Since I have found this site and several other personal finance websites, I have become more and more excited about creating a financially secure future for me and my BH.

When I first turned to the web for some help with our finances, I was very insecure and stressed about our financial situation. We always seemed to be so many steps behind everyone else we knew. I was faced with some pretty big anxieties about not only our financial future, but those of our families'. However, since being able to read about other people being in the same situation and how they are coping with it, I have managed to calm myself down from being worried and stressed all the time.

After reading so much about personal finance I have come to realise that I have managed to equip myself with some pretty hefty tools to use against even my worst money fears. This is itself is comforting. However, I have even gotten to the point where I can be so excited about new opportunities and goals that I find myself thinking about them over and over again. Budgetting, calculating, setting, re-setting and finally taking actions to make and achieve these goals. This excitement is a wonderful feeling and I hope that I never forget just how empowering it is to take charge of my finances and build something with them.

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As an exercise to keep myself on track and also for records sake, I am going to list the steps I have already taken this year to achieve some of the goals I set for us at the beginning of the year.

- We have paid off 1200 EUR of CC debt.
- I have signed up for my company's saving plan. This should result in a saving of 600 EUR this year, tax exempt.
- My BH will start maxing out his contributions to his employer's pension plan, which should hopefully kick in this coming month. I already do max out my contributions.
- I have opened up a free internet savings account with a 4.5% annual interest rate.
- I have set up automated transfers for monthly savings and several bills. This means I have less stress each month when it comes to ensuring all bills are paid on time. Only 3 line items on our monthly bugdet are not automatically deducted from our account( groceries, travel and extras).
- We upgraded our internet and downgraded the monthly costs from 30 EUR to 23 EUR.
- Gas/electricity bill has been reduced from 148.01 EUR to 137.01 EUR per month.

Wow, even I did not realise how much has already been done until I just listed the items. Can you tell how excited I am?

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One last note, I have found another goal I would like to track for 2008. Last year we earned 40.09 EUR interest on our savings. I am going to track what we earn this year and hopefully this number will start going up. Ultimate goal will be when we earn enough interest on savings that we can retire. Interim goal, try to beat the previous year's interest. Very optimistic goal, double last year's interest earned amount. We'll see what happens, but all in all I am quite happy about the progress we have already made. I feel we are on the right path.