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2017 New Year Financial goals

SMART goals


It's January 2017 and time to set some financial goals for 2017. The aim is that they should be SMART. So, let's cut straight to the chase. My financial goals for 2017 are...

Mortgage


Mortgage payments aren't really a goal, they're more of a requirement. However, the intention is to pay off roughly £6,000 of the £337,000 of mortgage debt via the automatic payment of my mortgage. However on top of this I intend to make an overpayment of £100 per month. If I keep this up over the period of the mortgage I'll slash 5 years of the mortgage term.

Interest free credit items


My fiancé and I bought several items on interest free credit when we first bought our flat. We intend to make our regular repayments and pay off £2,100 of this debt leaving about £3,400 remaining.

Saving


This is a year for savings. We've bought our flat and are getting married in a week. It's now our plan to save about £1,700 per month. This is more than 20% of our combined net income. This should result in total annual savings of £20,400.

On top of these savings I intend to put away additional income earned from side businesses once tax is paid on that additional income.

Side businesses


I currently earn additional cash each month from various side businesses. This income can vary quite significantly month to month. Recently I have managed to average an additional monthly income of about £500 per month. I aim to grow this average monthly income to over £1,000 per month by the end of the year. After taxes I hope to put away an additional £6,000 into savings from these side businesses this year.

Investing


This year is a solid buy and hold strategy. I bought £9,500 of Sainsburys shares last year. These have already grown in value to about £11,000 and will pay a decent 4.5% dividend. I have a target sale price in mind (about 30% higher than the original purchase price) and will sell all the shares at this point.

The intention is to invest into stocks and shares ISAs 100% of savings made this year. However, no shares will be purchased until it becomes apparent that there is an undervalued company on the stock market. In the mean time our savings cash pile will build until it can be made use of.

Jobs


It is possible that my partner will move jobs this year for more money in which case we will increase the amount of money that we're saving. Additionally, I may get a promotion this year which would put an additional £4k- £5k into savings. It is likely that I may receive a bonus this year which would also be in the region of £4k. 30% of this amount after tax will go into a holiday fund and the remainder into savings.

So those are my financial goals for the year. What of yours dear readers?

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