Financial Goals 2017

1. Increase emergency fund from $15,000 to $17,500.

2. Add $9,500 to my retirement with an overall goal of having $20,000 in retirement savings by the end of the year.

3. Pay an extra $100 a month on the mortgage, with an end goal of having the balance under $210,000 by the end of the year.

4. Save $2,500 into car replacement fund with the end goal of having $5,000 in the car replacement fund by the end of the year.

5. Pay off furniture I bought before expiration of 0% financing period.  Will blog about this later in a separate post.

6. Read 12 books

7. Write a book

8. Lose 10 lbs

9. Donate $200 to charity

10.  Get more life insurance

11. Build a separate car maintenance fund.

12. Look into and focus on career options.

A few thoughts:

This list represents an internal battle that I am experiencing.  I thought that a $15,00 emergency fund would be make me feel comfortable.  It does not. However, $15,000 does represent about a 6 month bare bones budget for me. As much as I want to increase my emergency fund, I also need to work on other financial goals, retirement, car replacement, etc. So I have decided that every year I will increase my emergency fund by some amount.  In 2017, I will increase it by $2,500 which equates to one month of bare bones expenses for me.

I won't have much in the car replacement fund by the end of the year, but I'm hoping not to have to replace my car until at least 2019.  (Fingers crossed- by that time it will be 13 years old).  Once I get closer to replacement time I will increase my car replacement savings.  I hope to have at least $15,000 cash by the time I get a new car.

I really need life insurance in case I die.  Otherwise my sister will not be able to continue living in the house that I purchased in 2013.  I do plan to leave the house to her.  I guess I should also add, get a will to my goal list for 2017.