Go for the Goals 2009 Edition

Well, I've finally decided on my 2009 financial goals. I may post another time about non-financial goals.

1. Pay down a minimum of $6,000 of debt in 2009.
That's about 1/3 of our total consumer type debt, which would mean that we'd be debt free in 3 years. I'd rather get rid of it faster but I'm being realistic given the economy, etc. This specifically does not include any kind of debt we may take on that's related to buying our land or anything to do with the structure of the house.

2. Have at least $1,000 in an emergency fund by the end of 2009.
I have a regular $12 per week transfer into my ING emergency fund. Fifty two weeks times $12 is $624 and I currently have some money in there. I just can't seem to get onto the site at the moment to check on the actual amount, but I'll try to remember to edit this later. (It's actually $98.40.) Anyway, I'll have to come up with some "extra" money to add to what I'm going to have if I want to hit $1,000 but I think it's doable. (Of course, I'm hoping we won't have a series of emergencies like we've had in the past.) And once we have $1,000 in there I'm not going to stop the weekly transfer. The plan is that it will just keep growing slowly.

3. Establish an account for "Set Asides" (otherwise known as a Freedom or Escrow Account).
I used to do this a number of years ago and I wish I'd never gotten away from it. Once I have the account in place I can just transfer the appropriate amount of money into it every payday. What goes into a Set Aside Account? Money for gifts, holidays, property tax, annual garbage fees, you name it. I used to set aside money for my car insurance and then purchase it for the year but my hubby just pays monthly (which is really a form of financing).

4. Get current and stay current with all the monthly bills.
I'm getting closer to being current on things (and some bills are never late) but there's still room for improvement right now.

So, there we are. Not too many goals. Not too unreachable. But I feel these are goals that will improve our day-to-day life and give us more security.