Below are our primary financial goals for 2010.

1) Increase net worth to $105,700
We finished 2009 with a net worth of $68,437.63, $7,162.37 short of our net worth goal. We’ve missed our net worth goal that past two years, so hopefully we can hit our 2010 goal of $105,700. We’re starting off a little behind the 8 ball because we didn’t hit our target this year, but based on my rudimentary forecast, this is a reasonable goal, and we should reach it if we stay focused.

2) Increase savings account balance to $20,000
We weren’t able to hit our savings goal in 2009 because we paid off our 6.5% auto loan instead. While we are starting 2010 with just a $2,492.73 balance in our savings account, I think we can reach $20,000 in savings if we make this a priority.

3) Contributing at least 15% of income to company 401(k)
This one is a gimme. My wife is already contributing 15% to her 401(k) and I’ve completed the paperwork to increase my 401(k) contribution from 8% to 15% in January. Now we just need to make sure we keep this up throughout the year.

4) Decrease debt by $1,000
After paying off our auto loan in 2009, the only debt we have left is $4,148.46 in student loans. We plan to pay $40/month extra to the student loan ($100/month total) so that we can reduce our debt by $1,000 in the next 12 months.

5) Increase tithe $25/month
We have been very blessed, especially since we began to be more faithful with our tithing, so we want in bump up our monthly tithe a bit. We consistently tithed $800/month in 2009 and plan to tithe $825/month in 2010.

It will be fun to look back in a year to see if we were successful in achieving these goals.

2009 gave us a wild ride and we feel very blessed to have had as great of a year as we did. Below is a table compiling our net worth data for 2009 (click on table to enlarge). We set some goals for ourselves this year and overall, did pretty well. Below are each of our goals and the progress we made.

1) Increase net worth to $75,600

This goal looked doable, but we had a couple of challenges that kept us from hitting this goal. First, we missed our 2008 net worth goal by $5,716.31, so we started 2009 a bit behind. Second, we did not take into account short selling our house. The costs of the short sale and getting a rental unit were set us back a couple of steps. In the end, we got within $7,162.37 of our 2009 net worth goal, with a total net worth of $68,437.63. God willing, we should hit a net worth of $75,600 by February.

2) Wife to get a new job

My wife absolutely nailed this goal. After being laid off, she quickly got a job in the same industry as her last job, and with an even better pay structure and benefits. She received a company car, laptop, monthly phone and internet reimbursements, stock options and 401(k). Go wife!

3) Increase savings account balance to $20,000

Our short sale and moving into a rental unit hurt our chances of hitting this goal, but it still would have be possible, but we decided to pay off our auto loan instead. Our savings account balance at the end of 2009 is $2,492.73, $17,507.27 off our target. Now that the auto loan is paid off, we have $450 extra each month we can put into savings or invest.

4) Max out Roth IRAs ($5,000 each)

I’m surprised we were able to achieve this goal. We made up a lot of ground the last couple of months and were able to get $10,000 total ($5K each) into our Roth IRAs. This is a great feeling.

5) Contributing at least 5% of income to company 401(k)

We blew way past this goal. My wife began contributing 5% in April and increased it to 15% in August. I started 2009 contributing 5% and increased it to 8% in July. Our total retirement contributions (401k & Roth IRA) was $19,437.41, or 15.87% of our gross income. This sets a new benchmark for us.

6) Decrease debt by $8,000

Overkill. If you remove our $326,675.82 mortgage loan (since we short sold), our debt in December 2008 was $20,603.66. Our debt in December 2009 is only $4,148.46, a $16,455.20 reduction. Paying off our auto loan (loan balance in January 2009 was $15,586.49) was the key to smashing this goal.

7) Draft wills

Not done. We’ve decided to hold off on this goal until we have kids.

I will be posting our 2010 goals very soon.

I already spilled the beans in my August New Worth post, but we passed the net worth milestone of $50,000! There, now it’s official.

We hit our last net worth milestone of $40,000 in 12 months ago, in August 2008. With the depressed economy and short selling our condo, reaching a net worth of $50,000 has taken us a bit longer than expected. Nevertheless, that doesn’t take away from how great it feels to hit this goal.

Thank God for all of our blessings!

Since we are on the eve of the new year, I thought it would be appropriate to post our goals for 2009. I’m not sure what to expect in 2009, but we have great hopes. Below are a few of our goals for 2009.

1) Increase net worth to $75,600
This should be doable if we are able to hit most of the goals below.
2) Wife to get a new job
Ideally, my wife will get a job in the same industry as her last job and receive similar benefits, such as a company car and matching 401(k). How long the job search takes will determine whether or not we are able to hit our other goals.
3) Increase savings account balance to $20,000
Our saving account balance is currently just over $15,000, but this goal will be harder than it looks. Some of our current savings is earmarked for property taxes, income taxes, and a vacation to Hawaii in 2009.
4) Max out Roth IRAs ($5,000 each)
We missed this goal in 2008, but I hope we can bounce back in 2009.
5) Contributing at least 5% of income to company 401(k)
This is already set on autopilot, so I don’t see a problem reaching this goal.
6) Decrease debt by $8,000
This should be an easy goal, if we are able continue paying down our debt at the same rate as last year.
7) Draft wills
We’ve been putting this off for awhile, but will make it a priority in 2009.

So, we’ve got some pretty challenging goals for 2009. God willing, the economy will start to turn around and help us all reach our goals. Have a safe and Happy New Year!

We passed a net worth milestone of $40,000! When we hit our last net worth milestone of $30,000 in April, I thought we could hit $40,000 by October. It looks like we beat that guess by 2 months.

As of today, our net worth is $41,489.62. Helping us break $40K this month was a $900 deposit to our savings account from my Wife’s “extra” third paycheck and a $730.72 company profit sharing contribution to my 401(k). We are on pace to meet our net worth net worth goal for the year of $47,800.

I’m not sure if it’s going to stick, but we hit our net worth milestone of $30,000 yesterday. Our last net worth milestone was in September, 2007.

After the great market upswing today, our currently net worth is $30,350.57, putting us at 63.49% of our $47,800 net worth goal for the year. Note: Our current net worth status bar will not be updated until the end of the month, as usual.

God willing, we should hit our $40,000 net worth milestone by October this year.

2007 has been a great financial turnaround year for us. We went from a negative net worth of -$3,168.85 to a positive net worth of $23,873.25. That’s a $27,042.10 increase in 11 months!

2007 financial highlights include:

• Paid off all of our credit card debt ($5,064)
• Fully funded both of our Roth IRA’s ($8,000 total)
• Restarted my 401(k) contribution in April at 2%, and increased it to 3% in July
• Increased our savings account balance to almost half of our $10,000 emergency fund goal
• Paid down 25% of my wife’s student loans
• Sold one of our vehicles and replaced it with a vehicle that has less mileage, lower monthly payments, and more affordable insurance costs

As I set our net worth goals for the next 20 years back in April 2007, I wasn’t totally sure they were achievable. Sure, I crunched some numbers and kept my assumptions conservative, but I could have been way off. While we still have 19 years left in the plan, it’s comforting to have the first year in the bag and to have surpassed our 2007 goal. We are truly blessed.

Some financial plans for 2008 include:

• Increase my 401(k) contribution to 4% in January
• Fully fund both of our Roth IRA’s ($10,000 total)
• Begin accelerated payments on our 2nd mortgage balance ($52,648.72)
• Increase our savings account balance to $7,000

I’ve refined our net worth goals table (click on spreadsheet below) to include additional information that I would like to capture each year including household income (not including commissions), % of income invested, and retirement savings. God willing, 2007 is just the beginning to our 20 year journey towards early retirement.

As of today, our liquid assets total $30,433.46, an increase of $7,403.42 in just one month. A combination of company profit sharing, Roth IRA contributions (here, here, and here), and additional deposits into our saving accounts this month have made this possible.

To provide some consistency, I’ve decided to post Steady Progress updates to our liquid assets in $10,000 intervals. God willing, I’ll be able to post Steady Progress IV ($40K in liquid assets) sometime in mid to late 2008.