I am now eligible for my companies 401K plan, so I signed up this month to start contributing. I have started off with a 10% contribution and will get the full 4% match offered by my employee. We have not made any contributions to retirement in a year, so we need to catch up as much as possible. I will monitor our finances closely the next few months to see if we can up our contributions.

Both my husband and I received our first credit cards this month and will start building credit history finally.

With everything that has been going on in our lives I have lost a clear overview of where we are exactly financially and have not had much times to set some goals for 2010. I did set goals for 2008 and 2009 and I certainly saw the benefit of tracking our progress and working towards achieving them. However with the big move in 2009 I stopped tracking things so closely as of course we took a huge financial hit to get here. We do still have a semblance of an emergency fund in place and I am amazed at how quickly we have been able to put a life together in Florida, so I am happy we took the hit and so far it is paying off (knock on wood nothing will change).

2010 is a new year with new opportunities and challenges, so I am going to lay out some general goals and define them as our situation becomes more stable. It is always good to lay a foundation you can build on.

1) Hurry up and get us on a health plan ASAP.

2) Put together an overall view of where we are financially by updating our networth report.

3) Complete the monthly budget document I have started working on and ensure there is a comprehensive overview of our cash flow.

4) Build up 3 months of emergency fund here in florida.

5) Investigate IRA option for me and my husband and open up one for each of us before the end of March.

6) Look into options for purchasing a second car (first car was purchased in September. It is a second car paid for in cash in full). Our lack of much credit history and funds may delay this one for quite some time.

7) Make extra payments to husband's student loan.

8) Obtain (secured) credit cards for both to start building credit history.

9) Investigate the best way to file taxes. As we have only recently move to Florida we need to file taxes in the country we lived in for most of 2009 and in Florida. This may mean that we are eligible for some refunds, but I will need to check.

10) Change husband's address with all pension companies in old country.

That is a basis foundation for us to get started on in the oh ten. Looks like we have our work cut out for us, but considering what we achieved in oh nine, I am confident we can make it happen. :-)

Have a great 2010 everybody!