Goal checkup: refocus your financial plans

I‘ve written before about some of our family’s financial goals, but it’s been a long while.  There’s a good explanation for this — 2010 has been an unexpected doozy.

We became debt-free in early 2008, and it didn’t take us long to save up for our fully-funded emergency fund.  We then saved up for a few other sinking funds, such as a baby and a much-needed family vacation (the first true one since we had kids).

When 2010 hit, however…  Let’s just say we were beyond thankful we had a good savings.  We’re now back to replenishing that bad boy.  A sudden international move will do that to you, apparently.

This month in Simple Living Media, we’re discussing life preparation and goal making. So for the next three Mondays here on Simple Mom, the topics will focus on how we’re all doing with any personal and family goals, and we’ll also bring up our 2010 goals we might have made back in January.  Remember those?

Today, let’s check up on our financial goals.

What are your money goals?

I’ve found from personal experience that if you don’t manage your money, your money will manage you.  It has this sneaky way of slipping through fingers if the fingers aren’t deliberate with what they hold.  You know what I mean, I’m sure.

If you can, think back to the beginning of 2010, when you were looking towards the next 12 months.  Did you make any specific financial goals or plans?  Maybe even just general hopes?

How are you doing on them? We’ve still got about four and a half months left of the year — that’s plenty of time to make some good headway!

Our family’s goals

• By the end of this year, we hope to have replenished our emergency fund, taking it back to its “fully-funded” status.

• Once our emergency fund is where we like it, we’ll meet with our ELP to beef up our retirement contributions and kids’ college funds.

• We’ll continue funding our ongoing annual sinking funds for holidays, vehicle maintenance, vacation, and the like.

By December 2010, we’d like to check these off our list so that we can move on to bigger things.  We hope to know soon which country we’ll be living in, which will help determine what our longer-term financial plans actually are.

I’m learning that even though life throws you setbacks, the important thing is to keep chugging along, financially-speaking.  Kyle and I have repeatedly said to each other this year how enormously glad we are to have had our emergency fund, even though we had to use so much of it.  After all, that’s what it’s for — emergencies.

Don’t throw in the towel on this year.  You can still make great progress on your family’s money goals by December.

So fess up…  How have your financial goals been trekking this year? Feel free to answer in the comments, or if you want, share more details on your own blog and link to it in the comments.