Monday, January 02, 2006

Goals for 2006 and beyond

It's a bit early for me to post my final end-of-2005 net worth, as I still need to reconcile some dividends and stuff on my E*Trade and 401k accounts, but the good news is that I will definitely be over my goal of $250k.
So what about 2006? After a little huff on the crytal ball, I decided to set myself a goal of $275k for the end of 2006. This might be a little wimpy, but I am going to have some hefty costs associated with purchasing my new home next year, and I'll be saving a bit less per month, so I'm not going to be too hard on myself. The tricky thing next year will be deciding whether to count my home at its purchase price, or more, or less, depending on where the market's gone by then.
I also have another longer term goal: I'd like to save enough cash to have a down payment on another apartment by 2010. (Yeah, I know, I haven't even closed on this one and I'm already getting greedy!) I still don't feel like I really want to become a big investor in real estate, or deal with the headaches of being a landlord, but I think I'd like to hang on to the apartment I'm buying even if I decide I'd like to live someplace else eventually. It just seems like it will be too good a thing to get rid of, financially-- I doubt I'll ever get such a low mortgage rate again, and I should always be able to rent it out profitably. We'll see-- a lot could change between now and then.

1 comment:

Tiredbuthappy said...

Yeah, that's my favorite thing about my current house. The mortgage payment is under $600/month. If I can ever afford to move, I can definitely rent this one for enough to cover the mortgage with a healthy cushion for repairs and maintenance.

And yes, I was thinking about that even before we closed. So I don't think you're too unusual (and definitely not greedy) for looking ahead.