2020 MM Goals

[mccallister84]

Feel free to copy and paste from other posts. Just figured it would be helpful to have this post to reference as check ins throughout the year.

[mccallister84]

Our money goals this year:

1) Track every dollar spent.
2) Actually invest (beyond retirement).
3) Spending freeze through the close of the credit card in February - so the first 6 weeks or so of 2020.

[hamster]

Not overspend
Get our wills and trusts in order.

Ideally we will save a bit of money and maybe even start our IRAs back up.

[k3am]

1. Get our cash invested. DH cashed out all his equity when he switched jobs this summer, and it's all just been parked in a savings account (1.7% interest at least). Some of it went towards our bathroom reno, and we need to keep a large chunk reserved for the associated tax liability, but the rest should really be invested in our brokerage account. We keep waiting for the market to head south before we pull the trigger.

2. A repeat of last year's goal: DH and I need to take a trip with just us. 2020 is our 10 year anniversary, so we have every excuse to do it.

[lilypad1126]

I have 3 money goals, and they should be fairly easy to meet.

1. Pay off my credit card. Ideally, I’ll do this by March.
2. Build back up my emergency fund.
3. Spend less on stupid, unnecessary stuff.

[konapoppy]

Take a seriously look at our net worth and figure out how we should reduce our wealth significantly.

I know this is a little counter intuitive to this board, but I recognize I have been afforded so much more privilege (including inheritance) compared to the vast majority of the world. I want to find a way to redistribute that privilege effectively and stop essentially hoarding wealth.

[simpsongal]

1) save for and complete master bathroom renovation. Rebuild savings afterward.
2) look into cash out refi or heloc (doh is finally on board but ruled out liquidating stock to pay for a major renovation).
3) fund 529s up to tax benefit.

Stay the course otherwise - this is a spending year! We’ll economize by driving our modest cars and taking cheap vacations.

[ssmjlm]

1. Put down half on DH’s new truck
2. Start investing. We have so much in savings making nothing.
3. Max retirement. DH hit the cap thanks to OT his last paycheck, but I didn’t quite hit the $19k.

[dr.girlfriend]

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.

We're also on track to get our mortgage down to five figures this year, which is very exciting to me!

[steamboat185]

Goals for 2020-
Save. The plan is for me to stop working in 2021, which means we want to bank as much as we can now.

I also want to hit the next milestone with our network.

Get a will!

[seeyalater52]

Continue to save for adoption with a goal of saving another 15-20k this year.

Pay off the 15k basement work (mold remediation and sump pumps) that is on a no-interest card before the 15 month interest free period is up.

Start saving a more reasonable amount toward my wife’s retirement now that they are earning more.

Go on a small domestic vacation for the first time ever together.

Finally get the 2018 tax situation figured out, even if it means taking my wife’s ex business partner to court.

[raangoli]

It’s a carryover but we need to set up our wills and trusts.

Continue to save at the pace we have and possibly increase our savings.

Continue to live beneath our means but also take time out to enjoy life. We did that a bit more in 2019 and I think it really helped.

[sadlebred]

1. Save a minimum of 6 weeks living expenses. I know this is a modest goal by this board's standards, but I've had a lot of major house expenses the last year (new roof, new garage doors, etc).
2. Save to have the house painted. This is the last major thing for a while I hope.
3. Pay off CC.
4. Put a small amount every month into my existing ROTH.
5. Not spend money on small stuff.

[farmvillelover]

Continue to:
pay down mortgage debt
Save

My MM goals have become so boring as I age

[tcu2003]

I may modify these later, but I think they will be:

Fully fund 401k and backdoor Roth IRA accounts for DH and me

Fund kids’ 529 accounts at least as much as we did this year

Use passports on a family vacation this summer (and celebrate our 10yr wedding anniversary)

Invest some of cash we have that is over and above our emergency fund

Set up wills and trusts

[FishChicks]

Fully fund 401k and SIMPLE IRA for DH and I.

Create and max mega backdoor Roth for me.

Make 529 contributions.

Hold cash position steady.

Drop Amazon/Costco spending by 33%.

This will be our first full year of full time child care, so our spending looks very different!

[chpmnk1015]

1 roth ira for dh by march
2 save dp for new car for me
3 save additional $5k in vaca fund
4 increase my 401k 1 pct
5 pay cash for living room furniture and redo of room
6 savings goals in general

[farfalla2011]

I always read these and intend to respond, but always get sidetracked. My/our goals this year are

1. Payoff at least 1 car loan
2. Reduce our general spending at least 5%, but hopefully more
3. Get closer to making a decision about guardianship of L if something bad happens and maybe even get a will in place
4. Find free stuff to do for entertainment with LO and the rest of the family

Eta: the biggest one, figure out my next career move since my department is being phased out probably in the next year or so

[brooke77]

My goals (roughly in order):


- estate planning
- max out 401k contribution
- 529 contribution
- go to Bali
- make double payments on SL*

*This is a totally new goal for me and I think I may finally be in a financial place to do it. Even if it doesn’t happen every month, it is my mission to aggressively pay down these loans as much as possible. They are so much more of a mental burden than my mortgage.

[laterz]

Our goals by priority

- Estate Planning (wills, medical directive, etc)
- Cook more, eat out less (more for health, but will help the bank account)
- Drop 10lbs so I don't have to buy new clothes and can fit in the ones that are uncomfortable right now.

[aspentosh]

Looked at last years and hit all my goals except the stretch goal. Yay. For 2020...

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

New to do:
4- Pay off my car (stretch goal from last year but I hate having debt so it's a to do for this year)
5- Reduce general spending by watching the "stuff" we buy but don't really need
6- Stretch goal- redo master bathroom

2019 was an expensive year (even though we planned to keep it low key) but we were still able to save a decent amount. I really want to invest more but I refuse to lower our other savings contributions... so I guess another goal would be to find more money to save. Hoping with goal #5 that we can find another few hundred most months.

[shakinros]

1. Pay for this year’s vacations in cash. We went nowhere last year so we could shore up our emergency fund and aggressively pay down student loans. This year, I have three family vacations planned.

2. Get DH back to work f/t. (Not really actionable by me, but key to all the following goals.)

3. Eliminate student loan debt

4. Fix basement plumbing

5. Automatic monthly IRA contributions for DH

[aksinger]

1. Rebuild emergency fund. We took it down to less than $1000 due to unforeseen expenses during our refi in August with our appraisal coming in lower than expected, so we spent down the e-fund as to avoid PMI.

2. Spend time researching cutting cable and getting different streaming options. Just cutting cable would save $1600/year, but we’d most likely have to up our internet data, so between that and subscribing to different streaming options I’m not sure how much of a savings it would actually end up being.

3. Take a trip just DH and I. We haven’t been on one just the two of us since before DS was born in 2013. I have enough credit card points to do airfare and depending on where we go hotel as well, so we should be able to go somewhere nice for a long weekend and have it be minimal cost.

4. Save up for minor home projects - we need a new garage door motor, exterior trim needs to be repainted, and I’d LOVE to get my kitchen cabinets refinished but that is a long shot. We did get new countertops/sink/faucet last summer and new appliances three years ago, so the cabinets are the last thing to make it the best version of the kitchen it can be lol.

5. Add more to my Roth-IRA. My DH is doing really well with retirement savings but I’m not doing well at all. I’m self employed and it’s hard to take out a big chunk of $ each month for retirement when we can use that $ now for house projects, trips, etc. I already have to put away $$ each month for quarterly federal taxes and city sales tax, so even more out of my ‘paycheck’ is daunting, but it needs to happen.

[scm1011]

1. Increase/max 401k contributions when I get my annual raise in April

2. Save towards inevitable home remodel or move

3. Estate planning

ETA: 4. finally rollover my 401k from the job I left in 2018. Oof. 

[wildrice]

1. Get our e-fund back up to 10k (my comfortable place). We spent a lot of it on an unexpected car purchase and some other random stuff in 2019 so that's top priority.

2. If that gets done early enough in the year, pay off our car loan. It's only around 4k so in theory should only take a few months.

3. Create a will and get all our financial information/passwords collected somewhere. I take care of all our accounts/bills and if I were to die unexpectedly, H would be clueless. If we died together nobody would even know where to start with our accounts, our stuff, etc. That's really not ok!

4. This is a big maybe, but perhaps moving in the summer when our lease is up. I've been saying for months we are going to do this, but I'm having second thoughts. But if we do move, it will likely be to a less expensive place, which would help with goals #1 and #2.

[Covergirl82]

1. Pay off the new dishwasher and fridge. I am selling a week of PTO and get the payment in late January, so as soon as I receive that payment I'll pay off the appliances.
2. Pay off our travel trailer. We will use tax refund dollars (we usually receive around $1,000, plus we should get another $1,000 for DH's overpayment into SS due to his job change) and DH's bonus that he'll receive in March. We should have it paid off by mid-April.
3. Snowball the money from the appliance and trailer payments, as well as the pay increase I'll get in February from my new job and the small pay increase DH will receive in March, to pay down the mortgage and home equity loan (for the vacant land we bought in May 2019). We should be able to pay close to an extra principal payment on the mortgage each month ($500), and will make a $200 principal payment on the HEL each month.
4. Cut down on unnecessary spending, such as impulse purchases from Amazon and clothes, and cutting back on meals out.
5. With my job change, increase my 401k contributions to 8%.  The company I'm going to has a better base contribution (3%) and match (50% up to 6%) and also has an annual profit sharing contribution (target of 3%), so my retirement savings should start to improve.  (At a minimum, I'll be able to increase my retirement savings contributions by 50% with the higher contribution on my side, as well as from my new employer.)

ETA:  I revised slightly because I am starting a new job in early February and will get paid more.

[jinkies]

My goal is actually to spend a lot of money on the house. We keep pushing off major renovations because we are, frankly, both too anxious about spending so much money even though we have it.

We started the process of a major kitchen reno last winter, but we had a lot of trouble finding anyone who could actually do the work, and then wasted 4 hours over two trips to a kitchen store just to get a very rough estimate of the cost of cabinetry. Combine that with both sets of our parents obsessively nagging us about it every time we talked to them, and I finally had to take a break from it.

This year, I want to move forward with the kitchen renovation, complete some other updates/repairs to our living room, and my H wants to do a new roof, siding, and garage doors. We also will have a very large bill for a neighborhood-wide infrastructure project. If all goes well, we will end up spending six figures on home improvements in 2020.

[k3am]

Jan 1, 2020 11:52:54 GMT -5 farfalla2011 said:

I always read these and intend to respond, but always get sidetracked. My/our goals this year are

1. Payoff at least 1 car loan
2. Reduce our general spending at least 5%, but hopefully more
3. Get closer to making a decision about guardianship of L if something bad happens and maybe even get a will in place
4. Find free stuff to do for entertainment with LO and the rest of the family

Eta: the biggest one, figure out my next career move since my department is being phased out probably in the next year or so

Please, please, please put this up higher on you list. Your decision on guardianship isn't a binding life long choice. If you decided a year down the road that you've finally figured out ideal person, change it then, but PUT SOMEONE DOWN. 

(As a side note, I have typed out and deleted the personal reasons why I feel so strongly, but it's a messy mess and while maybe the outcome was unavoidable, but a lot of the stress that the whole family felt for YEARS could have been avoided if that family member had taken the time.)

[Mushe]

2019 was very expensive, and I don’t even know why! We have some trips planned for 2020, but I’ll never complain about spending money for experiences.

1) Be more mindful about spending, i.e., limit the Target and Amazon spending. Get back to weekly meal planning and stick with it; maybe try a meal service again for a 2 days/week or so. In other words, actually look at Mint!

2) Prioritize paying off the solar, whenever they end up kicking off the project and cashing our checks! Dang HOA.

3) Continue the car fund, since I really want to get a three row car once H’s car is paid off, and it’s a nice little pot of money to have sitting there. If we continue with an au pair, I’ll turn my car into the AP car, so I won’t have that as a DP.

[mactastic]

A bit late to the party, but since I was sitting around doing my goals today, figured it wouldn't hurt to list them somewhere else.

1) Throw at least 3k extra to my husband's SL (last one above 5% interest rate) by end of year; stretch goal is to pay it off entirely
2) Get my car loan down to under half the original loan (14k loan, so goal of sub 7k. Bal around 10.8k right now)
3) Set aside enough money to buy my parent's car outright when my H's car kicks the bucket (they're selling it to us for a song, but I don't want to owe them anything)
4) Get my 401k balance equivalent to my annual salary by the end of the year (got really close last year but then got a decent raise - not a bad problem to have!)
5) Get the home downpayment fund up to at least 40k
6) @@@ Set aside enough money to cover our deductible and the 4 weeks of paycheck shortfall (40%) of short term disability for a maternity leave, if I'm lucky enough to get (and stay) pregnant.

We're not high earners, so this seems ambitious, but with my husband's new job and potential for overtime, it's at least possible!