Below are the 5 goals that we set for ourselves 12 months ago and the results of our efforts to achieve them. Reaching 4 of our 5 goals in this economy feels great. The game changer for us in 2011 was my wife’s new job. She already had a good paying job, but was recruited away in April and given a $20,000 higher annual salary and an opportunity to make larger bonuses each quarter. I am so proud of the success she has enjoyed in her career and feel that her new position was pivotal in reaching our goals this year. I’ll be posting our 2012 goals shortly.

1) Increase net worth to $138,100 SUCCESS
Thanks to a good head start on our 2011 net worth goal (we passed our 2010 goal by $9,600.07), this was relatively easy. In fact, we passed our 2011 net worth goal in April and by July our net worth was over $150,000. Shortly after, however, the stock market began to fluctuate wildly and our net worth took a dive, but we still finished the year with a net worth of $164,821.70, $26,721.70 over our goal of $138,100.

2) Increase savings account balance to $20,000 SUCCESS
We started 2011 with $9,215.82 in savings, but we pulled $3,000 out to pay off our student loan and another $3,000 out to open a 529 Plan for my son. That being said, we still CRUSHED this goal, ending the year with $107,722.13 in savings ($52,696.37 + $51,000 pulled from retirement accounts). The biggest boost to our savings came from selling our recreational 4×4 for $14,995. While it was nice to hit this goal, we will be depleting most of our savings account in the next 30 days to fund our 20% home down payment and to purchase furniture.

3) $100,000 total balance in retirement accounts FAIL
In July 2011, we had over $95,000 in our retirement accounts and it looked like we would surely reach this goal by the end of the year. However, with the market correction, our balance dropped to ~$92,000 by the early December 2011. It was at this time that we raided our retirement accounts ($21,000 loan from 401k and $30,000 withdrawal from Roth IRAs) to help fund our 20% ($97,800) home down payment. So, we ended 2011 with retirement account balances totaling $41,944.70. We contributed $14,280.72 total to our retirement accounts in 2011.

4) Decrease debt by $1,000 SUCCESS
We started 2011 with only $3,041.81 in student loan debt. I’m happy to report that we ended the year with no debt ($0.00)! It is such a great feeling to finally be completely DEBT FREE.

5) Start a family SUCCESS
Accomplishing this goal was the biggest blessing of all. After dealing with some fertility issues, my wife and I were shocked to find out that she was pregnant. In September, after a challenging labor, our healthy baby boy was born and we couldn’t be more happy.

Today we passed the $160,000 net worth milestone! Our net worth is currently $163,973.37.

With the market ups and downs, it took us longer than expected to reach this milestone. We passed our last milestone of $140K in July and thought that we would hit $160K in October. That being said, we’re still way ahead of our $138,100 net worth goal for 2011. Based on my forecasts, we should hit the next net worth milestone of $170K by March or April.

I will update our net worth meter (on the left side of the screen) at the end of the month.

Today we passed the $150,000 net worth milestone!

We passed our last milestone of $140K, in May. As you probably have noticed, our networth milestones are in $10,000 increments. Since January, we have passed a networth milestone 4 out of 7 months. Way ahead of our expectations. Based on my forecasts, we should hit the next net worth milestone of $160K by October.

I will update our net worth meter (on the left side of the screen) at the end of the month.

Today we passed the $140,000 net worth milestone!

We passed our last milestone of $130K, in February. Based on my forecasts, we should hit the next net worth milestone of $150K by August.

I will update our net worth meter (on the left side of the screen) at the end of the month.

Today we passed the $130,000 net worth milestone!

We passed our last milestone of $120K, in January. Based on my forecasts, we should hit the next net worth milestone of $140K around June.

I will update our net worth meter (on the left side of the screen) at the end of the month.

Today we passed the $120,000 net worth milestone!

We passed our last milestone of $110K, in December. Based on my forecasts, we should hit the next net worth milestone of $130K around May.

I will update our net worth meter (on the left side of the screen) at the end of the month.

We did pretty well knocking down our 2010 financial goals. Now it’s time to set the bar a little higher for our 2011 financial goals.

1) Increase net worth to $138,100
We have a good head start on our 2011 net worth goal because we passed our 2010 goal by $9,600.07. If we stick to our plan, this goal seems very doable.

2) Increase savings account balance to $20,000
We haven’t been able to hit $20,000 in savings as a goal the last two years. Let’s give it a try again in 2011. We are starting 2011 with $9,215.82 in savings, so we’re already ~1/2 way there. The challenge with this goal is that we will plan to start a family in 2011 and private adoption is very expensive.

3) $100,000 total balance in retirement accounts
We’re starting 2011 with $83,594.59 total balance in our retirement accounts. My forecast shows that we should end the year with less than $100,000 total balance in our retirement accounts. So, achieving this stretch goal will require extra effort and determination.

4) Decrease debt by $1,000
Our only remaining debt is $3,041.81 in student loan debt. We successfully reduced our debt by $1,000 in 2010, so we’ll try to knock it down another $1,000 in 2011. Cash flow may be tight in 2011, so this goal may be harder than it looks.

5) Start a family
We hope to start a family in 2011, whether naturally or through private adoption, or a combination of the two. While this isn’t a financial goal in the traditional sense, it does have big financial commitments. The private adoption is ~$30K, so we need to plan, save, and make it happen.

Okay, now we wait 12 months to see our results.

We set five goals for ourselves 12 months ago. Here’s how we did relative to each one:

1) Increase net worth to $105,700 SUCCESS
We blew right past this goal in November and didn’t look back. We finished 2010 at 109.08% of our goal with a net worth of $115,300.07, $9,600.07 over our net worth goal. This feels great after missing our net worth goals the past two years. We are 4 years in to our 21 year plan to retire early and so far, we’re on track.

2) Increase savings account balance to $20,000 FAIL
We would have probably achieved this goal, but in March we paid $12,000 cash for a vehicle. Even so, we were able to get our savings back up to a pretty respectable $9,215.82.

3) Contributing at least 15% of income to company 401(k) SUCCESS
I’m going to say we met this goal because we contributed 15% to both of our 401(k) accounts until my wife was laid off. We have continued to contribute 15% to my 401(k) account, but my wife’s new company does not have a 401(k) plan. To make up for this, we have contributed an additional $4,000 total (2K each) our Roth IRAs.

4) Decrease debt by $1,000 SUCCESS
We pulled this one off at the buzzer. We increased our student loan payments slightly at the end of the year so that the balance dropped to $3,127.35. That’s $1,021.11 less than what we owed last December.

5) Increase tithe $25/month SUCCESS
Thankfully, we were able to increase our tithe not just $25/month, but $35/month to $835/month. Taking this step in faith and giving back a portion of what we are blessed with has continued to reward us.

So, it looks like we reached 4 of our 5 goals. Not perfect, but not too shabby. I’ll be posting our 2011 goals shortly.

We just passed the $110,000 net worth milestone! Yippee! I will update our net worth meter (on the left side of the screen) at the end of the month.

We passed our last milestone of $100K, in October. Based on my forecasts, we should hit the next net worth milestone of $120K around April.