I thought I would share my personal financial snapshot and some of my financial goals.

To begin: I’m married. There is a huge discrepancy between my husband’s income and mine (academic libraries typically don’t pay top dollar, but I enjoy what I do). I make approximately a quarter of what my husband does, and the percentage is even smaller when considering our take-home pay. Typically we try to live off of his income and save mine, though we’ve only saved about $11,000 thus far. We’ve spent a lot on home purchases, helping family members out financially, etc.

Despite being married, I’m calculating all of my future goals based on my income only. Why? Because it’s within my control, and being too dependent on someone else makes me very uneasy. I can say I’m in my marriage for the long run, but I realize that’s no guarantee that it’ll last forever. My husband could fall in love with someone else, or he could die. I’ve seen too many women who were too dependent on their husbands only to end up divorced with no money saved and little means of supporting themselves (see “family members” above), and I swore to myself I’d never let that happen to me.

I declared bankruptcy in 1997. (All I can say is that my life and my self were both very different then.) It’s caused fewer problems as the years have gone on and I’ve worked hard to make amends, but I’ll be very happy when it comes off of my credit reports in 2008. There are also two tax liens I incurred during the same period; they were both released and should come off my credit report next year.

I’m 34 now. I want to have close to $2,000,000 saved by the time I’m 65. My top goal is $2,500,000, but to reach that I’d probably have to work until I was 70. According to a few inflation calculators I’ve used, by the time I retire $2,500,000 will be equal to today’s $1,000,000.

I have $7,300 in credit card debt, from LASIK and furniture purchases. The card has 0% APR until 4/2006. I probably won’t have it paid off by then, so I plan on pitting my two credit card companies against each other to see who will give me a better deal. I avoid using my credit cards, preferring instead to use my Amex so that I’m forced to pony up each month.

I started saving for retirement late, when I was 29. Actually, I had saved before that, but had cashed out an earlier retirement account, something I regret. I’m now playing catch-up. I have $20,521.36 in my Fidelity retirement account, and $8,510.92 with TIAA-CREF. My retirement accounts aren’t doing very well right now—no surprise. I put $140/week towards my retirement account, and my employer contributes appx. $34/week. That’s appx. $750/month towards my retirement, or $9000/year.

My credit scores are: TransUnion, 724; Equifax, 718; Experian, 726. Not shabby, but could be better.

Strange, I NEVER talk about this with anyone besides my husband, yet I feel comfortable doing so here—perhaps because you folks are so open about your own situation and goals.