Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Goal #1
Specific - Contribute to my 401k plan

Done. Autopilot is awesome.

Grade: Pass

Goal #2
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt
Measurable - By 50% or $9,137 (rounded up to $10K)
Achievable - Monthly payments of $762

Last month, I thought I could be down to $10.5K. However, I’m now currently looking at $11.5K, unless I really dig deep.

Grade: Failing terminally

New Goal #3:
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$13K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$825 a month

I put down about $850 on this card last month and another $850 today. Forecasting to December, I think I will come under $5,500, making this very achievable.

Grade: Pass

No. I’m not some kind of gazillionaire on WoW. But I did have lots of PoE on Puzzle Pirates at one time. Enough to buy a ship. But alas, my pirating life has fallen prey to the ravenous beast known as blogging. Yarr, matey, ’tis true. Blogging be a harsh mistress.

My financial fantasy life is a bit more mundane than pirating and stealing money from computer-generated ships. The only booty I’ve got is my own backside.

My 2008 goals are mere stepping stones to the things I really want to do. I try not to be too focused on the big picture so I can work on the small things, chip away at them and in the process, get the bigger things done effortlessly. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the big things, especially when your targets have lots of zeroes behind them.

Another reason why these are fantasies instead of goals is that they don’t meet the S.M.A.R.T. goal metric. Click the link to read more about SMART goals. I don’t want to rehash them here.

1. I would like to have a net worth in the millions.
2. I would like my housing to be cheap or free.
3. I would like my credit cards to be paid off.
4. I would like to remodel my condo.
5. I would like to save 30-40% of my salary.
6. I would like an emergency fund of $15K in cash.
7. I would like pre-tax rates of return in the double digits to make up for taxes and inflation on my retirement accounts.

Doable. All very doable if I stay focused on the small things. For instance, the best way for me to increase my net worth in these sagging times of ours is to pay my credit cards down. All those liabilities eat into my assets, and even though my assets may be falling, they will rise again once more if I hold down my spending and reliance on credit.

If I save 30-40% of my salary and push some of that into my emergency fund, then having $15K stashed away somewhere is not a problem.

If I am wise in my investments and get double digit rates of investment, then I could easily have a net worth in the millions down the road. Asset allocation and portfolio rebalancing is the key thing to look at periodically to make sure I am on track.

But you know, there should be less thinking and more doing.

Plod and trod. Here we go. Q2 2008 closed and there’s not much to tell on the half year update.

Goal #1
Specific - Contribute to my 401k plan

Last month I wrote that I was considering bumping this up. In the meantime however, I am eligible for the Employee Stock Purchasing Plan now. So I’m still contributing to the 401k, and increasing my after-tax savings.

Grade: Pass

Goal #2
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt
Measurable - By 50% or $9,137 (rounded up to $10K)
Achievable - Monthly payments of $762

I cannot see the forest for the trees here. But examining my balances closely, I see I have not done well and realistically, I’ll only be down to about $10.5K by Christmas.

Grade: Fail, perhaps terminally.

New Goal #3:
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$13K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$825 a month

I put down about $1800 on this card last month and another $850 in July. I think I can salvage this new/revised goal for the end of the year. I think I can. I think I can.

Grade: Pass

Goal #1
Specific - Contribute to my 401k plan

Still holding strong on this and I am considering bumping things up a percent or two in the future.

Grade: Pass

Goal #2
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt
Measurable - By 50% or $9,137 (rounded up to $10K)
Achievable - Monthly payments of $762

With all my federal tax refunds, I’ve paid down $2000 on one of my credit cards. I have done some projecting out to December and I don’t think it’s realistic for me to get down to $10K without some other belt tightening.

Grade: Fail, but improving.

New Goal #3:
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$13K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$825 a month

I’m not 100% sure this goal can be met, but in May, I didn’t make the $825 monthly payment I had hoped.

Grade: Fail.

Net worth calculations will be late as my condo is *STILL* under renovation and I can’t get to the PC where I usually keep the numbers. (I have like 2 wks worth of transactions to download on my bank accounts. Reconciling is going to be ugly. But at least I use Quicken.)

It’s a mess because of my bathroom remodel. But I soldier onward. Expect a net worth write up later this week.

Goal #1
Specific - Contribute to my 401k plan

While I am tempted to cut my contributions, I am holding steady. It’s kind of hard though. I really, really would like the extra cash right now to throw at the construction project.

Grade: Pass!

Goal #2
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt
Measurable - By 50% or $9,137 (rounded up to $10K)
Achievable - Monthly payments of $762

In April I cashed out a CD that was expiring and putting it towards this goal. But since I have a construction project going on, it’s making this difficult. What I have done is to shift around the interest rate on some of my debt, but in the process I’ve also taken on $5000 more. I am considering moving that to ‘Other Liabilities’ on my balance sheet/net worth like I did with my medical expenses so I can remain focused on my original goal. Not sure yet.

Grade: Fail. Miserable failure.

Goal #3
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$10K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$450 a month

I did end up making a $800 payment in April. I also made an extra $250 payment to try and snowflake my debt. And then the bathroom disaster struck. I took out a $5K BT on this card, so I am no where near achieving this goal. However, I think it’s fair to say this goal needs a mid-year revision.

New Goal #3:
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$13K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$825 a month

Grade: Fair - Neither a Pass, nor a Fail as the goal has to be altered.

Goal #1
Specific - Contribute to my 401k plan

Slow and steady definitely wins the race here. The regular contributions are doing well and it adds to my overall retirement accounts growing or staying relatively flat even though the bulk of my holdings are down nearly 9% for Q1 2008.

Grade: Pass!

Goal #2
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt
Measurable - By 50% or $9,137 (rounded up to $10K)
Achievable - Monthly payments of $762

I am making payments, but if you click through on my Networth IQ graph, you’ll see that I’m basically back to where I started. I am holding $18K in credit card debt and I have 9 months now to chop that in half. I really thought I would be making a lot more progress on this goal in March since my medical FSA reimbursement came through. However, I had some unexpected car repairs this month for ~$550 which I put on my credit card. In April I am going to cash out a CD that is expiring and putting it towards this goal.

Grade: Fail because at Q1 checkpoint, I should be 25% complete on this goal. Tsk tsk.

Goal #3
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$10K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$450 a month

Last month I gave myself a Pass rating for this goal because I am consistently making payments of $500 a month on this card, and my finance charges on its balance are about $60 a month. I think I still get a pass rating since I successfully made those payments all quarter. However, I am going to make a $800 payment in April to ensure I hit this target by year end.

Grade: Pass

Even though I got a pass on two out of three goals, I still don’t think I’m doing so great at the end of the first quarter of 2008. I think I have figured out why my big payments aren’t making a big dent.

A long time ago, I used my HELOC for a balance transfer on some of my credit card debt. That was July 2007. Since then, I haven’t really increased my payments to my HELOC to pay it down faster. However, I still classify that debt as credit card debt since that’s what it really is. I just wanted a lower interest rate on it.

What does this really mean? It means that I think I’m going to have to bump up my HELOC payments every month or else hold a bare bones amount in cash and throw every spare dime to my credit cards. I’m not really sure. I think I could easily increase my HELOC payment by $200 each month without much pain but I am uneasy holding my cash balances close to zero. I’ll have to think about it some more.

Since I’m not posting a lot of new stuff, at least I can put up the monthly ‘maintenance’ post on my goals and net worth.

Goal #1
Specific - Contribute to my 401k plan

I got squared away with contributions in February. I did have to bump up my contributions, to 10% for the last 11 months of 2008. That’s more than I need to get the full match over the course of the year, but just barely. Because I also have a Roth 401k available, I decided to kick in a little money into that account just to get it started. Frankly, it’s kind of dumb for me to have one until I can get my credit card debt squared away.

Grade: Pass!

Goal #2
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt
Measurable - By 50% or $9,137 (rounded up to $10K)
Achievable - Monthly payments of $762

I had to put my Lasik surgery on a credit card, but I sent in the paper work for my Medical/Health Care Spending Account (HCSA) reimbursement. Hopefully that won’t be too delayed.

I’m still stagnating on this goal however since I don’t seem to be able to stop charging onto my cards. I usually leave them at home, but I’m slowly ballooning in weight and planning wedding travel so that any progress I made was negated by new charges. Even if I leave them at home, inevitably, I need them to make a purchase online later. Reviewing my charges again, I forgot, I gave lots of baby gifts too.

Grade: Fail. I need to do some more thinking about this and how to make it happen. More than anything, I’ve tried moving to carrying a lot more cash and that does seem to help a little.

Goal #3
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$10K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$450 a month

Grade: Pass. I’m paying $500 a month which meets the goal. But honestly, this still feels like a pyrrhic victory.

As for Lent, I am getting accustomed to diet soda, and yet, I’m getting quite fat. I’m not sure where the correlation is, but I think some of it is from my altered dining habits. I tend to eat heavier meals with my new boyfriend. Usually I will skip dinner or just have a light snack, but lately I’ve been eating a lot more food. Not just with my boyfriend, but also at the office. This new job is making me quite fat. I am looking for a used treadmill. Hopefully, I can find one on Freecycle soon so I don’t have to join a gym.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not perfect here when it comes to Lent. I did have a few sugar sodas last month. There are days when the stress gets so bad at work that I need a kick of sugar to get through the day. I’m not really sorry though.

Also, I decided to eat less red meat during Lent this year. I’ve been eating more tofu and chicken. But I did have bison (making a market for an alternative meat!), a few burgers and a grilled steak taco, or three. But given my penchant to make roast beef in the winter, I’m doing a lot better. I’ve gone a whole week without red meat this Lent. (Crap. I just realized that I have a wedding rehearsal dinner/party for a wedding on Good Friday. Merde. I might as well hide in my hotel room that night or else wait till midnight to drink. Oy vey.)

Here’s a few more thoughts on the matter.

#1: HC made a great point about waiting for your first paycheck to arrive. Sometimes, you get caught short for a month when you start work because you’re waiting for direct deposit to kick in, etc. I’m rethinking how I budget stuff due to changed pay cycles. I used to get paid every two weeks, which meant I got the fictitious ‘bonus’ check twice a year because you end up with three paychecks a month in two different months. (My stance is that it’s not a bonus. You worked 80 hours for it. It’s yours.) With my new job, I get paid twice a month. It’s taking me a while to get used to it since it’s a radical departure in how I manage my finances. I used to give myself an allowance on paycheck Fridays, but now that payday is a floating day, I have to pay closer attention to my cash flow, lest I run out of money in my checking account. (I generally keep very little in my day to day checking account.)

#2: Remapping the lunch plan. I work in a place with a plethora of food options. However, I have noticed the pricing on lunch is MUCH MORE expensive than before. Because I had access to in-building cafeterias at my old job, the pricing was rather low. Because they were self-serve buffets, I also could control my spending and my calories by dishing out exactly what I planned to eat with no waste. The new dining options pose a HUGE problem for me since I can no longer exercise stringent portion control. This doesn’t seem like a huge issue, but it is. Before I could eat a complete and balanced meal for $4. Now I usually spend about $7 and it’s too much food or else not very healthy. The guys at the office are conditioned to get $2.50 sandwich specials from the local supermarket, but I hate sandwiches and have a preference for hot food. Long term, this will be an issue. I will eat more and spend more. (And no, I will not be packing my lunch. My evening plans are often so variable that I cannot count on cooking anything to take to work the next day.)

#3: 401k plan. Because much of my company’s HR is self-serve, I’m having a devil of a time signing up for the 401k plan. I’m going to have to spend some time making phone calls to get that figured out. Annoying. This also means that instead of the 6% I initially planned to contribute, I have to bump it up so that I can average out 6% over the course of the year since there will be at least two checks with no contribution at all. Frustrating, but not insurmountable. I only mention it because it does represent a kink in my SMART goals.

#4: Public transportation is not reimbursable. I was hoping for this. Most Federal contractors in DC will provide Metrochecks so you can get Metrocards (farecards) as a tax-sheltered benefit. Apparently, that is variable at my company depending on the contract terms with the client. So at this time, I’m spending the equivalent of gas money in Metrocards at the increased fares that began in January 2008. Because of this, I’m thinking I might keep on driving to work as the parking garage fee is only $100 a month and that’s equivalent to Metro. I’ll have to crunch the numbers, but sadly, reducing my carbon footprint might still be a pipedream. (I don’t plan on taking my motorcycle to work in pantyhose. Are you nuts? My co-worker and I were talking about taking our bikes to work, but seriously, it’s a bad idea for me.)

#5: Medical FSA contribution problem. This year you can contribute $5100 a year. Going back to point #1 and the shift to semi-monthly paychecks from bi-weekly, I will now be contributing a lot more to FSA per paycheck. Instead of $192 a bi-weekly check, it’s more like $250+ semi-monthly. I get paid more overall, but since I only have 20 more paychecks left in 2008, I am going to have less cash per check than I initially budgeted.

#6 Medical FSA reimbursement problem. I already had my big surgery this year before my benefits card arrived. Now I have to send in forms. It’s going to be a while for a check to get sent to me. It’s annoying, but at least I am not suffering for the money right now. I could have delayed surgery further, but the timing was good to get it done early during my job transition while my project ramp up was delayed.

So that is all for right now. Sorry for the randomness of this entry, but I’ve been dwelling on these issues in the back of my mind the last few days without much chance to write them down. It’s half a post for you and half a TO DO List for me.

The Money Blog Network has asked us how are we doing on 2008 goals. I’m putting the juicy stuff up front. Not so great.

Goal #1
Specific - Contribute to my 401k plan

Oy. I am having a rough time of it right now. Because I work for a large firm, much of this process is automated. The 401k Plan Administrator is the same place where I have a rollover account. Because of this, I have to call the company and do it manually. This means I will have to bump up the percentage contribution to make up for the lost contributions for my first 3-4 checks. Not bad, but annoying.

Grade: Fail. Until I call and fix the problem, it’s a failing grade.

Goal #2
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt
Measurable - By 50% or $9,137 (rounded up to $10K)
Achievable - Monthly payments of $762

I had to put my Lasik surgery on a credit card and I’m still trying to figure out where to submit my papers to get reimbursed. While I have been making larger monthly payments, I have also been charging new items on my cards, like two new suits for work

Grade: Fail. Until I can get an FSA reimbursement check and trim my spending, I’ll be stagnating on this goal.

Goal #3
Specific - Reduce my credit card debt on my highest balance card ~$10K
Measurable - By 50%
Achievable - ~$450 a month

Grade: Pass. I’m paying $500 a month which meets the goal. But honestly, this feels like a pyrrhic victory. I’m so badly behind on Goal #2 that it seems silly to mark this as a pass. Also, it seems dumb to mark this a pass after only 30 days. I am set to send in a $500 payment for February though, which is due in a few days.

As for my annual Lenten sacrifice, I am doing my usual soda sacrifice with a twist. I will only be allowed diet sodas. I hate the taste of diet, but to get myself used to its flavor and meet my dieting goals, I am going to use the 40 days of Lent to get used to the taste. I will also give up beer and other bubblies. Unless it’s diet, no go.

I’m still thinking of the rest of my goals. I am a little thrown off by Lent’s arrival so early. I can’t think of what else to do this year.

That’s the headline of a Michelle Singletary article from Sunday helping you set and keep goals.

Honestly, one of the best things you can do is make your goal very visible. Michelle writes about putting up a whiteboard. I’ve heard of writing it in dry-erase marker on your bathroom mirror. I used to keep post-it notes on the mirror so I could see my goals every morning as I brushed my teeth. I had a friend in high school who had a label-maker sticker on her dashboard that asked her if her lights were still on. I drained and jumpstarted so many batteries, I probably should have done that too.

Other suggestions for making your goals highly visible and a daily reminder:

1) Change your cellphone banner with your savings goal number.
2) Hack your software’s splash screen to ask you what your goal is.
3) Put a list on your mirror.
4) Make a daily reminder on your time-management software to review your list (Outlook, UGH.).
5) Write it in masking tape and put it on your shirt upside down, so when you look down at it, it’s right side up for reading.
6) Tell a friend. (Ok, perhaps not a daily reminder)
7) Write it on a card and put it in your wallet next to your driver’s license or regularly used ATM card/grocery card.
Make your screensaver a marquee with your goal.
9) Put a post-it note near your front door knob so you read the goal every day as you leave your house.
10) Take a sharpie and write it on the front of your credit card.

I especially like the last one best because I have found that with gift cards that go unused, it’s best to look up the balance, and then mark it on the front of the card so I can use the darned thing up eventually. I see nothing wrong with writing “HAWAII VACATION” on the front of a credit or debit card to remind me that maybe, just maybe my Hawaii vacation is more important than a cute pair of shoes on sale.