I have had a great birthday and the Saints won!

I am updating my progress on my 2010 goals, which remain unchanged or 2011.

I completed goal #1 in January 2010.

I will complete goal #2 with my last two paychecks this month.

I am working on goal #3, but it's hard to pin down my monthly expenses. I am tracking on Mint.com, but my expenses seem to vary widely from month to month depending on what's going on. So I'm just averaging those expenses. I think $20,000 would be reasonable start to rebuild my emergency fund to, and I'm not far from that.

Goal #4 has not been completed at any time this year. Maybe next year.

I am working on goal #5 and with my employer's help, the graduate school loans will be paid off quicker.

My combined retirement accounts have totaled over six figures for some time now, but for the first time I had a single account that reached six figures. I've been waiting on that to happen, with the way the stock market has been rising in recent weeks. I'm pretty excited to be able to pull up an account and see six figures. I even printed it out so I could remember the day I first saw that. I'm pretty sure that the stock market will be rising and falling for some time, but it was exciting to see this morning.

My air conditioning went out last weekend. I called a company to come on Monday afternoon, took a few hours off from work to meet them, they charged me a ridiculous price ($301) to change a wire and tried to convince me to buy one of their overpriced A/C's or pay over $1,000 in repairs that may or may not work. My dad talked to a cousin and he came out Saturday. He changed some little thingy dingy and it cost me $65. I'll never use that company again.

I'm always looking ahead as well!

My 2009 goals remain the same as my 2008 goals. Contribute 20% to TSP, build savings to 6 months' of income (I think I currently have about 4 months' income), pay off credit cards, and pay down my car and graduate school loans. I need to do better on paying off the credit cards, otherwise I'm doing pretty well on accomplishing my goals for 2008 and beyond.

I'm on vacation for the new few weeks. My last day at my job was Monday. I worked the holiday weekend. Four 12-hour shifts, 7p-7a. Now I'm on leave for several weeks, trying to use up my annual leave. I start my new job April 14th.

I'm not going anywhere special. I want to save money and do things here at home. I have several things on my to do list. I had my alarm system installed Monday. I feel much more secure after the break-ins in the community.

I've been working out more. My blood sugar is running a little high and with my extensive family history of diabetes I need to lose weight and exercise. I feel better already.

The next few months will be very frutiful for me financially. I have a surplus on my graduate school account and it will disbursed to me next month. The economic stimulus will be in the mail in May.

Leaving my old job I will get paid approximately 500 in annual and compensatory leave. I wiil have that amount contributed to my 403(b). I also have my 457(b) to contribute. It's nice having both plans and being able to contribute $31,000 a year. With the federal government I'll be getting a 5% match on my contributions as well. I'm feeling very blessed.

So how are you coming along on your new goals for 2008? I'm doing well so far. I updated my Roth contributions and the first increased contribution went out on the 15th. My 457 contributions have remained steady until I hopefully get a new job, and a raise. I opened a CD on the 5th as part of my emergency fund. I haven't received any tax forms yet. I'm waiting on receiving my tax refund to pay off my credit cards. So far, so good.

I decided to write down my goals for 2008.

EMERGENCY FUND:

Contribute $245 to my three accounts. My goal is $15,000 in 3 years, my current balance is just over$5,000.

DEBT:

I have about $2,000 on a credit card. I will contribute $500 plus the amount of my monthly purchases every payment.

My original Sallie Mae loan is now at $300. With automatic payments my loan will be paid off in about 4 months. My grad school loans will begin repayment 6 months after my December 2008 graduation.

My car payment will be $326. After finishing with the credit card balance I will contribute the extra to the car payment.

RETIREMENT:

Continue contributing $400 biweekly to my 457. That is an annual contribution of $10,400.

Continue to fund my Roth IRA to the maximum. That will be $5,000 in 2008.

HOUSE:

My payments are $313 biweekly. I occasionally get a few pennies interest from a savings account and will transfer to principal. Otherwise, my payments will continue as is for this category. I'm more focused on the other debt.

CAREER AND SCHOOL:

In somewhat related plans, I want to focus on school and looking for a new job. I'm off this week since I worked the holiday (12 hour shifts for 4 days) and I'm writing papers and taking civil service tests.

The lady asked why I wanted to take the test again since I scored so well. I told her that I wanted an 80 on the test. I scored a 74. She said that few people score so well and I must be a perfectionist. I'm not. What I am is really motivated to move on to a better position.

I took another test since it hadn't been 28 days since I took the one that I wanted to retest on. Next time I'll take a different one again. I'll keep taking them until I'm where I want to be.

What are your goals???

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University on CD is on clearance and I bought it. I've been listening to it in my new car. I enjoy listening to him, I don't pretent to believe or follow everything he advocate, but he inspires me to do better.

I'm determined to pay off my student loan and credit card in 3 months. I will then attack my car loan and grad school loans. Repayment isn't for 18 more months on the grad school loans so I will concentrate on the car loan which is at a low 4.94%. The grad school loan are at 6.8% and the student loans in repayment are at 7.25% with a $300 balance. The original balance was over $7,000.

My car loan came in at about $17,300. The grad school loans will be $20,500, but I'm getting several thousand back once the tuition is paid. I guess I will put it on the car loan before the grad school loan.

I just bought Alicia Keys new CD at Best Buy online. Just $9.99 and free shipping!

I sold my car Tuesday for $2,000. I'm happy to have it sold. I probably could have gotten more if I had been patient, but I wanted it done with and I was trying to do something good. It was somewhat of a stressful transaction for me and next time I'll know what to do differently.

I'm using the money to pay off my credit card and student loans for good. That will be such a good feeling. I was thinking about using it to pad my emergency fund, but Dave Ramsey has inspired me to get Sallie Mae out of my life!

Turned on the heater last night. 68 degrees is a little hot. I'll have to try lower the next time I need it. I may ask for an electric blanket for my birthday or Christmas.

I've read several personal finance books. I like David Bach's recommendation to save at least 12% of income and paying yourself first. He breaks down how much you need to save to retire at a certain level of prosperity. I plan to save no less than 20% of my income to retire wealthy.

My increase to my 457(b) went through but my decrease to my 403(b) did not, so I saw a little less in my paycheck this week than usual. That's okay. This allows my contributions to reach a certain goal level.

With the year 2/3 over I'm trying to get an idea of my tax situation for the year. A lot of it depends of whether my second installment of tuition of $4,500 can be paid this year instead of next. If it comes this year I'll meet the $10,000 Lifetime Education credit, if it goes through next year I'll exceed the limits and thus miss out on some of the tax benefits. I'll have to speak to our Financial Aid Coordinator to see what the situation is.

What I understood is that the payments would post as my financial aid comes in, but it looks like they're putting us on the same 4-payment schedule as those that will pay as they go. The next payment would be due January 5th if so. I'm going to ask her to post that payment in December instead. I've already taken out the loans so I'm already paying interest. Might as well have it paid on my tuition when it could help me financially, rather than next year.