It helps when I make the goals public
Financial goals for 2009:
1) Save 3 months of base living expenses (rent, utilities, food, etc. not student loans)
2) Eliminate all credit card debt
3) Max out retirement savings accounts (especially ones that can be leverage to buy a first home)
Right now, savings seems just a bit more important than debt reduction.
1) Save 3 months of base living expenses (rent, utilities, food, etc. not student loans)
2) Eliminate all credit card debt
3) Max out retirement savings accounts (especially ones that can be leverage to buy a first home)
Right now, savings seems just a bit more important than debt reduction.
Ah, home buying. That's at least 3 years off, if not 8 years or more in the future. I plan on maxing out my 401k and a Roth IRA, plus saving about $6k a year in cash/CDs since I want the money to be readily available. Starter condos in or near San Francisco begin at $400k, so I'll definitely have to take out the maximum mortgage amount, but even with that, I'll need a hefty deposit. It's slightly evil, but I am rooting for more foreclosures so that house prices in the Bay Area drop to a level where I could feasibly buy a home.
As for firebombing debt, it is a fantastic strategy if you can do it. I was doing that to my painfully large student loans this past year, at the expense of cash savings (which, in part, lead to a reliance on credit cards and credit card debt). In the case of a lay off, my student loans will go into forebearance, but I'll still have to pay my landlord, grocery store and credit card company. Building up a cushion of cash seems like the smarter move for me at this point in time, even if it does add years and tens of thousands in interest to my existing debt.
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