I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Looking Back at My 2007 Goals and Ahead to 2008

Several months ago, I set some goals on this blog to complete in 2007, 2008, and 2009 regarding our debt reduction. Being that 2007 is about to draw to a close, I wanted to evaluate our 2007 goals and see if we met them, and see if our 2008 goals should be reevaluated in light on the progress we have made thus far.

For 2007, I set 2 goals.

• Move my credit card debt to a 0% interest no balance transfer fee offer.
• Get credit card balance under $4000.

And I am happy to say - I did it! Both of those goals were met. I moved my credit card debt to a no interest offer in September and have been beating it down with renewed determination as every dollar goes directly to principal. And that has been one of the key factors that has allowed us to not only drop under $4000, but under $2000 in 2007, and I am scrimping and saving and planning and plotting to try and get it down closer to $1000 before the end of the year. I don’t know what I’ll be able to manage, but it is going in the right direction.

I didn’t set a goal for our overall debt number for 2007 but I am happy to say it has dropped under $30000 and I hope to never see it rise above that again.

For 2008, I set two goals as well.

• Pay off credit card by August 2008
• Have spouse student loan under $10000

I think both of those goals are more than attainable. We should have the credit card debt paid off before August 2008 and my spouse’s student loan should clock in at just over $9000 at the end of the year just by paying our budgeted minimums (our own little debt snowball) every month. I am working on figuring out some new goals for 2008, both a “conservative” set of goals that with staying the course, we should be able to reach, and a “stretch” set of goals that it will take some luck as well as hard work and focus to reach. I do however know that the sooner the credit card is paid off, the better, for our peace of mind and our budget. We also have to assess how we want to attack the student loan debt and what changes if any we want to make to our emergency fund.

I want to eliminate $15000 in debt next year. Stick around and see if we can do it. It’d be a huge huge stretch but anything is possible.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!