Finances

Every morning I am in my office (seems to be less and less these days :) I scroll through my list of blogs I read.  I like to keep up with people back home, and abroad as well a big bunch of people I've never met.  They all write interesting things, stuff that I like to incorporate into my own life.  The list below is from my newest fav - Carrie... on the cheap.  She writes about finances, and as my new career path is taking me down the finance path (yay!) I've really begun to get interested and have decided to pursue my next degree in accounting . finance.  She's listed a financial bucket -list of sorts - I love lists!!  Anyways, I've always kept a list of goals on my computer, financial ones included, but I've posted hers as I think all the points are really quite relevant.  I've added a few of my bits for fun.

• Pay off my home before I turn 40 (next year Pete and I are planning on buying our first home - we both need to be posted first... thank goodness for inexpensive property near Army Bases :)
  
• Open Education Funds for each of my children when they’re born and fully fund their college educations (in cash) (much easier to do in Canada... yay!)
  
• Never finance a car again (this might not be a reality just yet, next year we are going to get  a new car and have a wedding and a house to pay for - we'll just try to pay it off asap)
  
• Have $3 million in my 401K when I retire (401k = RRSP in Canada, luckily we will both have government pensions, but we still have plans on investing for retirement and using our pensions as a last resort.  $3 Mil might be a bit steep for us, but we'll see)
  
• Never pay a cent of credit card interest ever again, or any interest for that matter (except interest on a mortgage) (Good idea!)
  
• Retire before I turn 60
• Stay physically healthy to avoid high costs of poor health as I age (a job requirement actually)
  
• Never make a loan to a friend or family member; if they are in dire need, give them a gift of money
• Never take out a loan for anything EVER again with the exception of a mortgage
• Always have an Emergency Fund of $10,000 per person in my family (already working on that one - just about there) 
• Max out a Roth IRA every year that you are eligible until you become ineligible (kind of like our TFSAs but without the retirement addition - mine is maxed for this year)

So there we go, finances are fun!  Gotta go for dinner, ciao!