Post by dr.girlfriend on Jan 3, 2021 17:40:06 GMT -5
Anyone want to set January goals or report in on past goals? I'll add when I go back and see what my December goal was, lol. A big step we took though was creating an LLC for my husband's speaking gigs. We're hoping to start a bank account with all his gig payments going in there, and business expenses (phone/internet) paid from there.
I had no goals in December. January is a bit of a recovery usually. I had a big expense that was expected this month, but it's been pushed to February. My car's check engine light is on, so I have no idea what that will cost me. Since I only have one car, this will be taken care of by the end of the week.
My goals are:
1. Put away more money than I did in December. Goal met. I upped an automatic savings already. I'll try to up it again in February.
2. Everything else depends on the car repair. The brakes also need to be looked at.
January goals are to review last year's finacials and to start on my taxes. There's not a lot I can do on my taxes until about March, but there's a little bit I can do now.
One thing I want to figure out is, for accounts that increased, how much of the increase was from me putting money in and how much from returns. This sounds like it should be easy but I'm struggling a little for some reason -- I think mostly about where, logistically, to find that info for various accounts.
ETA: I need to issue K-1s to a few people for a trust, so do that i guess
Thanks, and also embarrassing for me because it looks like I never actually set one!
Okay, goal for January. When we bought our house in 2008 we really only had 10% to put down. My dad offered to do a loan from his trust for the other 10% to avoid PMI, so we did that. It worked well for us in general -- it was just on autopayment for about $100 a month. But, it honestly wasn't the greatest deal for us, because we since refinanced our mortgage to a much lower rate, but this was hanging out at a higher rate. Plus my dad was increasingly erratic as he aged, including being somewhat opposed to generating the 1099-INT forms we needed for taxes. Now my father has passed away, and we are in a good position to pay it off, and also my mom (the new signatory on the trust) wants to close the bank account we autopay to. So, I've got to look into the legalities of how to officially pay that off and get it discharged. If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated! We are in PA.
Go through 2020 expenses and get a year-end recap of what percent of expenses where in what categories (DH mostly does this, but I have to help with some of the categorization as I do much of the shopping)
Hire a CPA for 2021 taxes - I’m becoming a shareholder in my company’s S-Corp this year and company taxes roll through the shareholders quarterly, so I’ll need a CPA; I know who to use, I just need to reach out and get them to accept me as a client
Submit final 2020 daycare FSA claims
Fund at least part of 2021 Roth IRAs for DH and me
In December, I wanted to top off our annual donations, and I did. Dollar amount it was our highest year yet. My husband did one of our big ones on Friday, which I kind of wanted done the day before for my little 2020 list, but at least we’re up and running for 2021. We wound up giving money to 19 different organizations, with lots of focus, as usual, on libraries/health/children. I also concentrated more on climate.
January goals, look into divesting from fossil fuel based funds, if applicable (i.e., I’m not exactly sure what my rolled over retirement is in, other than a target fund), and donate more.
I did meet with the planner and did our annual contribution to the kids 529s. I have not gotten our Wills/trusts updated so that will carry over for January.
December goals: 1. “Meet” with retirement advisor to flesh out the earliest possible realistic timeline - Pushed to January. 2. Create 2021 budget and goals - Done
January goals: 1. Meet with retirement advisor 2. Increase 401K and 529 contributions 3. Attempt low spend January
Actually create a real budget using YNAB to its full potential. Currently I've been using it more to track expenses by category to make our taxes easier.
We met with an FA last week (a new offering by my company) as a check-in on our retirement (we are on track, phew!) and to get some advice on how to begin reaching our bigger financial goals. So January will be spent implementing his suggestions and making a long-term plan.
Get our grocery budget under control and start eating out of our pantry and freezers.
Post by sometimesrunner on Jan 3, 2021 22:52:20 GMT -5
Can I play?
My January goals are:
1. Use YNAB for the entire month.
2. No non-essential purchases.
3. Start packing my lunch 4x/week. This is for financial and health reasons, and because I will avoid hearing “what do you want to eat for lunch” every.single.day.
1. Total spending freeze until H gets a new job. We were a single income family and he lost his job early last month so we're trying to get by for as long as possible without touching our savings. 1b. Once H finds a new job, figure out new budget and savings plan. 2. Would also love to increase our charitable giving again this year, so set up a plan for that.
Post by kittenponypony on Jan 4, 2021 11:19:10 GMT -5
January goals: 1. track all spending in a spreadsheet 2. reign in my food budget 3. think in a broader life goal sense about what I want my freed up extra 1k a month to go towards!
1. Setup monthly donations to a couple charities that are priorities for us. 2. No clothing for me this month (except for the Lilly sale that was this morning b/c it's only 2x a year). I don't need anything and the 1-2 days I got into my office, it's casual. 3. Increased monthly savings allotment from my check.
I completed last month’s goals. We moved to a house so all of our monthly bills changed and I need to get a handle on our new monthly budget for necessary expenses, then adjust the rest of our budget. This also includes making the house as energy efficient as I can and teaching my family to turn lights off when they leave rooms since our electric bill was higher than expected 😆 I also need to do more with my business taxes and want to estimate our personal taxes. This year was totally wacky for us financially. We have so many different sources of income with past jobs, unemployment, part-time employment, starting a business, etc. Financially it turned out better for us than 2019 in the long run, although it was painful at times. I’ve kind of been hoarding money in my business account even though my accountant said I’m overestimating taxes and I have super low overhead. I need to transfer some to my personal account!
For a yearly goal, I want to be in the best position we can be with debt payoff and credit scores to buy a house if we want to. I’m not even sure if we want to. We love where we are at and want to stay for at least a couple years but may not want to buy in this neighborhood long term due to TBD job situations. I just want options! I’d consider some kind of investment property at that point, too.
-Request Dependent Care FSA refund. Add to 529 once reimbursed. -No shopping. I bought of lot of stuff for myself last month, so I don’t need anything this month. -Continue making double payments to SL and potentially refi.
I need to join in! Dh and I are both working in an industry with a lot of mergers and acquisitions. We are both potentially looking at job losses this year. 2021 is not starting off well.
Goals: - Make a 2021 budget based on our new 2021 paychecks. - Submit the claim for the last of our 2020 dependent care balance. - Find our liquidity. We have soooo many accounts at different institutions. I need to figure out how much we have and where it is parked and prioritize how to liquidate it if we both become unemployed. Consolidating isn’t a bad idea either but I’ll leave that for another month. - Figure out how to move my last stock bonus to our brokerage account.
Post by dragon's breath on Jan 5, 2021 23:39:56 GMT -5
I need to work up the courage to call a local design place and see if they'll work with me to make my house plans "real". I hate talking on the phone, reaching out for "help" (even paid services) for anything, but I really need to do it. I've been working on my floor plans for years (there are thousands of house plans I love, zero house plans for a small house with a ground floor, basement, and attached garage that I love.) Find out how much they'll cost and the process with all the covid stuff.
I want to get my taxes estimated for the year, and figure out how much I can contribute to my Roth (I hit "the slope", but will not be maxing out, so no need to do the backdoor Roth, but I don't want to risk over-contributing either).
I've already updated all my end-of-year net worth and retirement account graphs. I save all the other retirement related spreadsheet stuff for June, when I get my raise (if they don't drag out the process for months).
I need to see if I have set aside enough money to replace my old fridge. If not, I'll see if I can steal the money from lesser used, or over funded categories, so I can get that done once things are available again.
So I need to also figure out what all of our savings bonds are worth and start cashing some in and put them in our vanguard account. I just realized that the savings bond wizard isn't in use anymore.