I paid off the credit card! Now on to the next goal!

I'm a fan of big, audacious goals and try to live by this rule: if you shoot for the stars and miss, at least you get the moon. That philosophy was a big reason I was successful in paying off my credit card debt in less than one year. If I dedicated myself to paying off every last dime but didn't make it, at the very least I'd have much less debt than I started with.

And so it is that one day after I made the final payment and reached my $0 Balance Goal, I'm immediately planning my next big, audacious financial goal will be. My immediate thought was to beef up my emergency savings and investment accounts and that's certainly doable given the amount of free cash flow I now have (since I'm not making a credit card payment anymore). But why not think bigger than that, and eye something else that will push me to stretch for the stars again?

So I've decided that my next goal will be that over the next year, I'm aiming to save and invest at least $25 grand. That's right. At least that much. That means I'll have to push myself to do more than just stash a portion of my paycheck: I'll have to continue to limit spending, network and be creative enough to create new income streams and be diligent enough to live off only the money I make at my nine-to-five and stash any extras away. It'll also mean I'll have to figure out some new tax strategies so Uncle Sam doesn't come and take it all. Wish me luck.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue to write about eliminating credit card debt and keep up my $0 Balance Challenge push. If you've already eliminated all your credit card debt, great. Start thinking about the next goal (and post it here in the comments section so you can encourage others.) If not, think of eliminating that debt as your first big, audacious goal and get to work.

Good luck!