My Personal Finance Journey

Personal finance observation, musing and decisions in a journey toward financial independence by 36 with at least $1 million.




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My 2008 Financial Plan? You Are Invited To Participate and Win $100

Contributed by mm | December 18, 2007 5:33 AM PST

contest.jpgIt is December and many household CFOs like me are crunching the numbers and make annual plans. At PFBlog, this will be the fifth time I set annual financial goals publicly (see my goals for 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007). This year, let me do something different by inviting you, valued PFBlog readers, to join the process, and reward you for participation.

Here is how you can be involved. I have created an Excel-based model (snapshot below) that put all key drivers of our household finance to play. You just need to help me make six high level assumptions, and the model will automatically calculate how much net worth increase we can target in 2008. You may also copy/paste the model output as comments into this post as formal submission to the contest.

plan2008contest.jpg

To thank our loyal readers for participation, we will set up two grand prizes:

1) Participation Award = $50 Amazon Gift Certificate. Winner will be randomly picked from all participants who left a comment with the model's output. Winner will be announced by December 22nd.

2) "Closest to the Pin" Award = $50 Amazon Gift Certificate. Winner will be awarded to the reader that submitted the plan that is closest to my final 2008 net worth growth target (which I will disclose before 2008 starts). Winner will be announced by December 31st.

Again, you may download the template here and play with it for real money.

Deadline for submission will be the midnight of December 20 in Pacific time zone. Also, obviously for you to claim the award, you should leave an email address when commenting -- rest assured your email address will not be shown and will not be used after the contest.

If you have any questions regarding the contest, just drop me a mail. Thank you in advance for your participation!

More PFBlog Articles You Might Find Interesting ...


This Post Has Received 19 Comments. Share Your Opinions Too.


frankyj009 Commented on December 18, 2007

I should get something for being first :P

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 5%
Business Income Growth = 10%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 7%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 20%
Expense Growth = 10%
Tax Growth = 20%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $272,903
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,160,304


Mike Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 3%
Business Income Growth = 10%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 6%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 5%
Expense Growth = 3%
Tax Growth = 6%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $269,022
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,156,423


Myself Commented on December 18, 2007

Here's my thoughts (if not random):
Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 4.0%
Business Income Growth = 12.0%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 5.5%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 7.3%
Expense Growth = 4.0%
Tax Growth = 10.0%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $264,434
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,151,835


sucellus Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 10%
Business Income Growth = 15%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 8%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 3%
Expense Growth = 5%
Tax Growth = 9%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $303,682
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,191,083


John Commented on December 18, 2007

Fore!
Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 5%
Business Income Growth = 11%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 7%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 12%
Expense Growth = 10%
Tax Growth = 5%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $282,718
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,170,119


J.C.'s Money Commented on December 18, 2007

Some more ambitious numbers:
Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 8%
Business Income Growth = 5%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 11%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 3%
Expense Growth = 10%
Tax Growth = 10%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $314.708
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1.202.109


Jeff Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 8%
Business Income Growth = 12%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 4%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 4%
Expense Growth = 8%
Tax Growth = 8%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $255,042
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,142,443


Jeffy Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 10%
Business Income Growth = 25%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 9%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 5%
Expense Growth = 15%
Tax Growth = 5%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $317,750
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,205,151


raj Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 3%
Business Income Growth = 10%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 5%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 5%
Expense Growth = 4%
Tax Growth = 4%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $259,458
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,146,859


PhilC Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 12%
Business Income Growth = 11%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 11%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 58%
Expense Growth = 7%
Tax Growth = 0%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $374,372
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,261,773


pj Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 10%
Business Income Growth = 10%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 2%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 5%
Expense Growth = 8%
Tax Growth = 10%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $236.845
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1.124.246


Jin Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 9%
Business Income Growth = 4%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 5%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 1%
Expense Growth = 10%
Tax Growth = 10%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $255,027
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,142,428


Ryan Freel Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 5%
Business Income Growth = 6%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 5%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 6%
Expense Growth = 5%
Tax Growth = 10%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $254,933
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,142,334


DrChunger Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 5%
Business Income Growth = 10%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 3%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 0%
Expense Growth = 2%
Tax Growth = 2%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $244,929
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,132,330

obviously, this pegs me as less optimistic than some of the other estimates here. even this, points to roughly a 19k gain per month which, for 2007 may be possible but 2008 seems to be a little more difficult to expect.


drchunger Commented on December 18, 2007

just notice this about your spreadsheet - the year over year growth cell -> if you set it to 0%, it still fills in the appreciation of vested stock options 2008 column with 60,000. based on your calculation of net worth increase, i think this is actually misleading. so, you're basically saying that 0% translates into an appreciation in net worth of 60k. i don't think you intended that, did you? Either that you should change "year over year growth" to "change in value of stock options"

also, not really sure where the 60k actually came from in the first place - you're ending november 2007 with 82.5k unless you're marking to market the latest value or assuming that you're going to actually continue to exit some stock options...


Nate Commented on December 18, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 10%
Business Income Growth = 30%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 10%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 7%
Expense Growth = 5%
Tax Growth = 5%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $343,120
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,230,521


Ken Commented on December 18, 2007

Probably to conservative - but you never know.

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 10%
Business Income Growth = 8%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 7%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 6%
Expense Growth = 6%
Tax Growth = 4%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $293,107
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,180,508


jane Commented on December 19, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 5%
Business Income Growth = 8%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 8%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 6%
Expense Growth = 4%
Tax Growth = 3%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $294,012
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,181,413


anuj Commented on December 20, 2007

Assumptions:
Job Income Growth = 7%
Business Income Growth = 12%
Annual Return on Portfolio = 15%
Year-Over-Year Growth = 5%
Expense Growth = 4%
Tax Growth = 5%

Output:
2008 Net Worth Increase = $369,775
2008 Year-End Net Worth = $1,257,176


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