Financial Goals 2008: Where Did the Year Go?

I can't believe how quickly 2008 slipped by me! Less than two months left! I am way overdue for an update on our financial goals.

1. ROTH IRA's. My goal for 2008 was to contribute $4,000 into both my husband's and my Roth IRA. We are currently at $7,050 contributed. We've been putting most of our "extra" money toward this goal, so it's growing quickly. My husband and I have also decided that we're going to put emphasis on this goal and try to get to $5,000 in each Roth by the deadline on April 15th.

2. New Car Fund. I don't even want to look at the balance in this account! It's invested in the stock market, so I'm sure you can guess what that means. Yuck! We have been continuing to put money in this fund, so at least we are now buying low (I hope!). We've hit our goal of adding $3,900 to this account. We have actually added $4,025 so far this year. I doubt we'll meet our stretch goal of $4,500, though, since we're really concentrating on the Roth's right now.

3. Emergency Fund. Our goal for this fund was to increase it by $2,600 this year. This goal has been met and then some! We have currently added $2,900 to our emergency fund this year! So far, $500 of this has been moved to a cd. I'm going to continue to do this in $500 increments about every other month (called a cd ladder) since we should never need all of this money all at once. At least some of it can earn a little bit more interest!

4. New Siding Fund. This is another completed goal... sort of. My husband and I ended up hiring to have the house painted instead of getting new siding. It turned out fairly well, but I'm guessing we'll go with vinyl siding next time. At any rate, the paint job should last 5-10 years and we can make a decision at that time. Hubby recently informed me that new shingles will be next on the list!

I'm pretty happy with the progress we've made this year. We will have met all of our 2008 goals and some of the stretch goals! I'm thinking of making some income-related changes next year (more on that later!), so I'm glad we've been able to accomplish a lot this year. Pretty soon I'll start working on some 2009 goals!

Favorite Blog Posts: 11/21/2008

I haven't done a "favorite blog posts" article in awhile, but I came across some stories recently that I really liked.

Glblguy over at Gather Little By Little shared a thought-provoking tax story he received in an email. Interesting way to look at things!

I recently started reading a cute, fun blog written by Big Mama. She just came back from a trip to the Dominican Republic with Compassion International and had one last story to share. This one is a real tear-jerker!

Lastly, Rocket Finance is starting a new series on Finances and Freedom. He leans right, so you may or may not want to keep up with this one ;) I'm really enjoying it so far.

Have a great weekend!

Recipe Websites and 100th Post!

I'm a picky eater and usually just buy the same couple of things to eat for dinner all the time (namely, potatoes!). My husband, on the other hand, likes everything (except beets and sauerkraut). I have been spending some time over this past year and four months of marriage locating recipes that are easy to make and that my husband will love. I've found quite a few winners. The problem is that a lot of recipes call for just a little bit of a fresh produce or dairy item that I buy and then most of it goes to waste.

I'm going to try to get better at locating different recipes that use some of the same vegetables. For example, last week I made a chicken rice casserole dish for my husband that called for fresh celery and onions. Of course, I had to buy a whole bunch of celery even though I only needed 1/4 cup of it!

Determined to not let all of that celery go to waste, on Sunday night I went internet searching for an easy recipe that had celery as an ingredient. I ended up at All Recipes, which seems to be one of the largest databases of free recipes out there (this is not a paid advertisement, by the way!). I was able to do a search by ingredient. I found another casserole dish that looked easy, but it also had chicken in it, so I thought it might be too much like the original dish I had made.

Searching around some more, I came across this Golden Potato Soup recipe. It looked pretty easy, and I definitely already had the potatoes on hand ;) It even calls for onion, so I was able to use more of that up!

I made it tonight, and it was a definite hit. From now on, whenever I make the chicken rice casserole, my husband will know that potato soup will be for dinner a few nights later :)

I really love the idea of grouping recipes together to keep food (and money!) from going to waste. The next time I make a dish that calls for a produce or dairy item that we won't use up, I'm going to go looking for a matching recipe to make later the same week.

Does anyone else do this? Do you have some favorite recipes that you like to "lump" together? I'd love to hear about them (with links if they're online!!!).


ps- Wow! This is my 100th post on Family and Finances. Craziness :)

Best Financial Advice I've Received

Peter at Bible Money Matters posted on Friday about the best financial advice he's received. Peter says:

So the advice I got from my parents by observing them growing up:

1. Be content in life by focusing on important things like faith and family.
2. Live frugally, spend less than you earn and pay cash.

I thought I'd share the best financial advice that I've received!

When I was in high school, I took an accounting class. In it, the teacher taught a little about IRA's and other retirement accounts. I don't remember any of the details, but I do remember coming away from that class knowing that you should start investing when you're young and compound interest will work in your favor.

Because of this lesson, when I turned 18, I decided to put a little bit of money in an IRA. I didn't know anything about investing, so I just went to my credit union. Here's some advice for you: credit unions are not the best place to go for investing advice!

The woman I spoke with didn't tell me the difference between a Roth and a Traditional IRA, she didn't mention anything about mutual funds, she seemed to have no opinion at all. She just took my money and put it in a cd in a Traditional IRA. Looking back, this was about the dumbest thing she could have done. I was 18! I belonged in a good growth mutual fund in a Roth IRA! *sigh* (ps- that IRA has since been moved out of the credit union. I love banking with credit unions, but I don't keep my investments there!)

A few years later, I was working in an insurance office in the same building as an Edward Jones office. My bosses were friends with the Edward Jones adviser, so he'd come over and chat with me sometimes. He kept telling me that I should start doing a monthly investment, no matter how small, into a Roth IRA. He said that since I was young, time and compounding would work in my favor (hmmm, starting to sound familiar!). I eventually headed his advice and opened up a Roth, putting in just $25 a month, which was all I could afford at the time.

Fast forward another year or so, and I came across the book "Smart Women Finish Rich" by David Bach. In it, there is a really neat graph showing how investing when you're young pays off.

The message has stuck, and it's one I've passed onto my brothers and anyone else who will listen: Start investing when you're young because time and compound interest will work in your favor!

What's the best financial advice you've ever received?

Hope Chest Legacy

Just a quick note:

I just read a post on MoneySavingMom's website today about Hope Chest Legacy. There are a group of women collecting items right now to send to orphans in the Ukraine. Items are due by October 15th to be included in the shipment going to the Urkaine. If anyone who knows me personally would like to send something, I'm planning on mailing a box out early next week. There is a page discussing the clothing needs and a page discussing the medical needs.

Remember the New Balance shoes I won? Well, I don't really care for how they fit, so I'm going to donate them! Fun!!!

A Little Bit Mad At Myself

I rear-ended a lady in an SUV on Monday. I feel pretty stupid because it's a weird intersection and I've almost done that exact same thing once before. *sigh*

Luckily, it was at a very low speed, so there definitely wasn't any damage to her SUV, and there wasn't even any damage to my puny Mustang! We pulled into a nearby parking lot and exchanged names. The lady said she didn't think she got whiplash, but that she'd see how she felt in the morning.

This is where I got worried. You see, I've worked in the auto insurance industry, and I know how people love to go to the doctor or chiropracter right after an auto accident. Any excuse for a free back adjustment, right? It happened all the time. So far, I haven't heard from her. I'm hoping I won't!

My husband and I have really cheap auto insurance right now. We've both been accident- and claim-free for over 5 years, so we get some pretty good discounts. I'd hate to lose that!

Anybody have a funny/interesting/frustrating auto accident story? Share in the comments!

Did You Vote?

Yesterday was the Fall Primary Elections. Did you know that? Did you vote?

I walked down to the neighborhood school where I vote after work yesterday. I entered the gym, and the ladies in charge looked surprised! They said I was the first person there to vote in an hour and a half. They then told me that I was only the 88th person in to vote ALL DAY!

I told the ladies that I didn't think the elections were very well "advertised" and they agreed. In fact, I just went on my local newspaper's website to see if they had any results, and there was absolutely NO information on the home page. How weird is that? Primary elections aren't news?

As I think about this some more, I'm realizing that, of all 46 blogs that I subscribe to, not a single one mentioned voting today. I wish I had thought of it earlier - I would have reminded you!

As I left the gym last night, one of the elderly ladies said to me, "Don't forget to come back in November!" I thought that was funny. If I can remember this election, I'm pretty sure I won't forget the November one :)