2011 Financial Goals

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.