~ - Since it doesn't look like my wife will have the opportunity to contribute to a 401k in 2008 we still need to figure a substitue goal should be. We had considered a goal of investing $10k in our taxable brokerage investments, but it turns out we have already invested mre than that amount this year. Current Status: N/A

6) Fully Fund my wife's car fund ($20,000) - At the beginning of the year my wife had about $17,000 saved. No progress to report this month. Current Status: On-track ($19,400/$20,000)

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Comments (4)

Setting goals is an important part of any plan.
I have not just Financial Goals, but personal goals as well. I review each regularly. Sometimes, you have to let go of a goal, but it's easier to let go of a personal goal (learn to play the tuba) than to let go of a financial goal (Make a million). But, maybe i should just buy a tuba....

Posted by QuittingTheDayJob | August 21, 2008 12:44 PM

Hey,
Going through your financial goals and statements. Nice Excel representation of your stocks. IT would be great how much each holding grew or shrunk rather than showing the difference right at the total.
I have started reading Sane Investing in an Insane World by Cramer along with some tech. analysis to see if I can understand this stock market better.
No one can be best at it :)

Posted by Tapan@inquisitiveaboutfinance | August 26, 2008 8:16 PM

Tapan, I think I already do that -- in the investment report their are 3 columns - Original cost Basis (the org total cost of the investment), BOM Value (the value of the holding at the beginning of the month), and EOM Value (the value of the holding at the end of hte month).

Posted by 2million | August 27, 2008 5:15 AM

Thanks. Got it. I could not find original cost basis: What is the difference between BOM cost basis and BOM value? I understand one of it is the value of the stocks at the beginning of the month.
By the way what are your basis to select stocks/ETFs?

Thanks
Tapan

Posted by Tapan@inquisitiveaboutfinance | September 7, 2008 5:41 PM