2009 Goals - In Review

I had set out five financial goals for 2009 back at the beginning of the year:

1. Contribute $200/month to emergency fund (Met, but only by averaging over the year)
2. Achieve balance of $5000 in emergency fund by end of 2009 (Met! Current balance = $5031)
3. Eliminate credit card debt by end of 2009 (Fell Short! Year-end balance = $4000)
4. Pay off Perkins student loan (Met! Current balance = $0!)
5. Pay down Stafford student loan to <$25k (Met! Year-end balance = $24,160)

I had really hoped to be out of credit card debt by the end of the year, but we've had a number of setbacks that I hadn't anticipated when I established the goals. A $1700 home repair back in January. Chase increased my husband's minimum credit card payments by over $500/mo in August (which means his credit card balances are going down quicker, but mine are decreasing slower). We had some unexpected income tax liability for employer-provided tuition assistance, which reduced my husband's take-home pay for the past 3 months. His salary was also frozen for this year, which meant about $600-750 less in take-home pay than originally projected.

We also made a few purchases that I hadn't really budgeted for when the goals were established. Although we've continued to make improvements to the house, it seems like we consistently run into a problem every time we start a project, increasing the total cost (often substantially!). We bought a new iPhone, went on a few mini-vacations, and bought a new big-screen TV.