I'd like to start doing an actual budget. I'm tremendously risk averse, so I tend to be stingy with money. However, I don't know exactly where my money goes. I keep a largish bank balance, make sure my fixed costs are less than my income, and hope everything will work out from there. This kind of limits me from setting any long-term goals, like getting married, having children, or buying real estate.

Save more, spend less.

The only debt I have right now is student loans and mortgage. I'm debating if it's worth throwing money at either of them, since both are low-interest and tax-deductible - if I can pay off enough on my house to drop PMI, I'll probably try to do that (which will save me $88 a month), otherwise I'll probably pay off the student loan (since the interest deduction is minimal because of my income).

My other resolutions are to lose weight and not be single. The latter will probably cost me money if I succeed.

I want to make a serious financial safety buffer in 2009. Right now I have an emergency account with about $2000 in it, which would probably just barely cover two months of living expenses. I'm going to try to build up to six months of expenses, and maybe put the money into several smaller cycling CDs, so I'm never more than a month away from a good chunk of it.

My financial goals for the year are vastly different than exactly one year ago. A year ago I didn't have any savings, checking, investments, or credit cards. Now I have all of those and I'm looking to be even more financial responsible for the new year.

1. Get a car loan in the summer for a better car
2. Actually set a budget for food and electronics.

My goal is to clear out all of my credit card debt by the end of next year. I moved my debt to one credit card that has 0% for the next year, and worked out a budget to pay it off in one year. If I get any extra cash from a work bonus or my income tax refund, it's going towards that debt to pay it off faster.

Once I have accomplished that, I will start saving for a new car because I will need one at some point as my current car is 11 years old.

I'm going to stop being financially responsible so I can get a government bailout. I will also resolve to start smoking and gain ten pounds.

I need to start a retirement plan, like an IRA or something. I've got a positive cash flow and all I'm doing is filling a savings account who's interest rate is slowly biting the dust, thanks to the Fed. Starting an IRA was on my to-do list for this year, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. I need to start by reading Get Rich Slowly's series on starting IRAs because it all seems so tremendously complicated.

@Mr_D: Mint.com is a decent-ish way to track this with little effort, so long as you check to see it's accurately assigning charges and debits to the right category.

My goal is to pay off a credit card which currently has a balance of $3200. I have already cut it up. I'm using the snowball method and using any extra money that comes my way to pay it off.

Other than that, I hope to be more financially responsible so as not to find myself in this situation again. No more eating out, browsing SlickDeals, etc. :)

I'm also applying to grad school this month which will hopefully pay dividends in the future. ;)

To learn how to consolidate my private student loans through a different holder for a better percentage, and to ask if the payments could be applied better than they are currently.

I have already got rid of most of my CC debt but I have a little lingering (also on a 0% card) that needs to be gone. I need to keep spending less and saving more.

Get rid of credit card debt by the end of February and build 3 - 6 months of emergency living expenses.

I've got cashflow under control with Quicken...I just need to reduce expenses and increase income

Spend considerably less on hookers and blow.

I want to start cooking everything that I eat so that I can stop ingesting plastic from my lean cuisines. This is financial because it should be a lot cheaper than eating out/lean cuisines/store-bought food.

I'm already on track to have my credit card and a couple other bills paid off by May, and then I'll see if maybe I can get a new car this year.

@Mr_D: I want to start a forward-looking budget. I track expenses and do pretty well with that; I'm good at looking at the grocery bills and saying, "Hmmm, that's high; how can I reduce that next month?"

But I'm having a TERRIBLE time setting up a forward-looking budget that sets out X amount for clothes, X amount for the garden, etc.

I'm changing my budget strategy. For the past two years, I've tried to break everything down into specific categories per month -- like, $100/mo for clothing, $30/mo for movies or music, etc. This has not worked out well for me, mostly because I never spend that way... I'm just not that structured. I mean, I don't even necessarily go into clothing stores once a month, much less spend $100 every month. So I'm taking down those artificial barriers, and giving myself an allowance, which has to cover all of those things, plus groceries (which I have a HUGE amount of trouble staying under budget on). That'll let me do stuff like spend $80 on music one month and none on clothes, without feeling guilty for blowing it again as usual.

I've also created a list over the past 6 months of all of my 'irregular expenses' like car insurance, Consumer Reports subscription (hi, new corporate overlords! love you! please don't make the editors stop cussing and stuff!), domain name renewals, etc., and divvied it up into 12 equal payments, which I put into my savings account every month, so then when something comes up, I already have the money set aside so it's not a huge dent in one month's income anymore, it's all nice and evened out. That one thing is, I think, a good thing just for keeping track of everything and not getting ugly surprises. (Especially since it includes a bunch of money for unexpected car repairs. :P )

All my credit cards have zero balances, so I'm just divvying it up so my bills go to one card, and my discretionary stuff goes on another, so it's all neat and easy to track (and I only have to keep one card in my wallet with the others safely tucked away at home), and I'll be able to immediately see where I'm at on my allowance budget, any time I want, without having to delve into Quicken and run a report.

So that's my big goal: Try this "allowance" method to stay on budget, since the rigid categories way just didn't work for me.

last week i sat down and took a good look at how much debt ive accumulated. i was floored by how much more debt i actually have compared to what i thought. im looking for a second job to try and put a dent in my debt. im also looking into the snowball method of debt reduction. my boyfriend just worked his way out of 14k in debt. if he can do it, so can i :o)

We have not yet sat down to write our 2009 financial goals (we almost accomplished all our money goals in 2008, $4000 short on our 2007 IRA contributions, but we otherwise saved/invested $50,000 + 401ks this year).

But, I expect the following to be on our list when we put pen to paper and Mr. Sam draws up our pretty Excel chart.
(1) Max out our 401ks - $16,500 each for a total of $33,000.
(2) Max out 2009 IRAs - $5000 each for a total of $10,000. Plan is to do this early in the year to take advantage of bargain stocks.
(3) Add to our emergency fund, Suze Orman is now recommending 6-8 months of emergency funds and not that she is my favorite financial guru but I tend to agree with her on this one. Probably try to add another $10,000 to our E/R fund.
(4) Add to our baby fund. Probably try to add another $10,000.
(5) Save up for some new furniture, we've been in our house since 2004 and I'd really like a new couch (among some other wants) $10,000.
(6) Refi the mortgage, looking for a 4.7% rate.

So, that's about $30,000 in goals plus our 401ks. We can probably try to do a little more but this seems reasonable. We don't use CCs (although we have them) so we have no credit card debt and we don't have any other debt except mortgage.

@sabrinad:

We've been on an "allowance" + spending plan system for two years and its worked well for us. At the start of the year we create a spending plan using the data from Quicken (or if you don't track your spending you can review your bill statements) and we come up with a yearly (and monthly) figure for all recurring monthly bills (mortgage, utilities, dog walker) and semi-annual/annual bills (real estate taxes and insurance [we don't escrow], car insurance, other insurance, alarm, etc.) and then we create our list of savings goals. All of that info goes on our spending plan. And we create a rough annual (and monthly since we divide by 12) spending plan that takes our income - recurring bills - savings goals = allowance.

The money that is left over is our allowance (we each get the same amount, despite the fact that I earn more and tend to spend more than Mr. Sam) and all discretionary spending comes out of our allowance. And we include groceries and eating out in our "discretionary" spending along with clothes, entertainment, gifts, personal expenses, etc. So if I want to buy a fancy pair of shoes one month, I can do so without guilt but likely have to bring my lunch every day too. We also only use debit cards or cash for spending which helps us stay within our allowance parameters.

Good luck!

Just going to do in '09 the same as '08: don't buy stupid $hit and put all extra money back to paying off CC debt from college, student loans, and car payments. I don't care about the installment loans. I'm just happy my 10+ in CC debt is now cut in half.

I'd like to:

1. Actually save something.
2. Spend a bit less on crap.
3. Figure out how to make student loan payments in six months, since I just quit grad school.
4. Either win the Publishers Clearinghouse sweeps or sell a book, whichever comes first. (Probably the book; I've been entering the sweeps for years and nothing ever happens!)

@Eyebrows McGee: That old financial chestnut 'Your Money or Your Life' recommends tracking your spending, charting it in categories monthly, and then deciding if you want to spend more or less than that amount in future months. I've been too lazy to implement it (although I did track my spending for quite awhile which was illuminating), but it seems like a more flexible and intuitive way to budget than trying to figure out to the dollar what you will spend on gardening supplies etc.

My resolution is: put as much money as I can in retirement during the stick market crash. I have a long to time to wait for it to improve.

@QuiteSpunky: The stick market has fallen on hard times along with the stock market and more industries than you can shake a stick at. Or that is a typo. Ooops.

Seeing how I'll be laid off in a month, my 2009 financial resolution is to find another job. Failing that, find a nice cardboard box and stake out my territory.

@calquist:

Not only cheaper, but more delicious!

I come into 2009 finding myself planning a wedding, which makes my other financial priorities (i.e., pay off the credit card debt that accumulated during that really bad year when I was unemployed and couldn't afford Ramen) not quite as achievable as I had at first hoped.

So I need to make progress on my debt, continue saving something even if it's not a lot, and still be able to afford at least the basic rudiments of a wedding (we're not looking at some monstrous $25k affair but in this area even a dirt-cheap venue without a tent or anything starts at $2000).

@SadSam: ...now I know why I'm so woefully behind on all these supposed savings mantras. It's physically impossible to save $50k in a year when your income is $40k. Damn, I wish I made enough money to do that kind of financial stuff.

before i say it, i want to make it clear this isn't a joke.

i am going to pick up any and all change i see on the ground in the coming year, compile it to find out how much i acquire (a bit of an experiment?) and add it to my savings account.

this last year, without really trying, i managed to get around $100, so I am curious to try this actively and see what happens!

1st goal accomplished NO CC Debt or car payments Pay down overpriced home for refinance. Win the Lotto

@fjordtjie:

You should start a blog! :) (I'm totally serious).

My New Year's Resolution? Stop reading this sorts of stupid blogs where lots of you dumb shit 30's and 20's post crap like you're going to pick up street change all year to save $100 frickin dollars. How about - get a real skill, and get a real job. I can't believe all you 20/30's are so in debt on your damn credit cards, and others of you are savin' for babies. Life happens, people. Blogs sad to say are a terrible step down from what used to be newspapers and magazines, before the Internet destroyed it all in the name of the faceless crowd. Wikiality. Over & out dumb shits.

@Mr_D: I recommend YNAB for budgeting. It is totally awesome- seriously. You can try it for like three months free too. I started using about three months ago and have never been so in control of where every cent goes.

I've tried Mint, but the budgeting feature kind of sucks, (you can't budget for credit card payments, do a search of their forums, it's a major problem) and my one reach out to customer service resulted in a form letter that didn't address my question at all, but I do like their weekly emails to me and it looks nice.

@EtoilePB:
i did a wedding "on the cheap" a few years ago, and still spent about 10,000 (in massachusetts). which was, in fact, really cheap. i got my dress at the running of the brides (so much fun!!!) and i bought a book called "bridal bargains" which helped quite a bit.

@Sara Paquette: Yeah, we're looking at about $10k, in the metro DC area (which, pricewise, tends to be a lot like Boston, which is where I grew up). It's easy enough to skimp on or skip out on flowers and decorations and a dress and stuff but you've got to rent a venue and I'm not skipping pro photography and the food's got to come from somewhere, so $10k is pretty easy to hit pretty fast.

@DanteDiablo:

mint.com has been way too flaky. I used it for 3 months just fine... but now i cant even recategorize transactions. the interface is pretty but useless.

it uses the yodlee.com backbone... and i think yodlee.com is way better and stable.

also you can get money plus downloaded fora 2month trial which is also pretty decent, but a hassle to re-assign multiple transactions to a different category

1. Pay off the last of my $2500 credit card debt. Down from $12000 beginning of 2008.
2. Increase 401K contribution to at least 12%.
3. Save 8 months of living expenses in emergency fund, $10000.
4. Pay additional $200/month on new car loan
5. Save $10000 for first house.
6. Put aside $100/month for no remorse fun money.
7. Save as much additional money as possible. My spending is under control and this will be the first year I will have little going towards debts, except new car loan
8. Enjoy life more

@DePaulBlueDemon: Eh, I have no guarantee on that.

@EtoilePB: We spent about $10k on ours, in the DC metro area. It helps to find locations that are naturally scenic.

@HoldenMockingbird: hey buddy, i'm still in freaking college. i'll get a real job as soon as i complete my degree. in addition to going to a nice school, which i am paying for myself, i also work a full and part time job, and have a lab i have to work in (for free) to get into grad school.

unfortunately, $100 of found money is a big deal for me right now.

and you're a trolling asshole.