New Year’s Resolutions have been around for over 4,000 years, ever since the Babylonians came up with the idea that whatever a person did on the first day of the year determined how the rest of their year would go.  The most common “resolution” back then was to return borrowed farm equipment.

Today, the first day of the new year is used for countless numbers of people to make (and usually break) promises to themselves involving things like losing weight, quiting smoking, working out, etc.  While I’m not a big fan of the typical New Year’s Resolution, I do think reflecting on past performances and setting specific goals for future performances is absolutely vital to your journey to financial success.

So what I’m going to do today is look back on my financial performance for 2008, list my financial goals and plans to achieve them for 2009, and list four tips for setting and keeping New Year’s goals or Resolutions.

Reflection of 2008

Unfortunately, I did not set a list of specific goals last New Year’s, so I do not have anything to judge my progress against.  Instead, I will simply list what I feel were good financial decisions I made this year and bad financial decisions I made this year.

The Good:

- Made a commitment to paying down debt, and paid off over half my credit card balance as a result.

- Increased my number of roommates from one to three, which cut my rent in half, despite moving to a more expensive area.  This gave me more money to put towards debt and savings.

- Graduated college and got my first “real” job.  This doubled my income and gave me more free time.

- Sold my motorcycle.  This eliminated 3,500 dollars of debt and my 80 dollar minimum monthly payment. 

- Opened and started making healthy contributions to a 401k.

- Started an emergency fund, which came in handy when I had over 1,000 dollars of unexpected expenses in December.

The Bad:

- Took a student loan out for my entire final semester of college when I could have easily worked extra hours and paid at least half of it with cash.

- Used credit cards at times for items I could not pay back in full the same month.

- Went out to eat too much, especially for lunch at work.

- Traded in my fully paid off car and took out a 13,000 dollar loan to get a new car (not actually new, it was used).  I have a little trouble putting this one here, because my old car wasn’t in great shape and I got a very good deal on my new one.  But if I’m being perfectly honest adding 13,000 dollars of debt and 250 dollars a month payments to my finances was not a necessary thing.

Goals for 2009 and Plans for Achieving Them

- Pay off remainder of credit card balance by February: Current amount owed is about 1,800 dollars

        - Plan for achieving this goal: Use extra paycheck in January to pay remaining balance.

- Pay off 5,000 dollar personal loan by April: Currently owe entire amount

        - Plan for achieving this goal: Pay back 600 dollars a month starting in February and use most of tax return

- Build a 3,000 dollar emergency fund by August: Currently have about 900 dollars in fund

        - Plan for achieving this goal: Starting in April begin contributing 400 dollars a month

- Save 2,000 dollars for 2010 wedding: Currently have nothing saved

        - Plan for achieving this goal: Begin contributing 100 dollars a month in April and 500 a month in August

- Earn enough passive income from this site to cover at least one of my fixed expenses every month by June

        - Plan for achieving this goal: Work to constantly improve content on this site and market it to the best of my abilities

Those are my financial goals for 2009.  I also have other smaller goals within those main ones, but those are the targets that will dictate my finances for the rest of this year.

How successful were you in following through with your 2008 goals?  What are your financial goals for 2009?