Happy New Year! Yes, it has been a long time since my last post. Commitments from increased responsibilities at work and graduate school held my focus. I was still able to remain committed to my financial goals. I reviewed my accomplishments for 2008 and updated my financial goals for 2009. I managed to complete most of my goals for 2008.

2008 Goals:

We finally have some breathing room due to our emergency house fund. It allowed us to pay an unexpected tax payment and a car insurance deductible without a major financial crisis.

DH and I were able to take a romantic bed and breakfast trip paid fully with cash for our anniversary!

Didn't stress about paying our life and car insurance. We finally started saving the money every month before the bill was due. Sounds silly but what a light bulb moment!

Used cash money to pay for new wood floors. The current housing crisis led to us finding a great contractor at an affordable price! This wouldn't have been possible prior to the housing bust.

Stayed under or within budget for utilities,groceries and miscellaneous categories. The only exception was the gas budget.

Stayed away from buying wants and used our funds for needs. This was specially true during the holidays. Paid cash for gifts!

We finally have eleven months living expenses saved! Working on twelve months for 2009.

Thank you for all of the good advice that was put to good use for my family financial future!

I've been very busy lately due to my running schedule and heavy work load. Just ran a 5K today at a decent 10 minute mile pace. I am happy about completing the run. My next goal is preparing for the 8K in July. My running group was key to me successfully completing the race. Lots of laughter and encouragement (especially running up hills!)

My job is moving to a new location at the end of the month. My drive was a 25 minute commute and will change to a 45 - 90 minutes commute depending on traffic. The good thing is that my employer is allowing us to telecommute two times a week. My work hours will permit me to avoid the morning and afternoon D.C. traffic jams. I also received a 6% raise which will be used to boost up my 401K, house emergency fund and to pay for higher gas expenses.

DH has negotiated a good salary and an outstanding benefits package from the new prospective job. He is now waiting to see if the military will allow him to retire in October. We hope to have an answer about his release date by the beginning of July. We are on pins and needles about this because there is a chance that the military may say no due to the current status of Afganistan and Iraq. This has happen to a friend who was due to retire in August but was denied and was immediately deployed to the conflict. All we can do is stay positive and hope for the best.

Our DS#1 has purchased his own bedroom furniture (used) and mattress set (new). Paid in full about $650 in cash money. He is now saving up for a television set for his future apartment. He also is continuing to save up for his three month emergency fund, first and last month apartment fees. He plans to look around for inexpensive living and dining room furniture in September. I still can't believe that he has a plan to move out the house in one year. He also had an unexpected car repair (alternator and electrical problems) that cost him $400. He was prepared due to his saving $500 in his car repair fund. He was very happy that he had this fund to pay for the repair. This is a proud moment for us.

DS#2 will be here in July for the summer. We are really looking forward to seeing him. He has all ready lined up a summer job. He has expensive tastes in clothes and electronics. This summer job will be used to supplement his expenses because we won't finance his wants. It will be a challenge due to his mother has a live life on credit and don't worry about the costs. My DH is worried that DS#2 will grow up living beyond his means. I told him that the young man can learn about finances from us but we should do it slowly without being pushy. Since he doesn't live with us full time that is all we can do. Raising young men is so much fun!

I have been going back and forward with this decision. I have decided to pursue my graduate degree in health care management/education to increase my salary potential. I would use my military educational benefits to pay for the degree. My DH and sons are 100% behind me with this goal. This would aid me to finding a better employment position.

I am a little apprehensive about the immense amount of time this would involve especially with a full time job. I feel good about this decision but a little guilty about the time it would take from my family. The 2 year program starts in January 2009 which involves one weekend a month with a part time internship at a hospital. I can accomplish this goal with a lot of family support, running and coffee! Yeah me!!