Budget Freak

This past week, I’ve been taking a hard look at salary, savings, retirement, investments and I came up with a list of goals. I broke the list down in Long Long Term (think 10 years – retirement), Long Term (2-5 years), Year Long Goals, and Immediate Goals. This post is the first in a series on my financial goals for the rest of my life. As the week goes on, I’ll have posts on the rest of my goals, and then, in future posts, I’ll detail specifics on how I plan to achieve these goals and introduce some milestone deadlines along the way.

Long, Long Term Goals
Although I’m still really young, it’s never to early to think about the future. You might think it’s silly to look at some of these goals now, but the earlier you start, the better off you’ll be. If you’ve ever read ANY article, in ANY publication about retirement, then you know it pays off to start young. Compound Interest is your friend, and I’m hoping to compound for 40 years or so. With that in mind, lets take a look.

• Retire Early – This is vague, but pretty self-explanatory. I want to be wealthy enough to stop working at 50 or 55 (maybe earlier?). Travel the world, golf, whatever. The idea is to stop working full time and start enjoying life.
• Pay for my children’s educations – This is probably one of the most important goals for me. My parent’s were kind enough to pay for my entire college education, and I can honestly say I wouldn’t be where I am today if they hadn’t. I’d like to do that for my children, and give them a head start on their lives.
• Be a Millionaire at 35 – This might seem pretty pretty trivial and vain (and it is), but having a net worth of $1 million will get me well on my way to fulfilling my first 2 long term goals, and will keep me disciplined and focused on my journey to accumulating wealth. Not to mention I’d really like to start calling myself a millionaire. And I’d probably start wearing robes and smoking pipes.
• Never Have to Worry About Money – By this, I simply mean I never want to have to worry about making a mortgage payment, or worry about how we’re going to pay the bills or buy groceries. It’s about making smart decisions with my money and making sure I have an emergency fund to fall back on. And I’m not just talking about a ‘couple months’ emergency fund. I mean something catastrophic happens and I’m out of a job for a year, the house burns down, and all my kids need braces, and we need to buy a new car. I want to be able to live comfortably and worry free for at least two years on that emergency fund.

That should give you a big picture overview of how I’d like my financial life to unfold. Unless I win the lottery, it’s going to take serious planning, budgeting, discipline, and maybe a little luck, but I absolutely believe I can accomplish these goals.

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