May 2011 Financial Goals Update – Short Term, Mid-term, and Long Term

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Back in January of this year, I laid out my short term, mid-term, and long term goals for the 2011 year. I do this once every year as part of my goal to create what author David Bach calls a Purpose Focused Financial Plan. The goal of this system is to employ money in your life in a way that matches your life values and dreams.

You can read more about my journey to create this system at the following links – Creating a Purposed Focused Financial Plan & My Personal Finance Journey’s Investment Strategy.

As part of making this system work, I wanted to give an update on how I’m doing so far this year with the goals I established. Overall, I feel that I am doing a satisfactory job. I got semi-behind on these updates (had to give a bulk one for the months of January-April, but this past month, I am much more on top of things! 🙂 Let’s keep our fingers crossed to keep this up! 

Short Term (< 1 year) Goals:

• Contribute $5000 (or $420 per month) to my Roth IRA with Vanguard this year (maximum allowed) – Have contributed $3,550 so far this year. This puts me a little ahead of my target of $420 per month, but that’s all right. Only need to contribute $1,450 more to reach my target for the year. At the rate I’ve been going, this should be accomplished in the next 1.5 months. At that point, I will then begin pouring any extra money at the end of each month towards my condo home loan. Nice! 
• Reach net worth target for this year (not displayed here) – Ongoing – getting closer and closer! Requires 20% increase in net worth. May not be possible to obtain, but will attempt.
• Maintain target 6-9 months of expenses in cash reserve fund in Dollar Savings Direct account – Correct for this month, but ongoing.
• Rebalance mutual fund portfolio to meet asset allocation target %’s (75% equity, 25% fixed income overall) – Correct for now, but ongoing.
• Obtain 15% ownership / equity in condominium – Ongoing – currently have 10.7% ownership.
• Put together a will and have it reviewed by a lawyer – Will completed. Not yet reviewed by lawyer.
• Continue to save money for trip to Grand Canyon – Ongoing – need to figure out when to take this.
• Upgrade condominium with investment in stacked washer/dryer combo – $1000 for unit, $1000 for labor/installation – Currently saving $87.50 per month for home maintenance and upgrades – Ongoing, but on track. By September of this year, I will have accumulated 1% of my home value in my home maintenance savings account. After that, I will be able to begin accumulating the $2000 that it will cost to get the washer/dryer in my condo. I’ll probably just keep the auto-transfer of $87.50 from checking to savings to accumulate this money. 
• Invest $500 in Microloans for Latin America in 2011 ($41.67 per month) –Ongoing – Have invested a total of $208 this year so far to working poor fund in Peru. This comes with a pretty nice 3% interest rate.Note: I use Microplace.com to invest this money. It seems to work well and be dependable. I just logged in to my account, and it says that my money has been used to help 30 people down there! Pretty cool stuff if you ask me!
• Donate $1,300 to Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in 2011 (5% of income) –Done. So far, I have raised approximately $5000 to support finding a cure for this disease (with the help of company matches). If you’re interested in making just a $10 donation to my ride, click here.
• Save 3% of take home pay each month (after taxes) for Dream Account.On target – Have an automatic transfer each month from my Bank of America checking account to my ING Direct high yield savings account.
• Save ~30% of blogging income (if any) in a high yield online savings account in preparation for 2010 taxes. I have been very bad at doing this so far. I have a pretty large cash reserve built up, but it is all earmarked as emergency fund money. Thus, I need to get started doing this so I am not surprised come tax time in April of 2011.

Mid-Term (3-5 years out) Goals:

• Continue contributing $5000 to Roth IRA each year
• Reach intermediate net worth target (not displayed here, but is 2X my current net worth)
• Own a rental property by 2016.

Long-Term (>5 years out) Goals:

• Obtain a net worth of $1,000,000
• Own a home free of mortgage payments
• Own a vacation home in the mountains somewhere remote
• Accumulate enough funds not have to work, but will probably anyways because I would get bored. 

How about you all? How have the months of April and May been for achieving your goals? What are your next milestones? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

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