4/06/2010

Financial Priorities

Posted by with 5 comments | in , ,
My recent raise and the prospect of paying off on of my student Loans in April, prompted me to re-evaluate the financial priorties I had established at the beginning of the year.  I spent a couple hours talking about it with my mom - and when I asked well how does this look (pointing to an excel spreadsheet) she would say, well what's important?

hmm...what's important?

well, at the beginning of the year my goals (other then paying off debt) were to reach some saving milestones.  They included:
  • Saving $12,500 (in combination with Jordan) towards a house down payment
  • Saving $2,000 in my RRSPs
  • Saving $1,000 into a Christmas/Gift fund
  • Saving $500 for clothing
I beleive that I now have some different priorities.
  1. Saving $12,500 (with Jordan) towards a house down payment
    • we're actually trending to $11,200 and change.  This goal will continue to go up in increments until we are at 20% off $300,000 or $60,000.
  2. Saving $500 for professional/work clothes
    • I had almost acheived this and am now using the money to go to Palm Springs.  I'm going to start by saving $100/bi-weekly until I'm to $500 and then I will keep it maintained by contributing $25/bi-weekly
  3. Starting a new/used vehicle fund
    • My car will eventually crap out so bad that I need to spend significant $$ on repairs or need to just buy new/used - I have no end goal for this, I just want to start being more prepared for vehicle expenses. 
  4. Continuing to contribute to my Christmas Fund for all the other gift giving oppotunities that come up every year
  5. Continuing to contribute to my Emergency Fund until I have 3 months of essential expenses saved up.
    • I currently have $1,100 saved and I think I need about $2,800
  6. Starting a travel fund
    • This might be flights to visit my Best Friend in Vancouver, or it could be gas to go camping - but either way I need to start putting money away for this.  It's important to the people in my life so it's important to me. 
Starting in May, you'll see the above categories represented in my bi-weekly budgets.

Related Posts:

  • Bi-Weekly BudgetsI'm curious how other people budget.I currently have a monthly budget set up, where I assume two payperiods a month. This would work if my bills and savings plans were also based on two pay periods a month, but every so often… Read More
  • Weekend Spending = Epic Jar FailI am mildly saddend by the epic fail I experienced this weekend.The jars kept me on track for the first week, and I was loving it. Unforutnatly, this weekend - I wound up using my credit card more then I should have.I am not … Read More
  • Bi-weekly Budgets - updateI forgot that my student loans will also be coming out in the next two weeks, so I have updated my fixed items. I also realized, that i don't need to buy $200 worth of groceries all in the first two weeks of this month. So … Read More
  • My Horse! No, this is not my horse; however, she might have one that looks just like this little guy!Thats right, she might be pregnant.As it turns out where she was located in April, a Stud broke through two fences to get to her. Thi… Read More
  • PAYDAYFriday was payday, woohoo!I actually netted about $50 more then I thought I would too - which is pretty fantastic! I have updated all of my side bars, including my networth to reflect all the savings/debt repayments.If you ch… Read More

5 comments:

  1. Canadian Saver6 April 2010 at 06:44

    I strongly believe in re-evaluating goals and priorities whenever new income (or less income) happens. This sounds like a great plan, I wish you luck!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jolie6 April 2010 at 09:24

    A great list of goals and priorities. Saving for the downpayment for a house is so important and will save you thousands when the time is right.

    ReplyDelete
  3. single mom, ditching debt6 April 2010 at 14:31

    I can't wait till I can afford a clothing fund, lol. Soon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous6 April 2010 at 20:19

    that is a lot of goals. maybe cut down on a few to the ones that are most important.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Asian Pear7 April 2010 at 17:09

    I actually firmly believe in a clothing fund! Not something extravagant like $400 jeans but it's nice to have a pot when you need to buy new clothes - especially for work!

    ReplyDelete

Hi! Thank you for stopping by and leaving a message.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Links ♥

Followers