But which goals.....and how much?
First, where we stand financially.
We have no mortgage, so no mortgage to pay toward or pay off. We did that in March of 2006. 8-))
We have no car loans, so nothing to pay toward or pay off there either. 8-)
We have a credit card but it's paid off every month. Nothing is put on it unless it can be paid that billing cycle. We don't fritter the money away on making banks richer. ;-)
We have a fully funded 6 month Emergency Fund(the reason we don't have to put emergency purchases on the credit card), so we don't need to throw money into that fund. We could put some extra into that though and make it a 9 month or 1 year EF I suppose.
There are 3 Savings Goals I do see we should fund.
First is throwing additional money into the Kid's College Fund. We have a plan that will allow us to Cash Flow each child's undergraduate college career(4 years to complete the degree). We have told each of them how much they are getting from us and they need to find a school that can be paid for with it or if they want to go somewhere more expensive, they need to come up with the money for the difference through either grants, scholarships, work study, loans or working while attending school.
Graduate school?....that's on their dime, not ours.
We had ESAs for each child but when the stock market fell, those took a hit. I am hopeful they will recover enough in time before we need the cash so that I can take the money out without a net loss.
We had a cash flow plan with this College Fund but we may come up a bit short between how we are funding it and the exploding costs of schooling. At any rate, this Fund could use a bit more moolah.
Second we are going to have to replace a car very soon. Not a new car but a 'new to us' car. And we will pay cash of course.
Third is paying for a new heating system for our house. This house was built in the late 1980's. At the time, the builder got a tax incentive to put a thermal storage heating unit in his homes here. The electric company had a special lower off-peak/on-peak rate for these systems that helped homeowners have a lower electric bill than the regular electric customers.
This year, the electric company is phasing out this special rate(thank you cap and trade) and in 2011, they are doing away with it completely. Also, these thermal storage systems were only expected to last 20-30 yrs. 2 of our heating receptables have already died, one at the beginning of last winter and the other at the end of it. Replacing 1 electric thermal unit was in the ballpark of 5 Thousand Dollars! There are 5 in the house, along with regular baseboard electrical units in the smaller rooms. It makes no sense to replace the dead units since the special rate is going away and we'll be a totally electric home with incredibly high electric rates after this year.
So we need a new heating system before next fall when the heat gets turned on again!
Replacing your heating system is NOT cheap....especially if you aren't set up for gas and you have no ductwork in your house already.
Ugh.
I had wanted to put solar panels on the house but that will have to wait as the heating system is more critical. And heating with solar just wouldn't be realistic at this location or within our financial scope.
At this point I am leaning toward a GeoThermal Heating System. We may have a problem however, since you need to excavate and lay underground piping next to your house for this type of system and we have buried/underground utility lines here on the property. We may not have the room for the pipes.
Since I was able to sock away $23K+ last year, I don't feel I should settle for less than that this year.
Tentatively, I am going to set a $30K Savings Goal for 2010.
That's $2500 a month.
I still need to go through the bills for last year and get some final numbers together so I can set a realistic Budget.
Then I need to research more on the heating system options and get some estimates. How much this bill will cost may help determine what the Savings Goal will be for this year.....or then again, it might not.lol
More later on the Savings Goals after I get a final Budget together.
Have you set your family Budget for the year yet?
Do you have any savings goals for 2010?
Do you have a plan to reach those goals?
Please leave a comment and tell us!
Sluggy
