2023 MM Goals

[minzy]

My MM goals haven’t really changed. We intend to max retirement, save the state max in the kids’ 529s, invest outside of them, and give away more than the year before. I will continue to contribute more to environmental groups. I would also like to not get my credit card hacked again, as I did yesterday, with some parking app that wasn’t. (Shakes fist.)

Otherwise I’d like to spend more on experiences. I would like more dates with my husband, especially as three of my friends in the past month have announced plans to divorce. I am also really grappling with wanting to travel yet knowing that emissions are a huge problem. For instance, I’d love to go to Puerto Rico for spring break, so I can take my kids snorkeling closer than Hawaii and do a night kayak ride in the bioluminscent bay, but it’s one of the hardest hit, climate crisis parts of the world, and our simply going there will make it “worse.” I don’t think that there’s a quick solution to that, but my husband’s counteroffer (a somewhat local destination in my EV) doesn’t seem very exciting. I was kind of jazzed that the cousin who had me for Secret Santa bought me not only a bee house for my pollinator garden but also a carbon offset, so maybe that’s something for me to think about more seriously.

[shaynaatl]

We have a major expense this year as we are building out our backyard with a screened in porch and uncovered stone area. This will be over $75k. But we are really excited about it.

We will also be spending a bunch on travel between family reunions and an international trip.

Workwise, my company is not doing great and we anticipate multiple rounds of layoffs this year. So I am definitely nervous about that. I expect my bonus and raise will be small this year.

Savings goals are typical retirement and Roth IRA, with more focus on taxable investing this year.

[trissie18]

1. Payoff the last remaining 0% credit cards and one balance transfer card.
2. We are unexpectedly replacing DHs commuter car earlier than I anticipated. We will get a small loan so we can afford a better used vehicle that will last much longer and hopefully DS1 will eventually take it over when he starts driving. All of DHs previous commuter cars have been cheap "beater cars".
3. Start a Roth IRA for me outside of my employer retirement account. We started one for DH last year that we auto-contribute to monthly.
4. Start in-state 529 plans for DSs to get the tax benefits (currently have out of state plans). Now that DH and I are jumping tax brackets this year we will need all we can get.
5. Add to our liquid savings.

[dr.girlfriend]

1. Increase retirement to new max now that I'm 50 (yay! Work prompted me to change from a dollar amount per paycheck to a percentage, so I did this already!)

2. Actually spend some money on travel! We are going on our long-delayed trip to Japan.

3. Pay off both bathroom renovations in cash.

4. Appeal DH's Wage Tax Reimbursement from 2020, what a neverending nightmare but he's owed like $2k from the city and they keep stalling us with endless paperwork

5. Invest $10k each more in I-Bonds, start investing in a brokerage account outside of retirement (I say that every year and never get around to it)

6. Buy an electric vehicle for DH, figure out everything we need to know about that (install charger, etc.)

More about spending than saving this year but between pandemic and turning 50 I'm really trying to focus on enjoying the now.

[nellywilk]

- find a better job or ask for an increase
- buy a new vehicle (my car is very old and often needs reparations)
- travel more and visit few new countries this year.
- rent a different apartment (maybe smaller but i really want to have a bath)
- start with my own digital business using this site.
- save up 10k by the end of the year.

[themoneytree]

I’m super late to this.

I have so many goals for this year. I’m not sure how realistic they are.

1: Aggressively save in a specific house payoff account. I would love to reach $25,000 in this account this year.

2: $10,000 into youngest child’s college savings.

3: This is really up in the air. Our tenants lease ends end of June. If they move out we have to decide whether to sell or rent the house. If we sell it we need to put in a new kitchen. That would be a real stretch but I’d like to pay for that in cash.

4: H’s child support payments stop in June. That money can be re-routed into the house payoff fund.

5: First year of college expense for oldest child start in August.

5: Continue to avoid looking at my dismal investment accounts. 🤢

[chpmnk1015]

Dec 28, 2022 10:24:51 GMT -5 chpmnk1015 said:

I wrote mine up the other day.
1- Both our roths for 2023 done by Feb
2- continue to pay down mortgage a little extra each month and i have a dec goal amount to end at.
3- small but start 1000 for both kids for an investment account that they can play with and learn
4- xx amount into each of their savings by August
5- we booked a big spring break trip for April.. so far we have not had to touch the vaca fund and have paid for flights, car rental and half the Air bnb. Id like to pay rest w o touching vaca fund.
6- up my 401k 1% in April
7- Add xx amount to our ameritrade account and another managed account.
8- keep vaca fund where it is at or ad 1K or so to it

So ours are going to be changing significantly. we are in the process of buying an investment property in town.. my parents neighbor who passed away who was like another mom to me left her 3 nephews the house so we are buying from them... no bidding war, fair price, but this is basically eating all our savings. long term, i know this is better and may be the house we downsize to.

So, lets see adjusted now:
1- Both our roths for 2023 done by October
2- Rounding up on mortgage but no longer a priority as rate on investment property is where i would want to be
3- small but start 1000 for both kids for an investment account that they can play with and learn- this i may still try and do
4- xx amount into each of their savings by August- this i may try and do but some of their money may go to the house
5- we booked a big spring break trip for April.. so far we have not had to touch the vaca fund and have paid for flights, car rental and half the Air bnb. Id like to pay rest w o touching vaca fund.  We have no vaca fund now so yea, will need to be paid for.
6- up my 401k 1% in April  will still try this
7- Add xx amount to our ameritrade account and another managed account.  still shooting for this
8- get vaca fund to 5k is the new goal

[flygirl]

This is a though one but I have:
Hopefully not lose my job so all of these are thrown out the window
Get an inherited property sold so I get my small share and get it invested immediately
Payoff Hs truck and save $15k for a new one
Save for our summer road trip ($3-4K)
Put $4.5k in DS 529
Max my 401k and out the catch up max in Hs
Hopefully have a couple of rooms repainted

[Gato]

Last year my H received a pretty big raise, and it's amazing to me how terrible we've been about it, basically wasting it on junk instead of being thoughtful. So my goal this year is to:

1) Figure out exactly where it's going and cut back where we can. For instance, I realized we spent almost $1K on CHIPS last year. I mean, I love a good blue corn chip, and H and the kids love them even more, but that's absolutely effing ridiculous.

2) Up our contributions to the kids' college funds.

3) Continue to contribute the max we can to our retirement accounts. That's the one thing we've been doing right.

3) Develop a plan for spending on big-ticket items. We have too many wants and not enough $ to cover them all at once, so maybe a five-year plan will help me not overcommit to big projects. 

[wise_rita]

OMG @gato! Your #1 is crazy, but I imagine if I had the ability to dig down into details that I'd find some shockers, too.

How did you even find that out?!

[pinotgrig]

1. Buy a house with FI. This ended up happening faster than we thought, and we close in about 3 weeks.

2. Sell FI’s house in the spring and use the equity to pay down our new mortgage (we have the option to re-cast the payment on the new mortgage after large pay downs, so am excited about that)

3. Pick a financial planner. We’re interviewing several now. We have a good handle on the details, but need a combined plan. Also need to do wills and estate planning.

4. Continue maxing 401ks

5. Travel - London, Paris, and Amsterdam in February and Iceland in March are already planned and paid for. We’ve had 2 epic years of travel and I want to keep that going. I want to take my kids on their first international trip, but we will probably push that off to 2024.

6. Get married! We’re looking at a small wedding in 4Q, family only. Maybe a NYE reception to celebrate. I would rather spend the money on travel though, lol.

[Pom]

1. Get through tax season. We had big taxable events last year. Sold investments to build a pole barn. Sold a house I'd kept since 1990. It also happens to be a year where H will make the least amount in the last 20 years, so that worked out.
2. Finish paying for our bathroom remodel which is pretty extensive, custom and costly.
3. Pay off my car in May. It's 0% so we've just been doing it monthly. Mr.P's vehicle is also 0% and we pay it off next year.
4. Redirect car payment(s) to savings for further renovations and replacement for another vehicle at some point.
5. Save for seawall repair.
6. Update will since we moved.
7. Rededicate ourselves to 401k and Roth IRA savings.

[niq]

They're not money-related but I am trying to do a lot of clean-er living this year. I did a "Social Media Dry January" and I'm going to mostly stick with it. I'm trying to drink less often. Not sure what else, but those are the big ones.

[Gato]

Jan 27, 2023 9:09:46 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

OMG @gato! Your #1 is crazy, but I imagine if I had the ability to dig down into details that I'd find some shockers, too.

How did you even find that out?!

I used to track expenses pretty tightly, but since H’s career shifted into another gear I’ve let go of my good spending habits. But it pinged my radar when I saw that his favorite chips were a dollar more per bag, and they were already expensive, and we already bought two bags a week, and then usually different kind for the kids. I added it all up and was like, “whoa!”

It’s just been a good MM wake up call for me to pay more attention and use our resources more wisely.

[sometimesrunner]

1. Pay for backyard renovation. Still waiting on the quote for this, but I'm hopeful that the amount we've already set aside is at least 50% of the amount we'll need.
2. Buy H an electric truck. We'll likely finance this. Hopefully we know the numbers on the backyard before we have to make the decision on this.
3. Generally be more conscious of spending. Last year both H and I spent mindlessly, and while it was a BLAST (lol), we'd like to have wayyyy more to show for our efforts than we did at the end of the year.

[mlkgls]

I feel like I could probably C&P from last year but here are mine for 2023. 

1) Up 401k by 1-2%. I was close to maxing last year and then the goalpost moved, as it usually does. I don’t think I’m going to stress about hitting that goal this year because I have several other sinking funds to focus on. 

2) Aggressively save for guest bathroom makeover. Its probably the one room in the house that hasn’t seen an update and after 30 years is looking a little rough around the edges. It was next on the project list before my bathroom jumped the line because of a major repair. 

3) Save for next summer’s Alaskan cruise. 

4) Research and finally obtain an non-employer based life insurance policy. I’m afraid I’m out of luck at this point, which is why it’s not higher on the list. 

[boiler717]

1. Focus on spending / cut down on lifestyle creep.
2. Non-retirement savings
3. Do something with old 401ks

[jinkies]

Feb 9, 2023 7:20:06 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

1. Focus on spending / cut down on lifestyle creep.

This is going to be my biggest priority in 2023. For so long, I was so careful with money. And now that we don't urgently need to watch every dollar, we do so much impulsive spending. Like taking DD to the dollar store or craft store just for something to do, and coming out spending $40. Or donating things instead of returning them because it doesn't seem worth the hassle for things I got on clearance. But it is all really adding up.

We also will be moving my DD back to public school after 2 years in private. I am very much looking forward to re-allocating her tuition money to savings. 

[sometimesrunner]

Feb 9, 2023 11:21:19 GMT -5 jinkies said:

Feb 9, 2023 7:20:06 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

1. Focus on spending / cut down on lifestyle creep.

This is going to be my biggest priority in 2023. For so long, I was so careful with money. And now that we don't urgently need to watch every dollar, we do so much impulsive spending. Like taking DD to the dollar store or craft store just for something to do, and coming out spending $40. Or donating things instead of returning them because it doesn't seem worth the hassle for things I got on clearance. But it is all really adding up.

We also will be moving my DD back to public school after 2 years in private. I am very much looking forward to re-allocating her tuition money to savings. 

Me, three! For once, H is on board, which I can't explain how happy this makes me. Good luck to all three of us!