2010 Goals

I haven’t shared our 2010 goals yet for one reason – they weren’t done. Our 2010 goals aren’t done yet because I’m not sure what we want to accomplish and I’m not sure what we want to accomplish because we have some big changes coming in 2010.

In July of 2010 the Harrison household is expecting a new member! Matt and I are thrilled and the dog is still trying to figure out how this will affect his ability to sleep till 10 on weekends. We’re very excited and nervous to be first time parents. And as you can imagine the whole future being unknown part has made it difficult for us to set goals.

If all goes well I hope to be able to stay home with the baby for a while, but we have some things to work out before that could happen.

Because of all these interesting development we have two segments of goals; 6 months before the baby and 6 months after.
They look like this.

6 months before (Jan – Jun)
- Increase emergency fund by $10,000
- Begin living 100% on one income
- House prep for a baby (list below)

6 months after (Jul – Dec)
- Have baby
- Try to survive

I also want to continue to save for retirement and other things like home improvements but again we’ll have to see how things go before we make any concrete goals for after the baby. Before July there are a few house projects I would like to finish. I’m hoping that making them part of my 2010 goals it will help me to focus on them and get them finished. I’m also counting on you guys to keep me on track

House projects for 2010
- Rip up bushes in front of house
- Hang shelves in basement for books
- Hang shelves in basement for stockpile and craft storage
- Paint kitchen (long story)
- Put in cat door
- Paint the upstairs stairwell
- Hang pictures (yes four months here and there is nothing on my walls yet)
- Get upstairs closets set up
- Touch up paint job

I’m sure I’ll add to the list as time goes on and I see/remember other things we need to do but for now I think this is a decent size to start with.

There you have it folks our very thought out goals for 2010. We really just don’t know if/how long we can live on one income so trying to live on just Matt’s paycheck for a few months will help us determine what our goals will be in the future and how to better allocate our money.