Goals Make Sure You Set Them

One thing I have been lacking through all of my money saving and business ideas is setting up goals to meet and excede my GOALS.

I have done a good job so far of making monthly goals for excercise including 1 month, 3 months, and 1 year. So I have something to shoot for, not just lose weight or get fit. It is lose 15 pounds in a month or 3 months. I do my best to keep up with everything by keeping a daily journal on what I eat, what I need to do for the day, and if I completed it or not to keep me on track.

So I will be making some financial goals and putting the goals on the blog. This way I can do my best to take away debt.

I have debt from college student loans, credit cards( I used one as an emergency fund, bad idea), car(even though I got a great deal on it), and a personal loan (which those of you who know me very well know I had some legal issues in the past). So what does this all mean and what should I do?

The student loans I treat like my mortgage they are important and I will never miss a payment, but it is basically good debt(by that I mean it reduces my taxes). My personal loan which happens to be to my parents I treat like I am providing them with a cash flow for the rest of there lives so I am ok with paying this at a regular monthly pace just like my student loans. Don’t miss a payment but don’t put it as Priority Payoff #1.

Now the IMPORTANT STUFF. I have 2 credit cards and a car loan which is in the neighborhood of 30K. My car will take me 4 years to pay off. Credit card #1 and the lowest balance will take around 6 years at my current payment. Credit Card #2 will take around 7 years and has the second highest balance.

So I have been reading and recalling some of the best ways to lower my debt. Here is my game plan taken from a little bit of everyone and adapted to my situation.

· PAY OFF THE LOWEST DEBT FIRST REGARDLESS OF INTEREST RATE-THE SNOWBALL EFFECT AND THANK YOU DAVID RAMSEY ( I WILL GIVE MORE DETAILS LATER IN ANOTHER BLOG)

· DO EVERYTHING I CAN TO PAY OFF THAT DEBT, PART TIME JOBS, SELLING STUFF I DON’T NEED OR SHOULDN’T HAVE BOUGHT, WHATEVER IT TAKES

· SETTING UP AN EMERGENCY FUND. I PLAN ON TAKING ABOUT $100/MONTH AND PUTTING IT ASIDE SO I DON’T GET CAUGHT UP AGAIN AND USE MY CREDIT CARDS

My goal is to pay off this debt in 3 years. So I want to cut the time it would take in half. After that I will take care of the next hightest debt which will be my student loans, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I know what I'm talking about with money and personal finance but now to implement it.