A Penny Saved

It’s that time of year again.  Time to take a long hard look at your finances and your accounts and make  all the necessary changes to ensure a great new year.

Here’s what I plan on doing with my things.

First, I need to take a hard look at my budget.  We’ve had a few shortcomings in the last few months.  Our son has been to the doctor rather frequently with a myriad of fun stuff(pinkeye,shots, etc) and the meds ate through what little reserves we had(nearly none).  I don’t think that our budget really needs a revamping as much as we need to stick to it much better than before.  Or at all in some categories.

Secondly, my top financial goal this year is to actually build up a quasi emergency fund that can be used when we have more doctor bills or car repair or vet bills that we just didn’t see coming.  At the moment, we have little to no liquid savings.  I’d like to have 1-2 months built up by the end of the year, but a more realistic goal is about 1/2 month at this point.  That being said, my other goal is to have that account in a high yield savings that pays more than the current 0.25% at my Credit Union.

Third, I really need to take a close look at my 401(k) and check the allocations.  This is something that really should only be done once a year, no more, no less.  I also intend to increase my contributions as the match next year goes up to 30% of the first 10%.  I’m currently only sitting at 3% and would like to get up to about 5% if possible.  It will depend a lot on what my raise(hopefully) looks like this year.  I may be able to go a little bit more if it’s better than expected.

Fourth and lastly, I’d like to create a more formal debt reduction plan for us.  Currently we’re a little disheveled in our payments and budgeting and I think the addition of a more concrete debt reduction and payment plan would help us keep track of what we are doing and how we are doing on our goal.

I’m sure there will be other little things that I will try and do, but those are the biggies that I have planned.   Do you do a New Year Cleaning of your finances?  Spring Cleaning? What do you do annually with your finances?

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