Everybody has a general idea of what they’d like to do in the future: retire, buy a house, travel…Here’s a list of financial goals I’ve come up with for myself:
- Get out of debt. This is the first step to accomplishing any dream, and I want to do it ASAP. Not only do I want to get out of credit card debt in the next 8 months or so, but I’m also hoping to eliminate all my student loan debt within three to five years.
- Build up a freedom fund. This will be separate from my emergency fund, and will be a fund that will specifically be for me to leave my job and follow my dreams: going back to school, starting a business, or something else. I’d really feel most comfortable with three years’ expenses in my freedom fund, but I’ll settle for a year of expenses if the circumstances and timing are right to make the plunge.
- Build up and maintain an emergency fund. This will be about six months’ worth of expenses since I’m single and live in an expensive area.
- Max out my retirement savings for every year after I’m out of credit card debt. Originally, this goal stated that I would max out retirement savings, full stop; however, since I’ve gotten into debt, I’ll pay that off first. In the meantime, I’m still contributing 15% to my 401(k) and I’ll still try to contribute to my Roth IRA for 2007. My goal has always been to retire comfortably, and this is the first step.
[...] Goals [...]