It’s 2007, and I still don’t have my flying car. Come on, science!

Ah well, let’s just review my financial goals for 2006.

Nick’s 2006 Goal Review Extravaganza!

1. Stop spending $119 a year on calendars. I met this one over a year ago, and I’ve already met it for 2007 with a free calendar. Really, though, calendars are a moot point for me since I rarely even know what month it is, let alone the date or day of the week.
2. Increase value of savings and investments by $10,000. Pfft, I did this one in my sleep. I contributed around $8,500 of my own cash to a 401(k) which had an awesome year thanks to my investment skillz–up 25%. (For reference, the S&P 500 rose about 13%.)
3. Stop paying so many damn taxes. Indeed, I didn’t pay very much in taxes for 2006… just lots of mortgage interest.
4. Boost our credit ratings. Considering I acquired a dozen credit cards and a mortgage, my rating’s up almost 100 points for the year, somewhere in the solid 700s. My wife’s is up, too, though her only credit activity is a lone student card.
5. Explore alternate avenues of revenue. Number of items Nick sold on eBay in 2006: Zero. Yes, I lamed out a bit on this one. I had set a goal of making $1,000 outside my day job, and I easily met it thanks to Punny Money.
6. Get us both financially enlightened. Yeah, I think we did a bit of that.

New Goals for 2007

Just a few this year…

1. Double our liquid savings. A good chunk of our savings went to various housing purchase costs last year. While we still have plenty in our emergency fund, I’d like to bump it up some more.
2. Separate personal and business finances. This is largely done as I filed the paperwork for Punny LLC last month. And I got some shiny business cards, too.
3. Become 100% richer. In addition to doubling our liquid savings, I’d like to see our net worth double by the end of the year. About half of this will be automatic thanks to 401(k) contributions and payments to our mortgage principle. The rest will come through careful saving, hard work, and a bit of entrepreneurship.

Happy New Year!