2019 Goals Review

[mlkgls]

What were your MM wins this year? Did you accomplish your 2019 goals?

[Pom]

I had to go look to even see what they were... lol

pandce.proboards.com/thread/605560/2019-money-resolutions

This was purely a survival year. We lost my mom after an extended illness. My husband & I still like each other after his first year clocking what seemed like an infinite amount of travel in a new job.

We are meeting a financial person to handle a rollover tomorrow plus I have some other things to cover finance wise. There’s money for our niece’s wedding and part of cottage renovation was done last year. Hoping to finish this spring. I feel cash poor at the moment but we are covering a bunch at the moment. I’m tired but hopeful.

[raangoli]

Dec 30, 2018 16:39:43 GMT -5 raangoli said:

-Fully fund retirement (401k and Roth)
-Continue the pace at which we’ve been funding 529s
-pay for our “big” vacation (location TBD) in cash
-Figure out our estate planing and be actual adults
-Continue supplementary investing

I did all but the 4th bullet which will be a carry over to 2020. We’ve already talked a lot getting it done. We know what we want to do, we just need to execute.

I’m really pleased with the returns I got this year on investments but I’m bracing myself for a dive. I was super excited to hit a milestone as well.

We did a rough net worth calculation the other day and I’m amazed at where we are.

[mlkgls]

@ I was distracted by a sick DS after posting, but I think writing them down, both here and at home, helped keep me more focused this year. 

Primary goal: Figure out what I need for a will, trust, guardianship, etc. Done. This was such an enormous weight lifted once completed. 

Secondary goals:
- Pay off HVAC (should be done by end of Feb) Done
- Focus on “new car” fund. I love my car and I’m not currently looking to buy anytime soon, but it IS 12 years old. I didn’t quite hit my goal for the year.
- Beef up DS’s 529 and efund. Efund is at 6+ months, but I didn’t add as much to the 529 as I would have liked. 
- Up my 401K contribution again at review time...after I figure out whether to put it in the 401K or Roth. I raised my percentage twice this year and I’m in shock at the net worth calculation on PC. In my eyes it’s proof that you don’t have to make $$$$, as long as you start saving early and often. 
- Meal plan to reduce food waste. I did better at reducing waste, but there is definitely still room for improvement. 

My 2020 goals are roughly the same.
  Primary Goal: Obtain additional life outside of my employer.
  Secondary Goals: Max 401k and keep up with 2019 goals.

[konapoppy]

1) Figure out how to make things work while dramatically decreasing our income.
2) Get back on the budgeting train (the last year has been a mess, plus see #1).
3) Figure out new revenue streams.
4) Continue to be good about buying stuff used and selling stuff we don't need.
5) Spend only low triple digits at starbucks I will work on cutting my habit, but H will still go at least a few times a week.

LOL!!! I succeeded at 4 and failed at everything else. BUT my husband did not quit his job, so 1 - 3 were not as necessary.

My guess is we spent at least 3k at Starbucks this year 😲😬😬😬 I did cut way back, but that is crazy.

[aprilsails]

@@@

I’m on maternity leave until September so this years goals are all whacky.

1. Put away 15% of income in retirement investments. I already have 8% on auto deposit, but the other 7% has to come from frugality and saving on my side.
2. No new debt. All major house purchases to be funded by cash (we moved into a new home in June and need to purchase 2nd floor blinds and living room furniture).
3. Continue to fully fund both kids’ RESPs
4. Update wills for 2nd child
5. Limit personal spending on sewing supplies. Sew down the stash as much as possible.
6. Continue to cloth diaper throughout maternity leave.

[hamster]

- Spend less. This goes for both of us. H buys crap online, I wander stores with C during the day. It adds up fast.
Well we wander less, but we added another mouth to feed so probably a wash


- Dont take money out of our inheritance account. We use it to fund fun things, but between a market downturn and our withdrawal this year we are getting close to being back at principle.
Lol. We took out 40k to pay for goal 4

- Fully fund IRAs. We have been, but at 12k a year on one salary it's a big chunk of money.
So we stopped our IRAs all together this year...

- Figure out housing. Whether we add on or move, it'll cost so we have to figure out what that will look like.
Added on. Got a new well, unexpected well filter, and septic drainfield. Bills still coming in, but hoping for 120k or less. 

Pipe dream goal - pay off truck. Only possible if H gets a lot of OT or my dad feels generous (not likely given the market).
Hey! Dad felt very generous

[Covergirl82]

Goals achieved:
1. We paid off my car, so now we have both vehicles paid off.
2. We got the mortgage below a certain amount. It wasn't much of a stretch goal, but we made it.

Those were our main 'wins' for this year. We decided to buy a large vacant lot for camping, hunting, and eventually to build a retirement home, so that payment is about what my car payment was. The land will provide more time together as a family and it has a nice creek to explore. The kids and I did some metal detecting on the creek last summer and found a musket ball from the 1700s (I had an archeology student (who works at a colonial fort with active digs) look at it).

DH didn't lose his job. He decided to take a different job, but it was a 10% pay cut, but a higher title. So that meant we had less to spend on debt reduction.

[seeyalater52]

Dec 30, 2018 12:56:13 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

We have finally recovered a bit from my wife’s terrible situation with her business partners and the tax drama that went along with that AND got it all sorted and her off the LLC before year-end so one of my main goals is to get our 2018 taxes all sorted ASAP since it’s our last tax year dealing with this nonsense. I’m pretty sure we did ok paying estimating taxes and we put aside some extra in case we underpaid but getting all the paperwork in order so the K1s and other documents can be created is a PITA because everyone else involved moves likes molasses.

Our big savings goal is to start saving for adoption. We are very limited in our choice of agencies due to several factors and it’s going to be more expensive than we even realized when we started looking into it. We are definitely “MM poor” and won’t have any family help so it’s daunting but we are hoping to save $10k this year out of the $50k we will need which will be a start.

We will also likely be paying for PGS testing for another round of IVF this summer which impacts our ability to save as much as we’d like to this year.

Well, our 2018 taxes are STILL not filed because my wife’s ex business partner is a dick and won’t turn over what is needed to finish the K1s. Sigh.

My wife just recently got an amazing new job that will increase their salary by 20k so that is amazing and much needed after about 15k worth of unexpected house expenses that got put on a no-interest credit card.

We cash flowed PGS testing for IVF #2 this fall which was a win.

We also saved 15,000 toward an adoption. We are making progress.

[farmvillelover]

One goal was to start paying off student loans which didn’t happen bc we decided to focus on mortgage principal pay down instead.

Other goal was to save aggressively into the market which we’ve been good about. But it was psychologically hard to do with the market hitting highs all year.

These savings/debt pay down goals will carry over into 2020.

[k3am]

Goal from last year... This is very FWP, but my goal is to actually use ALL (or near all) of the money we set aside annually for travel/vacation. We’ve done well at committing to one week long family trip per year, but DH and I could both use an adults only trip.

Fail. We took a nice family vacation, but no trips solo since childcare didn't pan out.

[dr.girlfriend]

After years of *talking* about it, we finally built our addition this past year and are enjoying the hell out of it, and also put solar panels on the roof at the same time. We paid for all of it without taking out any loans or lines of credit, and only overspent in one main area (the floors). Goal for next year is to save save save, because we're feeling very cash-poor right now, and also to focus more on traveling in these years when our son is old enough to travel well (he just turned 11) but still at home with us. We did very little traveling while my brother-in-law was very ill with cancer over the last four or five years, and I really want to prioritize it.

[minzy]

I don’t think I posted goals earlier, but for the last few years the MM goals have been simple: 1) increase our net worth and 2) give away more money than we did the year before. We are up from a year ago, and I cranked out some extra donations this morning to surpass last year’s charitable giving, so mission accomplished.

For environmental reasons, I’ve also spent the year being much more conscious of what and how we consume, and that has resulted in me both spending less money overall (i.e., almost no newly manufactured clothes for me, and I think I’ve generally bought way less “stuff”) and deliberately supporting companies with sustainable products. Some examples include supporting the local grocery stores that are making public efforts at sustainability, Worn Wear from Patagonia, Who Gives A Crap for toilet paper (they don’t use plastic and donate half of proceeds towards sanitation efforts in places that need help), Rareform (recycled billboards) for a few bags I gave as gifts, an Adidas running shirt made partly from ocean plastic, several items from the Grove Collaborative, bamboo toothbrushes, buying *recycled* copy paper instead of virgin (I found this at Target though you’ve got to hunt a little), we also tried recycled plastic trash bags (but they weren’t great), a Pela compostable phone case (I love it so far and it was bought only after my old case had a big rip), silicone straws, LUSH products, vegetable produce bags, etc. I also deliberately spent or otherwise directed money at as many legitimate (not MLMs!) local female owned businesses as I could - while I don’t live in a third world country, lifting women tends to make everything better, and several are friends of mine, so why not? I am not perfect about it, but I try to remember that a dollar is a “vote.”

[steamboat185]

I don’t think I posted last year, but we increased our network by our goal number and decreased our mortgage to under 100k.

[sadlebred]

Mine was "This is the year of no travel and paying stuff off."

I didn't travel at all. I paid down 2 things, so I made some headway. Major house purchases (see other post) ate into this a lot.

[kadams767]

First is just making it through my 2018 taxes, hoping that my estimates have been mostly accurate and if not, that I’ve put enough extra away to cover whatever else I owe. And honestly, hoping I’ve oversaved so that I can put some of that money back to our regular accounts and use it for something we want, like some remodel stuff or a vacation.

Second is a combo money and health goal. I need to get my eating and healthy lifestyle back on track, so I’m aiming to cut back on grocery and food spending, and redirect the savings towards fitness expenses like classes, training, etc. I’d like to keep total for groceries and going out to $100-$110/week. Lately, we’ve been over $100 just grocery shopping, plus whatever we feel like eating out and I need to reign that in. Cutting back on expensive cheeses and snacks stuff like the olive bar will help my diet and budget, and then I won’t feel so bad dropping money on expensive gym classes.

Other than that, just keep on keeping on. I am going to increase my monthly mortgage payment by $50, increase our charitable giving by another $50 monthly, and keep saving aggressively for a future job change/vacation house/rainy, rainy day.

Well, my 2018 taxes worked out, I actually oversaved towards what we owed, so I was able to keep some extra money from my tax payment sinking fund in April. Hoping for the same this coming April for 2019 taxes.

Definitely did not decrease grocery and eating out spending, though I still increased my fitness spending a bunch. So, half win here.

Increased my mortgage payments and charity giving, so I’m happy about that.

[tcu2003]

Dec 31, 2018 1:27:41 GMT -5 tcu2003 said:

Actually open a Roth for DH, and then contribute to his and to mine (which I haven’t touched in years). To do that, I also need to figure out the back-door option, I believe.

Get our estate planning stuff done and in order.

Keep on keeping on regarding 401ks, 529s and general savings.

I also want to de clutter stuff from my house (especially kid clothes and toys), and be mindful about anything we buy/bring into the house.

1 and 3 were done. I’ll call 4 a partiaL win, but definitely still a work in progress.

2 was a fail, so estate planning is still on the list for 2020. Part of the issue now is I’m struggling with who will be guardians of our kids should something happen to DH and I. Until my sis and BIL divorced in 2019, it would have been them. I initially thought to still use my sis, but she’s making some questionable decisions right now, and I don’t want that for my kids. Both of DH’s brothers are out for various reasons, and our parents are too old. So not sure, but need to figure it out.

[scm1011]

@

I'm feeling pretty good about how 2019 goals shook out even if I didn't hit them all. We weathered the year well after adding DD to the fam in May (and the considerable increase in daycare costs that followed) 


1) beefing up savings and investments. I set up auto withdrawals yesterday to be more proactive versus transferring leftover cash each month.
Done! Savings is up 23% while also bankrolling ~$15k in home projects. I also contributed considerably more to my 401k this year than any other year (inching towards maxing out).


2) estate planning once DD arrives (the trust thread here has been helpful, thanks!)
. Fail. Definitely a priority for 2020.


3) potentially pulling the trigger on a home remodel once we get estimates.
On hold. We're still looking to either remodel or move but have tabled it a bit.

[aspentosh]

"2018 was the year of very expensive home renovation projects, so we're going fairly low key for 2019. We want to redo our bathroom but don't think it'll happen until 2020.

Continue:
1- maxing 401k
2- paying extra $500 on mortgage
3- funding 529

New to do:
4- Pay off my phone ($850)
5- Pay off our soffits/gutters ($4000 at 0% APR until June, so definitely before then)
6- Take killer trip to Ireland/Scotland (this requires saving an additional $5k or so towards our vacation fund)

I would LOOOOVE to pay off my new car (bought in Nov, financed $18k of $30k price because we were NOT planning on buying a car in the next couple years) but we'll see."

Success for all 1-6. Didn't get to the stretch goal of paying off my car, but that is on the to do list for this year. And it was not a low key/inexpensive year, lol.

[wildrice]

I didn't really set a specific goal for 2019, because so much was up in the air for us at this time last year. We both had to get new jobs this year, which we did accomplish, and we do have a higher HHI than we did a year ago (by around 35k so not a small amount!) but that only started in August and we've had a variety of setbacks this year that resulted in actually having a lot less in savings than we did a year ago. I mentioned in that thread last year that we needed new laptops and a second car, and we did manage to do both of those things. We actually ended up with 2 new cars, but one was free (other than some repair and registration costs) and the other was purchased unexpectedly after our old car was stolen and totaled. Given all that, I'm impressed that we only ended up with a 4k car loan and were able to pay cash for the rest. We also had to pay a repair deductible from an accident AND I paid out of pocket to fix a car that I ran into in the parking lot. If 2020 can avoid spending so much on cars, that would be great.

I also said I wasn't going to sweat it if we didn't build savings, and for the most part, I didn't. I don't love that we have so little in our e-fund right now, but realistically - that's what an e-fund is for and I'm grateful we were able to use it to pay for things.

One thing I didn't list last year but is an accomplishment - H finally is saving for retirement! He had a very small Roth before that, but now he's making contributions every paycheck. This has been a huge concern for me (he was a PhD student, not a slacker) and while we have a long way to go to catch up, I'm glad there is at least progress being made.