Ok, until I get this plug-in done, or until someone points me to something nicer, I can’t do charts easily. But that doesn’t mean I can’t post.

It’s February 12th and I have yet to update you on my progress for January, so here it is (without charts until the plug-in is done).

I set out at the beginning of January to do the following for 2008:

1. Eliminate credit card debt. It was $9352 and was $8960 at the end of January, 4.2% progress.
2. Eliminate other debt. Thanks to selling some books on Amazon, along with my scheduled payment, this is now down to $926 from the original $1043. This represents 11.2% progress. This is quite good, since I am attacking this one at a minimum of $100 per month to finish it off by October or November.
3. Increase Cash to $1000. Well, I’ve achieved total cash of $319, down from December’s assessment, but December’s true cash was about $0 due to immediate bills. This is 31.9% of my goal, and I hope to finish it off by March or April.
4. Increase Retirement from $1521 to $3768, a total of $2247.  As of the end of January, I was at $1654, a $133 increase, amounting to 5.9% of my goal.  I believe that this low percentage has more to do with the market downturn, since I’ve made contributions about on par with what I expected.
5. Increase Stock Investments to $400, from $283.  Well, this one is not going so well.  Thanks to the market slump, it is actually down $6, despite the inclusion of uninvested funds in my account.
6. Purchase $200 in savings bonds, of which I’ve discovered I already have a $50 EE paper bond ($25), which I’m not counting towards my goal, but I have purchased a $25 I electronic bond through Treasury Direct.  This officially puts me at 25% of my goal, and a total, including accumulated interest, of $64.
7. I didn’t originally put my end of year net worth as a goal, but I did mention my expected outcome, and thus a conversion is made.  I expected to raise my net worth by a total of $13995 and have raised it by $405 through due diligence and “windfalls.”  This amounts to 2.9% progress.

While I haven’t achieved the 8.3% progress required to achieve these goals, I am working on finding a better paying job.  Success at this particular goal will determine the true probability of success for the year.  As it stands, I’ve applied to one company and posted my resume on both CareerBuilder and Monster, with a nibble, via Career Builder, as of this afternoon.