Goals

2016 Goals Results

Budget Guy Goals

2016 has officially come to a close, and it’s time to review my goals to determine where I ended the year.  In summary: all primary goals were met, and 1 of 2 stretch goals were met.  The screenshot below shows the actual results (click to enlarge):

2016-goals-result

Primary Goals

Brokerage and LendingClub goal: This one was relatively easy to meet, especially since I was very consistent about investing the same amount every month.  In any given month, I put aside $1250 to $1300, plus any dividends automatically was re-invested to count towards the goal.  This gets offset by LendingClub loan payments, since any principal received technically deducts from the tally.  Any interest received, however, counted towards the goal amount.

Contribute federal maximum to Roth IRA:  Like Brokerage, this was also easily attained by simply investing the same amount every month.

8 Months emergency fund:  This one was a little more difficult to determine what “8 month emergency fund” meant, since it’s completely dependent upon the actual spend in some expense categories.  This is all the more reason to keep to a budget, since overages end up requiring more money in the emergency fund to compensate.  But since I saved a lot of cash, this ended up not being at risk for most of the year.

Stretch Goals

Invest at least $20,000 into Brokerage / LC: I sort of lost track of this near the end of the year when I realized I would have excess cash.  Had I spent more of my cash on this goal, it would have meant all stretch goals would have been met.

8 Months emergency fund + $5000:  Since my expenses did not come in as much as I planned, this goal was met by a wide margin.  As stated above, I could have taken the excess from this goal to make sure I met all stretch goals, but 4 out of 5 overall isn’t bad and it’s more than I expected to meet.

I expect to make up my 2017 goals by end of March, after I learn from 2016 and think about what’s going to happen in 2017.

Goals for 2016

Budget Guy Goals

Since I haven’t formally posted my goals for 2016, now would be a great time to document what they are and how I’m doing towards reaching them.  I actually had these goals finalized in January 2016, but failed to post them.  Here’s a screenshot of them (click for larger).

2016-goals-apr-2

Remember to keep track of progress on the status on the 2016 Goals Tracker Page.

Goals Update – End of 2015

Budget Guy Budgeting, Goals

The last update for December 2015:

Brokerage Investment Goal:

  • December Investment contributions were $874.01
  • 2015 Investment contributions are at $12,032.56
  • Final Result: Green – Goal Met!

Roth IRA Investments Goal:

  • December Investments were $500
  • 2015 Investments total $6,000
  • Final Result: Green – Goal Exceeded!

Cash Flow Goal:

  • December was cash flow negative, with a net bank account balance change of -$3249.10.
  • 2015 resulted in a negative net cash flow of -$1,279.36.  This is primarily due to a strategic mortgage principal payment of an additional $3,500, which will help bring future expenses down by approx $1,100 per year for the next 4 years by removing PMI from my mortgage payment.
  • 2015 Result: Yellow due to being within $1,500 of original goal target (5% of target amount).  While not ideal, I know it’s for the better.  For 2016, the goals will be written so I don’t have to put negative results down when strategic investments are made.

Additional Mortgage Principal Stretch Goal:

  • Goal: $3000
  • Actual: $10,900 (+$3,500 unexpectedly in December).
  • Goal Exceeded!

dec-2015-goals

All of the history of 2015 goal progress will be stored at the 2015 goals page.