2016 Financial Goals - Peach fuzz (noob) edition

[OmahaSteph]

There's a really awesome thread going for 2016 financial goals, but as a total noob, some of the numbers, terminology, giant leaps, etc. are making my head explode. Thought it might be helpful for some (like me) to start a thread for those of us who are just growing out our peach fuzz.

Originally posted this here: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/mustachian-life-changes-made-in-2015/

In 2016:

*Pay off other credit card
*Start throwing massive payments at auto loan
*Pay back parents for loan (for relocation and crooked divorce attorney)
*Move to more Mustachian apartment when current lease is up
*Take work clothes to a tailor to be tweaked instead of buying new
*Buy a bike and trailer for me and begin doing errands
*Cut gas consumption in half
*Slowly and gently convince SO to forgo hedonistic purchases in favor of paying off his debt
*Publish another novel and pimp others to increase royalties (second income)
*Research investment options for when high-interest debt is paid off and become more financially literate in general


And, GO!

[AmandaS1989]

I've already posted on the other thread but I'll post here too as I am also a noob at this.

1. Build savings account up to $1500

2. Up 401k contribution to 6%

3. Pay off PLUS loan

4. Pay off phone and change to cheaper carrier

5. Pay off the couple hundred I charged for Christmas gifts (one of those gifts being a new box spring and mattress for my folks)

6. Pay off personal loan

7. Maybe work on writing an ebook for publication (If I don't wimp out)

[OmahaSteph]

I've already posted on the other thread but I'll post here too as I am also a noob at this.

1. Build savings account up to $1500

2. Up 401k contribution to 6%

3. Pay off PLUS loan

4. Pay off phone and change to cheaper carrier

5. Pay off the couple hundred I charged for Christmas gifts (one of those gifts being a new box spring and mattress for my folks)

6. Pay off personal loan

7. Maybe work on writing an ebook for publication (If I don't wimp out)

Excellent! It seems like there's a "before" and "after" crowd -- those who are working on paying off debts, and those who have already done so and are now working on growing their 'stache via investments. All part of the journey!

[AmandaS1989]

The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. We've all gotta start somewhere right? And I forgot to add:

8. Put back $500 for wisdom teeth surgery in May

[andy85]

1) Pay off CC
2) 10% 401k minimum
3) Get E.Fund up to 4500-5000
4) Spend no more than $32k for the year
5) NW increase to $50k+ (currently right at $40k)

(6. switch departments and get a raise)

edit: also, thanks for this thread. I always feel silly posting in the ones where every single member is just maxing everything out. I am a few years out from being able to do that (in terms of salary). Guess I'm still a noob. Maybe after a NW of 100k i'll move on to those threads :)

[Sibley]

I'll join in! Except I'm still figuring out what my specific goals are for 2016. I'm paying off the cc this month, so it'll be current going forward.

Beyond that:
1. Max HSA for the year
2. Double loan payments for SL

Other things I'm considering:
3. Reduce costs of groceries, gas, and pet supplies. Any method is acceptable.
4. Pay off the smaller of the 2 SLs
5. Save towards house down payment. $100 per paycheck is going towards that through direct deposit, but not sure how much beyond that I want to do right now.
6. Double car loan payments.

[druth]

* Max 401k
* Max Roth
* Put an extra 8k towards the house (trying to get out of PMI)
* Stretch goal: make the 8k to the house into 15k!

Somewhat aggressive goals, but there they are.

I didn't start with much debt, so I don't have goals around that.  I want to pay off my SL, but that is going to wait until I'm out of PMI, which is not going to be this year.  Started working out of college a little over a year ago and my NW is up to about 20k from -10k, so I mostly just need to keep on keepin' on.  I didn't manage to max my retirement accounts this year though, because I put so much into the house.

[Mongoose]

It is nice to hear from others in the "beginner" stages. It can get a bit overwhelming to read some of the goals of those who are much further along. At this point, I'm not sure we even qualify as having peach fuzz. 😕

Major goal for 2016: Increase income (promotion for DH and/or add part time job) to stop negative cash flow.

Secondary goals:
1. Pay off credit card (last debt except mortgage. I want it gone!)
2. Restart retirement savings.
3. Finish repairs on our "handyman special".
4. Minor car repairs to see if we can keep them running another couple of years at least.

[Frugalman19]

* Max 401k
* Max Roth
* Put an extra 8k towards the house (trying to get out of PMI)
* Stretch goal: make the 8k to the house into 15k!

Somewhat aggressive goals, but there they are.

I didn't start with much debt, so I don't have goals around that.  I want to pay off my SL, but that is going to wait until I'm out of PMI, which is not going to be this year.  Started working out of college a little over a year ago and my NW is up to about 20k from -10k, so I mostly just need to keep on keepin' on.  I didn't manage to max my retirement accounts this year though, because I put so much into the house.

Huge improvement for just one year!

[FeelingRosie]

I love having a noob edition, because I am definitely still at that level.

*Pay off federal student loans  - $5,028
*Pay loan from brother to pay for school - $6,500
*Pay off my parent's Parent Plus Loan from college - about $24,000
*Pay off hospital bills from stillbirth - not sure how much yet

Thankfully I don't keep a balance on my credit card and my car is completely paid for.

[merlin7676]

Love this. I already wrote mine out about a week and a half ago.

1) pay off last CC
2) create a $1500 emergency fund
3) max IRA
4) increase car payment amount
5) increase 401K contributions from 6% to 7 or 8% (no company match but do get quarterly deposits from them)

[OmahaSteph]

1) pay off last CC
2) create a $1500 emergency fund
3) max IRA
4) increase car payment amount
5) increase 401K contributions from 6% to 7 or 8% (no company match but do get quarterly deposits from them)

Ohhhh, yes. Need to start an emergency, fund as well. *adds to list*

[MicroSpice]

Thanks for starting this thread - even though I have been reading MMM for a couple of years now, life and my lack of badassity have kept me on the financial sidelines. But now, things are about a million times better than they were just even a few months ago, so we are ready to do this for real. Here are the goals:

1. Continue on our snowball payment plan, which will see us out of our $307k debt in 10 years (or less, if we kick it into high gear!)
2. Sign up for life insurance through work during open enrollment (both me and DH)
3. Sign up for 457(b) plans during open enrollment (both me and DH - won't be able to max out with the debt repayment, but we want to get them started)
4. Get serious about our food spending - make meal plans, grocery shop consistently, and then execute the plans!

After I got some gainful employment going in June this year, we feel a lot better about where we're headed and what we can accomplish. So far, we've paid off one credit card, paid off some bad debt, become a one-car household, renegotiated our mortgage, carpool to and from work everyday, and we dropped or reduced several "services" (financial planner - ha!, cell phone, cable). The food, though - the food is the next dragon we have to slay.

Good luck to everyone!

[zephyr911]

Ooh, great idea. Here are mine.

Maintain emergency fund at $0. Cowboy shit! Yeehaw!!!@#$%
Save $75k (including market returns), bringing me to...
NW $350k, plus whatever I save this month, so maybe $355-360k.
Earn $10k from real estate (side job, planned FIRE job)
Bring home $15k from ANG (basically a given, listed for context)
Average personal spending < $2k/mo
Monthly rental income > $1k/mo.
Eliminate PMI on primary residence at the 2-year point (November 2016). Currently at 85%, so might need a small paydown ($112k orig. balance).
Pay off all consumer debt. I've been letting about $35k ride @ sub-3% APRs so I could invest more, but a full payoff is on the FIRE checklist, and rising income should let me do both soon.

The end result is to be living off side jobs by late '16 so FT work is optional. The work environment has been great lately and I hope it stays that way, but it's all about having choices. And I like the idea of my FT paycheck going 100% to investments. That way, if the next change of leadership makes this a crappy place to work again, I can bounce without thinking too hard about it. And of course, if things stay good, I've still achieved SWAMI status and a higher SR% than ever, accelerating the road to FI. \m/

[OmahaSteph]

Ooh, great idea. Here are mine.

Maintain emergency fund at $0. Cowboy shit! Yeehaw!!!@#$%
Save $75k (including market returns), bringing me to...
NW $350k, plus whatever I save this month, so maybe $355-360k.
Earn $10k from real estate (side job, planned FIRE job)
Bring home $15k from ANG (basically a given, listed for context)
Average personal spending < $2k/mo
Monthly rental income > $1k/mo.
Eliminate PMI on primary residence at the 2-year point (November 2016). Currently at 85%, so might need a small paydown ($112k orig. balance).
Pay off all consumer debt. I've been letting about $35k ride @ sub-3% APRs so I could invest more, but a full payoff is on the FIRE checklist, and rising income should let me do both soon.

The end result is to be living off side jobs by late '16 so FT work is optional. The work environment has been great lately and I hope it stays that way, but it's all about having choices. And I like the idea of my FT paycheck going 100% to investments. That way, if the next change of leadership makes this a crappy place to work again, I can bounce without thinking too hard about it. And of course, if things stay good, I've still achieved SWAMI status and a higher SR% than ever, accelerating the road to FI. \m/

Well, I'm not sure those are noob goals and are a little foreign/intimidating to those of us playing catch-up, but we can certainly appreciate your hard work and effort, and you give us something to aspire to. Keep up the great work!

[JordanOfGilead]

1) Maintain zero credit card balance from month to month
2) Find a house with DW to get out of blowing money on rent (100k houses are going for 30-40k in our area, so it's somewhat of a buyer's market)
3) Stay the course on paying off my college debt (student loans, car, personal loan)
4) Reduce wasteful and "hobby" spending (eating out, buying car parts, etc.) by at least 20%
5) Become proficient with a profitable skill. I picked up welding about a month ago and would like to see a return on my initial investment of equipment and materials plus some profit in the next year.

[OmahaSteph]

5) Become proficient with a profitable skill. I picked up welding about a month ago and would like to see a return on my initial investment of equipment and materials plus some profit in the next year.

Ohh, that's interesting. I know the past couple years (decade?) skills like welding, carpentry, bricklaying, pipefitting, etc., have been in demand as more people think college is the only way to make a decent living. I'm sure you could figure out how to see a return on that investment. Did you do it to save yourself from having to shop it out, or are you hoping to offer your services to others?

[grosvenor6]

I'm only 20 so no real bills to pay other than for car
1) Start paying more towards car debt (10k left)
2) Start IRA
3) Up 401k to 7 or 8 % (already at 6% with a 5% company match)
4) Continue Saving for down payment for house  16k so far in savings
5) Keep savings rate at 75% since I'm still at home

[JordanOfGilead]

5) Become proficient with a profitable skill. I picked up welding about a month ago and would like to see a return on my initial investment of equipment and materials plus some profit in the next year.

Ohh, that's interesting. I know the past couple years (decade?) skills like welding, carpentry, bricklaying, pipefitting, etc., have been in demand as more people think college is the only way to make a decent living. I'm sure you could figure out how to see a return on that investment. Did you do it to save yourself from having to shop it out, or are you hoping to offer your services to others?

I've always been interested in metal working and cars, so I initially did it with the intention of saving money on expensive exhaust systems by being able to fabricate my own, but at this point, my skill with any sort of structural welding or welding in high-stress areas is so low that in 2016 I'm just hoping to break even on the couple hundred dollars I spent on equipment through decorative things.

[meadow lark]

This is a fabulous thread.  Almost everyone starts with noob goals - but it is amazing to see how fast the changes happen.  But it starts with the foundation laying.  I was always thrifty, but I made a series of poor choices (that I thought were great choices!) so when I started reading MMM in 2011 I had a lot of entanglements that I dealt with one at a time. And amazingly enough, my wife finally got on board.  That was huge!  It felt like no progress, for 2011 and 2012.  But then we started making real money in 2013, 14, and 15.  Keep making noob goals!  It works, and it really doesn't take that long.  Pretty soon you'll be intimidating people with your posts!

[arpies]

Not sure if I qualify as a noob, but I don't think I'm quite worthy of some of the more advanced categories yet either.

So my goals of 2016:
Full student loan repayment. (~24.6k estimated June)
Reduce monthly expenditures to 1500/mo (not sure I can do much better than that, it's a relatively high COL area)
Catch up on my back RRSP contribution room ~18,000 (think 401k for Canadians)
Finish watching Renegade, the series. Lorenzo Llamas might not have a mustache, but damn does he have fabulous hair.

[tofuchampion]

Ha. I posted in the other thread before seeing this one, but I think I fit in better here. So, my goals:

1. Pay off all debt except student loans (between me & husband: 2 credit cards, 3 personal loans, car loan, a bunch of medical bills, some miscellaneous stuff).

2. Refinance car loan, pay it down, then trade in car for something less terrible.

3. Make at least $500/month from side hustles (donating plasma, mystery shopping, Swagbucks, MTurk, flipping, Etsy).

4. Actually use YNAB consistently.

5. Use husband's income for living + debt; send all mine to savings.

[Jschange]

Pay off a quarter of student loans
Build a 4 month emergency fund
Increase fitness levels to early 2015 levels
Avoid lifestyle inflation in my fancy new job

[Lanthiriel]

I'm considering myself peach fuzz because we still have non-mortgage debt and our net worth is low. Our goals:

1. Max out both 401ks
2. Max out HSA
3. Pay off student loan debt (about 12k)
4. Pay for new driveway and gutters in cash (est. $5k)
5. Funnel any remaining money into a vacation fund for Ireland in 2017

[MsPeacock]

I feel like I am still gettting started, about a year into this now though.

Very recently I: used savings to pay off lingering cc debt (about 22k remaining from legal bills for the last custody go-around), traded in my car's equity for a paid off car. This year has been really a major shift for me in many ways: cut way way back of clothing purchases and shifted to a "uniform" for work, cut out cable, cut cell phone to Ting, paid off cc debt with snowball and finally chunk from savings. No winter vacation this year. Trying to decide about summer that will be economical for 2 weeks time w/ my kids. Also recently:

1. Max 401K contributions. I adjusted my withholdings last week.
2. Increased payment to equity on my mortgage for an additional $200 per month (more than 1 extra payment per year) to hopefully reach payoff by retirement

Goals:
1. Track monthly spending more effectively
2. Find new job - with either increased pay or increased opportunity for promotion (or, hopefully both). I have my lines in the water, just waiting for a bite.
3. By years end be set up to take a few private practice patients at home (included remodeling one room slightly to accommodate a private office space).
4. Figure out monthly budget (tied to number 1, obviously) and set amount for standard contribution to IRA, savings, college savings for the kids as monthly allocations from pay by years end.
5. Continue low-buy on clothing (currently no-buy). Purchase new clothes only if work wardrobe needs to be upgraded for new job.
6. Emotionally work on if I can tolerate renting out the extra bedroom in my basement... I am not there yet, but I am working on physical preparation of the room.

[KiwiSonya]

I think I belong in here, too. Found MMM a year ago ans have improved out of sight but lots still to do. Home loan will be paid off in the next few weeks. We lack an agreed strategy for the future so that's first up but I expect 2016 goals will include:
- Saving an emergency/FU fund of $30k
- Begin drip feeding $ into Vanguard
- Start tracking expenses (I know,  should be doing this already)

[OmahaSteph]

I think I belong in here, too. Found MMM a year ago ans have improved out of sight but lots still to do. Home loan will be paid off in the next few weeks. We lack an agreed strategy for the future so that's first up but I expect 2016 goals will include:
- Saving an emergency/FU fund of $30k
- Begin drip feeding $ into Vanguard
- Start tracking expenses (I know,  should be doing this already)

Okay, question: How do you go about setting aside a $30,000 EF? Is this something that's possible after taking care of debt emergencies? It seems inconceivable to me at this point, but definitely something I want to do. Next question: Do you just sock that away in a savings account, or does it come from interest-earning investments? TIA! 

[Public Hermit]

Finally, a thread I can relate to! 2015 has been a terrible year and has set me way back financially. Not only did my e-fund get vaporized, but a serious of other unfortunate events caused me to fall back into debt again after paying off student loans.

-Get emergency fund to at least $3,000(I have another jaw surgery on the horizon and facing a $2,000 deductible.)
-Get a higher paying job(I've already started my job search)
-Pay off 0% promo rate credit card by August 2016. Currently has a $4,200 balance
-Get car loan balance to under $5,000
-Increase 401K contributions to 6%(Currently 5% since June, was around 20%)
-Put $1,000 into my IRA
-Set my budgeted monthly spending a month in advance
-No vacations or major excursions scheduled for 2016
-Restore strength in my arms lost by my injury by weightlifting more
-Drink less alcohol

[link_417]

I love this Peach Fuzz thread!  My 2016 financial goals:

•Continue streak of no credit card interest paid (currently third year in a row/ever)
•Continue streak of maxing out IRA (currently first year ever)
•Pay off auto loan (currently ~$6,500)
•Increase liquid savings by $3,000 (currently ~$1,400)
•Reduce monthly expenses (excluding debt repayment) to $1,000 or less (currently too damn much)

That last one will be difficult but necessary.  Moving has put a huge strain on my finances and if it weren't for a generous Christmas bonus, my EF would probably have been depleted to fund this month's IRA contribution.  Looking forward to a stellar '16!

[gardeningandgreen]

This thread is awesome! Thanks for starting it!
My Goals for 2016:
1. Make some income from side hustles.
2. Pay for a new garage in cash.
3. Build a new garage ourselves.
4. Pay down student loans.
5. Get married and spend $0 on the wedding(our families are giving us a generous amount of money for the wedding)
6. Have an awesome honeymoon spending $0 of our own as well(CCD bonus and aforementioned money from parents)
7. Keep spending down for the year and make it to $0 net worth and work on being positive for the net worth!

Its going to be a crazy awesome year! If anyone has recommendations on how to get free or cheap international travel I would love to hear it!

[Physicsteacher]

My n00b goals:
1. Save minimum of 40% of take home
2. Learn to use YNAB, get spouse on board with tracking, consistently track expenses
3. Work toward identifying ways to cut spending and increase savings rate to 50% by end of year
4. Investigate my 403b (and 457 if available) options to determine whether we would be better off saving there or in spouse's 401k in addition to maxing our Roths

[Mongoose]

Okay, question: How do you go about setting aside a $30,000 EF? Is this something that's possible after taking care of debt emergencies? It seems inconceivable to me at this point, but definitely something I want to do. Next question: Do you just sock that away in a savings account, or does it come from interest-earning investments? TIA!

I don't have 30k in emergency funds but I can tell you how we handle ours. Ours is around $14k and is in our checking/savings accounts. I would like to have ~$18-20k and would put any over that into investments (Vanguard funds probably).

I started stocking my emergency fund while repaying my debt, which I know a lot of people may disagree with. The reason for this is that we used the Dave Ramsey debt snowball to completely pay off all our debts but only had $1000 in emergency funds. Literally the next month DH and I both had layoffs due to downsizing (at separate employers too), plus our car needed repairs and a large medical bill. Instant $42k in the hole as we had to live off credit while we found short term contract jobs. We also had a forced move (landlord sold property).

Long story short, 1k wasn't enough by any stretch. The 42k is down to 13k in debt now and we also built a 14k emergency fund at the same time. I could write a check right now to eliminate the debt but we'd be back to 1k in emergency funds and that wouldn't work as I am not working (but have a 6 month contract starting Jan 4th, yay!) and DH is severely underemployed (box store in line to move up to management soon we hope). In the meantime, we are supplementing his pathetic $1200 per month pay (includes overtime) out of the emergency fund. I am so thankful we built it instead of throwing everything at debt repayment the second time. We are maintaining our emergency fund balance by selling things we accumulated during our spendypants days. As soon as I start my contract, any extra we have over our expenses and emergency fund maintenance will go towards accelerating the debt repayment.

I'm not advocating this approach but it might be worth considering how to handle a job loss with an extended job search period, etc. We happily followed the whole DR debt snowball thing and it has been maddening to end up right back where we started after being completely debt free. If we'd had a larger emergency fund, I doubt we'd currently have any debt because we wouldn't have had to live off credit for so long.

Once we get further along the road, I might reconsider where we keep this money, but for now when I use (or may need to use it) monthly, I like it to be accessible in my bank account. I think that need is likely to change when we get to significant assets in a Vanguard or equivalent account.

[OmahaSteph]

I don't have 30k in emergency funds but I can tell you how we handle ours. Ours is around $14k and is in our checking/savings accounts. I would like to have ~$18-20k and would put any over that into investments (Vanguard funds probably).

Mongoose, what's the time frame on all this? (How long did it take you to get from Point A to Point B, etc.?) Really good perspective, thanks.

[Mongoose]

We are 2 years and 3 months from when we were both downsized. With two people cobbling together short-term jobs plus a bit of severance (when we had to move, we relocated to a LCOL area, which is great for expenses but jobs are scarce), we are progressing okay I guess. It is hard to remain positive about our finances after having to stop retirement contributions and not earning enough to cover expenses.

We did have a small inheritance windfall that helped immensely (~$10k to pay off the high minimum payment debt...also not what makes mathematical sense but we did that to get our required expenses down to a minimum so we could, hopefully, survive a career restart).

Some of our temporary jobs paid quite well (basically freelance work) but ultimately weren't stable enough (long gaps between gigs probably due to the economically depressed area where we live) to keep that up. I'm still doing that so I can take care of the kids without added child care expenses but DH is hopefully starting a new career. And we're trying to start a business.

To build the emergency fund while paying off debt, I took all income over the minimum expenses (which included minimum debt repayments) and put at least half towards the emergency fund and some towards extra debt payments. When I started, this ratio favored emergency fund building and eventually switched toward mostly extra debt payments when we got the funds up. It has floated us while DH has a low wage job and I have been between gigs. I think our situation was weird though (losing two jobs at different employers nearly at the same time...one replaced by an unpaid intern and one eliminated department). It definitely changed my perspective on the importance of having 6+ months of money readily available though.

[beantown]

Noob here as well. Just graduated from business school this summer and have student loans + credit cards to pay off. I also want to build up retirement funds and an emergency fund. Thankfully have a great paying job, but want to make sure I don't fall for lifestyle inflation and start developing good habits. Before school I was pretty terrible with saving and have only 12k in a Roth IRA for 4 years of work.

So here's my goals:
Pay off $4k in credit card debt (will do so with my tax refund)
Pay off $18k in federal student loans
Max out 401k for the year ($18k)
Save $6k in emergency fund

[LindseyS]

Max out my Roth IRA
Max out my husbands 401K
Increase net worth by 70k
Continue saving more than 50% of our post-tax income
Continue learning about investing, taxes, etc.
Cut monthly grocery bill by 10%
Identify further ways to reduce expenses and increase savings
Move all investments to Vanguard

[zenzy]

...a large medical bill. Instant $42k in the hole...

The medical debt seems to have set you back the most.  Did you have health insurance?  Was it any good?  Did you lose it?  Do you have health insurance now?

[apricity]

In 2015 we paid off debt but did not save.  So in 2016:

• max out my Roth IRA
• max out DH Roth IRA
• pay for DS braces in cash
• begin quest for FU money - need a lengthier number-crunching session before I know the exact goal number

[Mongoose]

The medical debt seems to have set you back the most.  Did you have health insurance?  Was it any good?  Did you lose it?  Do you have health insurance now?

Health insurance disappeared with the jobs and then we had medical debt creep in to visit. In retrospect, a greater than $1000 emergency fund would've allowed for us to cover the bills and not have a health insurance gap while we were looking for work. I'd never had a period of unemployment before so some decisions we made were probably epically stupid. It definitely sparked an interest in FI though! We have marginal insurance now but it is what we can currently afford (through DH's job).

[GoConfidently]

I'll join! My 2016 goals are:
Pay off credit card balance by April 30 (7,000)
Pay off 80% of student loans (20,000) by December 31
Increase side hustle income
Run a 5k (not financial, but I wanted to include it)

Simple, but that will be a big step in the right direction for me. 2016 is going to be my year!

[OmahaSteph]

In 2016:

*Pay off other credit card
*Start throwing massive payments at auto loan
*Pay back parents for loan (for relocation and crooked divorce attorney)
*Move to more Mustachian apartment when current lease is up
*Take work clothes to a tailor to be tweaked instead of buying new
*Buy a bike and trailer for me and begin doing errands
*Cut gas consumption in half
*Slowly and gently convince SO to forgo hedonistic purchases in favor of paying off his debt
*Publish another novel and pimp others to increase royalties (second income)
*Research investment options for when high-interest debt is paid off and become more financially literate in general

After reading all y'all's (yes, that it grammatically and punctuationally correct for the South) goals, I've revised mine a bit, mostly to be more specific. The auto loan isn't high interest, so that can go on the back burner. I've looked at options - like selling it and getting a cheaper car - but financially and realistically it's a bad move.

Added/amended the following:

*Limit restaurant spending to <$50 / month
*Take shoes/boots to a repair place instead of buying new
*Meal prep
*Get net worth out of the red and into the black (*cue Neil Young*)
*Use gift cards from bank/phone/"relationship" rewards to fund Christmas 2016
*earn [certain amount] in royalties
*start an emergency fund
*pay cash for moving expenses

Non-financial:

*bench press > 150 lbs; squat >100 lbs; deadlift >160 lbs.
*read 10 books (used to do this in one month, but ... life)
*sort out some personal baggage

[SuperSaver]

1. Payoff car ($5k left)
2. Continue stashing 6% of salary in 401k and get 4% match.
3. Beg fiance to open his 401k and get 4% match.
4. Save $7,000 cash for wedding (130+ people, Sunday afternoon in 2017)
5. Save $3,000 for Aruba Honeymoon (Southwest CC will get us free flights)
6. Fluff up Emergency Fund (currently it's at 2 months expenses) and then all extra money goes towards Student Loans

[RamonaQ]

I'm glad to see a noob version!

I don't have any debt, but I don't have a lot of anything else either.

My goals:

1. Save at least $3000 in an emergency fund
2. Increase my Roth contributions
3. Decrease spending on groceries/household supplies (first goal - get it under $400/mo, then go from there)
4. Improve communication with my significant other about his/my/our finances

[OmahaSteph]

Had an incident today that reminded me of why I need an emergency fund. It's been pretty low on the priority/resolution list, but now I'm wondering if I need to bump it up past throwing mad money at my credit card. Maybe get up to one month's expenses and THEN throw extra at the card? Blarg.

[mustache you a question]

As a fellow noob and Omahan I'll gladly step into this thread...

2016 goals
-Pay off CC (only a couple hundred but still there)
-Pay down SLs to 20k, currently at 53k
-Save 20% down payment for house (with help from my SO)
-Get a raise, promotion, new job...which ever one comes first
-Get up to 15% 401k, currently at 12%

Stretch goal would be to increase my emergency fund from 1,000 to 3k, but not necessary.

Good luck to you all...lets kick ass in 2016!

[frugalfanny]

Total noob here.

My 2016 goals:

-Reduce student loan balance from $35,000 to $25,000 (this is really my main goal... I wish I could pay the whole thing this year.)
-Use my budgeting spreadsheet to track expenses
-Switch to cheaper car insurance (currently $82/month)
-Switch to cheaper phone plan (currently $60/month)
-Reach a total of $50,000 in my retirement accounts

[MyCircus, MyMonkeys]

Love this thread! I've been lurking on the forum for at least two years, always thinking- early retirement sounds great, but... (insert random whiny-pants excuse here).  Anyway, I got serious this year, and paid off one credit card, and I'm almost halfway through the second.  So, my goals for 2016 are:
1.  pay off remaining $10,296 credit card debt by July 2016.Current balance: $1194.17
2.  switch cell phone providers one of three lines have been cancelled and switched to RW. As we pay off the cancellation fee this month, we will switch one more phone over next month.
3.  switch internet provider DONE!
4.  cancel cable DONE!!
5.  begin paying off car loan $17k in July/August (currently making minimums while I finish the credit card). Still making minimums; but I did refi to lower interest rate, but maintaining same old payment. Current car balance is $15.9k~.

If I'm diligent, I might be able to begin max TSP contributions~ $693 a pay period around January/February 2017. 

[JordanOfGilead]

I just crunched the numbers and found that if I find a way to cut $300/month from our household spending, I can be debt free almost a year ahead of schedule.

Going to go ahead and add that to my goals for 2016.

[OmahaSteph]

I just crunched the numbers and found that if I find a way to cut $300/month from our household spending, I can be debt free almost a year ahead of schedule.

Going to go ahead and add that to my goals for 2016.

Woo-hoo! OR you could use those welding skills and sell/perform $300 worth of work per month and throw that at your debt.

[JordanOfGilead]

I just crunched the numbers and found that if I find a way to cut $300/month from our household spending, I can be debt free almost a year ahead of schedule.

Going to go ahead and add that to my goals for 2016.

Woo-hoo! OR you could use those welding skills and sell/perform $300 worth of work per month and throw that at your debt.

I think I'm going to try and do both. It never hurts to give the frugality muscle a little extra exercise.