It was in the fall that my wife and I set financial goals for ourselves for the next few years. Every couple of months, I like to write an update on our progress. I wrote my recent progress on our financial goals a couple months ago. For those who weren’t reading my blog when I set my goals, here are the goals that I set out to accomplish in the next 2-3 years.

  1. Open and maximize yearly contributions to ROTH IRA for both of us
  2. Start contributing to 403(b) for both of us (I’m eligible to participate starting in the Spring)
  3. Get Life Insurance
  4. Increase net worth by 50% (this is easy to do when your networth is low )
  5. Finish Graduate School Debt Free (next December!!)
  6. Pay for Mrs. 20′s Graduate Degree in cash (She applied to start in January, more details to come)
  7. Build enough passive income to retire – Yes, I want to “retire” in 2-3 years. This is part of my early retirement plan.

Already Completed:

As I mentioned last time, I already checked off numbers 1, 2, and 3. We are strong believers in saving for retirement with a Roth IRA, especially for people who are still in their 20’s. I just recently qualified for my employer’s 403(b) plan and have been putting money there. Lastly, as I already wrote about separately, I got whole life insurance. You can read the article if you want to know more about why I chose this form of insurance over term life. I think it’s important to consider because most financial advisors and bloggers suggest term life over whole life. The alternative exists for a reason and you should at least consider if it is right for you.

Still in Progress:

I still have yet to increase my net worth by 50%. It has made steady increases every month. With the extra income that we are bringing in, it is easier to save money. The only month that our net worth has gone down (or that we spent more than we earned) is when we had to pay a huge amount of money for my wife’s grad school. We have enough extra cushion in our savings account that it wasn’t a problem and so far we have been able to pay for Mrs. 20’s graduate degree in cash. I have already written about how we will be able to pay for graduate school in cash. Lastly, I have been making significant headway on building up passive income in order to replace my day job income. My most recent landmark was in purchasing another well-established site with a blogging friend that will increase my potential income significantly.

While I would like to check more of my goals off, I understand that many of these will take the rest of the year to complete (especially the one about graduating with my M.A.). This also reminds me that achieving your financial goals is not just about checking them off right away, but continuing the long process to complete them. Many goals, like retirement planning, take years if not decades and staying dedicated to completing them (even without the sense of accomplishment) is what is important.

How are you doing with your financial goals?