Goals for 2012

Merry Christmas to all!

2011 was a tough year for me.  I went through a pretty rough patch in the spring/summer which I'm still paying for both emotionally and financially, but things are calming down now.  Then, a few months later, I took a pay cut at work, making life even more difficult.  Because of these things, its been easy to look forward to 2012 and try to figure out what I want to do so that I'm much better off in 12 months time.  Without further ado, my personal financial goals for 2012:

1.  Get a new job.  Fingers crossed, I think I'm pretty close to fixing this one, but nothing is set in stone.  I had a great onsite interview on December 19th that I'm waiting to hear back on, and I have another onsite interview at a different company some time in early January.  I think either of these jobs would be a better fit for me than my current one, and the compensation will be better than my current one as well.  Hopefully I'll have a more clear idea of what is going on by the end of January.

2.  Move into a less expensive apartment.  I'm hoping this one won't be too hard either.  My lease is up at the end of March, and the apartment I'm currently in is one of the last artifacts of my failed engagement.  Its way too big for just one person, so I'm looking forward to downsizing some, and its also pretty far from where I work, so a move closer to work would be nice too.

3.  Start maxing out my 401k.  This one is sort of related to goal 1, as I should be able to do this as soon as I get a new job.  Doing this makes it easier to contribute to a roth IRA, as contributions to 401ks dont count towards one's MAGI. Speaking of roth IRA's:

4.  Contribute as much as possible to my roth IRA.   If I get a new job it might be really tough to contribute to this anymore, so I at least need to make sure that I contribute all I can for 2011.  I'll probably have to wait to do my 2012 taxes to contribute again, just to see where I'm at income wise.

5.  Increase my dividend income by $2000 next year.  I currently make around $18k a year in dividends.  I think 20k a year is a doable goal, especially if goals 1 and 2 get accomplished (and if I can't do #4).


Well there it is.  It will be fun to look back on this list throughout the year to see how I'm doing.  What are some of your goals?  What do you think of these?  Too aggressive/not aggressive enough?