I wasn’t really sure what I wanted my New Year’s Resolutions to be about this year.  I’ve never really made and been serious about my resolutions.  This year is different.  As the years pass I find myself being and wanting to be more honest with myself and others.  I feel that women can afford to be more true these days.  At least I hope.

Here, quickly, are my resolutions.  I will be, as stated earlier, following Groundhog Day resolutions this year.  I learned about this concept at David Seah’s blog earlier this month.  Groundhog Day resolutions just mean that you revisit the resolutions every month (1/1, 2/2 and 3/3, etc.)

1.  Pay off 42,000 of my mortgage.  I don’t have any other debt (beyond monthly utilities and food costs), so this is my only debt payoff.

2.  Contribute $4,000 to DH’s IRA.

3.  Pay for DH to return to school.

4.  Cut sugar out of my diet.  I’m sure you PF readers don’t really care about this one, but I put it down anyway!

There, those 4 simple things.  I just had to get them down on digital paper before the hours pass today and I don’t get a chance to do it. 

Thanks for reading and making 2007 a wonderful year for me!

We actually ventured out into the city yesterday and went to (gasp!) THE MALL.  I had to return some gifts.  I got the gift cards and didn’t spend a dime.  It’s always fun to go anyway.

We were driving around town on the weekend, which I hate to do in the town where I live, because I swear, the whole world comes here to drive around on the weekends, just to make it slow to go places.  I posited a question to my husband.

How many of these cars that you see right now do you think have a loan out on them?

It really interests me, because I know that with loans come new cars and pricier insurance.  I bought the second car that we’ve bought with cash this year and I was SO happy.  We didn’t buy it at the base lemon lot this time, we bought at Carmax, and I couldn’t be happier.  We got to choose the car we wanted and we didn’t have to haggle.  We waited until a good deal showed up.  It was so great.

Anyway, so I set to researching the car/loan ratio.  DH guessed 80%, but I had no idea.  After an arduous Internet search, I have my answer…for 2001.  Only 7.7% of new car buyers in 2001 paid cash for their cars, according to a bankrate article here.  But this doesn’t really answer my question.  How many cars out on the road do you think are in a loan?  I will continue to search and post if I find out anything else.  If you find something, please comment here.

I used to love Saturday morning cartoons not too long ago (maybe 15 years).  I remember them being my favorite.  And I came out all right….

But the cartoons make me feel guilty.  My son has a change in personality when these cartoons come on.  "Mom, can I get that?" he asks, repeatedly.  My son is not usually an asker, and he knows that in my house, if he wants something, he can use his allowance to buy it.  But he somehow mysteriously forgets when these cartoons are on.  "Mom, I want the super-soaker grossed-out gushy candy," he tells me, enthusiastically.  I’m not really sure what this candy is or if it’s even edible.

My son doesn’t even go grocery shopping with me, and we don’t visit the mall, so I’m not really sure that there are other sources for him to "want" except for these cartoons and his exposure at school to the other kids.  Luckily, he’s a boy, so I’m hoping that wearing perfect clothes won’t be as important for him as it was for a stupid teenage girl that I was.

What’s your take on Saturday morning cartoons?  Am I being too harsh on them, or are they consumer traps?

I’m a closet Walmart shopper.  I love the price matches that the store gves, but I hate the labor problems we hear about.

Yesterday, (December 28th), I was there, and they had….ready?  Valentine’s Day decorations.  I’m not really sure what to say.

I’m back after a two-day hiatus.  I heard something on the news the other night (Christmas Eve).  An elderly man was in the mall, shopping for his grandson, who is two years old.  He said that he had already bought all the presents that the boy needed, now he was just buying extra things for the boy.  "I don’t know who else I would spend it on," the man said.

 This last sentence really irked me, for some reason.  Maybe I’m a scrooge, but I feel like our society tells us we HAVE to spend our money on something.  How about investing it into a college fund for the boy or bolstering his inheritance instead of buying some poorly-made goods that will probably get broken in the hubbub of boys’ play?  My son has tons of toys (probably half broken), but the last thing he could use is more of them.

How do you feel about this practice?  Do you notice that people feel like money burns a hole in their pockets?

MSN Money published this article about "12 Ways to Become a Millionaire."  Here are the steps followed by my take on them.

1.  Keep your eyes peeled for better ways to do your job. This is so true.  I work in a job where promotion is tied to testing, so it doesn’t really help me much, but I still get more opportunities through better face time.

2.  Don’t be afraid to negotiate.  Remain open-minded yourself, too, so that these opportunities actually come up.  Also, always remember my favorite quote, "The worst thing they can do is say, "No."

3.  Get your ducks in a row and your numbers on paper.  Keep records.  Keep an "I love me" sheet for yourself.  No one will keep track of this as well as you will, and it will take forever to go back and get stats after the fact.

4.  Plot your strategy when it’s time to move on.  Better yet, plot it way ahead of time.  Always have a second plan or "Plan B."

5.  Contribute as much as you can to your 401(k) and other tax-deferred plans.  You can always contribute more now and find a way to deal with the consequences.  You cannot contribute more later.

6.  Flex your tax-saving muscle.  This step is about FSAs, about which I am totally illiterate.

7.  Review your tax withholding.  Don’t make interest-free loans to the government.  Up your withholding numbers if you have consistently gotten a huge return each year.

8.  Stash savings in a Roth IRA if you’re eligible.  You should be putting this money in second after an employer match is maximized.

9.  Don’t delay.  I think anyone reading PF blogs understand this is a no-brainer.

10.  Invest automatically.  This totally tricks your brain.  There is no question each month that my husband’s Roth is coming out.  It comes out on the same date each month and we stretch our budget to cover it.

11.  Watch for fund fees.  Do what it takes and don’t invest into funds with fees.  A no-load index fund is the simplest way to do this.

12.  Keep it simple.  If you follow all the steps above, it should be simple for you.  Don’t go for get-rich-quick schemes.

I travelled back home from DC yesterday and you should have seen the traffic on the interstate!!!  It was horrible.  I’ve just been purging today at my house.  I have so many papers and stuff I don’t need.  It’s so liberating to be cleaning up things and getting rid of junk.

 I also have an eBay pile.  Hopefully I can make some money too!  I’m thinking about getting rid of all my CDs from high school and college, but I’m not so sure I can sell them without their CD cases.  Any ideas?

I also have a ton of books to get rid of.  I think it will be a ton of work, but I’m looking forward to clearing out some old stuff!

Now that I have an excuse (my husband quitting work and going back to college - again), this next year, I’m not going to purchase presents.  We end up racking our brains to try to find something perfect to buy for the person that has everything.  Why not give to the people that need things?  This next year, I’m going to give the important people in my life that I usually give $100 items to (around 10 people not including my spouse - we don’t exchange gifts) the option of which charitable organization to give $25 in their name.  And I promise myself not to feel guilt because we’ll have two in school (DH and DS - the son).

 What do you think?  What are some other things we can do to make the holidays less materialistic?  My son always ends up with a mountain of presents.  We put all but one in the closet and dole them out, one by one, throughout the year, but it still seems a waste at times when I know there are children that don’t have food to eat or clean water to drink.  Any other ideas?

I was thinking about doing an online deal (link) would be a good idea, but my grandparents are Internet illiterate and don’t even own a computer, so they’d have to have a paper format.  I think I’ll just ask them what organization and then donate.  I’ll probably do the legwork for everyone.

I have to make resolutions still for New Year’s, but I’ve been thinking about making Groundhog Day Resolutions (link here), because I think they will be more effective.  I also think I will be putting my financial resolutions here!  I’m very excited, but I’m still formulating them in my head, so look for those in the coming week.

I’m leaving the DC area on Saturday morning, so there won’t be so much temptation to experience everything and spend all my money!  I’m very excited to get home and get Christmas underway.  I had a great experience with online shopping this year and I’ve vowed to do all shopping hereafter online!

I hope you’ve mailed out your presents by today!

Let me being this article by stating that I’m a full-fledged advocate of joint bank accounts for couples.  I went into the banking situation telling myself that we’re in this whole thing together.  I don’t think that the joint bank account issue has kept us married, we just never planned on getting divorced, so there’s really no reason for me to worry about "having my own identity," like there is for most women.  I manage all our accounts and my husband and I discuss every monetary transaction over $20.  It may be a higher amount for most couples, but $20 is our "discussion" limit.

This article on MSN Money discusses joint accounts.  What are your beliefs?  Do you think it’s necessary for couples to keep separate accounts to keep their sanity?  Or, like me, do you believe that joint accounts "keep you honest" and act as a system of checks and balances?