2024 Goals

[heygrey]

Is anyone ready to put their goals in writing? 

[chpmnk1015]

Main one is to save, save save and i have a number written in mind
Roth IRA for DH and i by Oct
1K into stocks
1K into an investment account BFF runs
Vaca Fund to 10K after the big vaca we are taking this year
1K into each kids account
Roths for the kids (at least what they earn).
if i get a raise, raise my 401k by 1%

[midwestmama]

The theme for 2024 is reduce debt and save.

1. Put $10K in a 12-month CD (5% interest) - plan to do this Jan. 2. (We have 1 CD which will mature on Jan. 1, so we'll roll that balance into the new CD and take from our savings what is needed to make up the difference between that amount and $10K. We have another CD which matures in early March, and hopefully we can still get a good CD interest rate at that time to reinvest it in another CD.)  ETA:  Done! (Jan. 2)
2. Pay off DH's truck loan in April with some of our bonus money. This will mean we have no more active car loans, and our only debt would be the mortgage. (Anything left from our bonuses will go into savings for possibly a big trip in 2025 and/or home improvements.)
3. At this point, the plan is to take the monthly truck payment and apply that $ to our mortgage principal each month. (Would essentially result in double-paying the principal each month. We would like to have the house paid off by the time DS graduates high school in 4.5 years. This plan would just about get us there.)
3. Save $200 per month toward saving for car for DS.
4. Maybe bump up 529 contributions for each kid by $25/month, after my merit increase in April.
5. Declutter (donate and sell) and reduce impulse purchases. (I did not do a good job on this in 2023, so it is a repeat goal from 2023.)

[quesyrah]

The kids really want to go to Japan and I really want to make it happen. Our goal is to put $800 in savings each month for the trip.

We also just started the kids 529s (so late…they’re 10 and 13) and we are on track to put $2,500 into each account.

[sadlebred]

I will reuse most of my 2023 goals with a few tweaks.

1. Be in a better financial position. This will mostly come from trying to quit bleeding money every month and increasing savings. Also quit discretionary spending. I will redo my budget later in the spring.
2. Try to have the side gig bring in some additional money. I run a website for a hobby I am in. I also need to identify some new revenue streams for it. (On hold til mid 2024)
3. Try to get my health stable. Main priority this year. I am thankful for good health insurance.
4. Save, save, save! I want to build back up my e-fund to 6 months (this will take me more than 2024, probably 2025 as well).
5. Contribute more my ROTH.

[niq]

Renovate the house into the house we want. Also buying a new car. It's not going to be an MM year, but the point of saving money is to spend it? Right?

I'm going to find a financial planner to talk to about semi-retirement. I've thought about transitioning into teaching or something like it (opening an afterschool math learning center -- there's a ton of vacant commercial real estate here). 2024 is probably too early to pull the trigger but I should see if it's a reasonable choice in 2 years vs 5 or 10.

[melmel4854]

Pay off at least 1 credit card
Rebuild my savings account
Reduce spending in the areas of nonsense shopping, eating out and take out food.

[themoneytree]

1: Continue to add to our high interest savings account (down to 4.35%) to offset our mortgage balance (mortgage at 2.99%). We will do this until/ if interest rates fall below our mortgage interest rate and would then make a lump sum payment. We have a ways to go to pay off this mortgage. We saved $11,000 in 2023. Hoping for an additional $15,000 - $20,000 in 2024.

2: Add significantly to our travel fund to allow regular, worry free trips to the new house in the UK. With Mum’s Alzheimer’s we want to be there a lot to give her wife and full time carer regular breaks as Mum will come and stay with us while we are there.
I don’t know how long this will stay possible, so we’re ok throwing money at the UK house and flights for as long as it is possible.

3: Have the U.K. house contribute even a little to its upkeep somehow. Rent parking spot/ airbnb/ home exchange?

4: Spend less on eating out. We have ridiculously easy access to way too many restaurants and spend WAY too much eating out. We cut back in the second half of 2023 and I’d like to continue that trend in 2024 and use that money towards U.K. travel/ mortgage payoff savings.

5: Have some slight hope (?) that my investment accounts might start to look more healthy and if they reach a certain threshold (which seems unlikely at this point) I would like to consider a new-to-me car. This can be put off until 2025 in favor of house and travel to U.K. spending.

6: Take a hiatus from unnecessary improvements to our US home. There are still a couple of improvements I would like to make here, but they are unnecessary and can easily wait. Not making improvements is a challenge for me because I am always thinking of something I want to do, but these things can wait until we see how things are looking for 2025.

[dr.girlfriend]

1. Apply for a promotion at work. It's a very long and involved process that will take more than a year, but I need to just do it.

2. Change my retirement withholding so I don't max out in November. Work matches, so I missed my December match this year by maxing out too early. It's hard because we get an incentive in October, so not early enough to really change calculations but early enough to max us out prematurely.

3. Spend money on vacations with the kiddo before he heads to college. I know we have a few years still but it seems like it's looming.

4. Buy more "just because" gifts for people. I'm terrible about remembering birthdays or doing holiday shopping or whatever so I'm going to try to just get people stuff when I see something they would like instead of waiting for an occasion.

That seems like a nice even amount -- two to increase income, and two to increase expenditures! ;-)

[heygrey]

We're in a good place all around with savings (retirement/education/general).

Our smaller goals are:

1) Holiday to Yellowstone. It's within driving distance and should be $2,500.

2) Bathroom Reno 2.0. I'm budgeting $5,000.

3) Two extra payments on our mortgage. More would be better.

4) Stretch goal - make a small second income from catering. We've catered for several friends' parties, but the logistics of moving beyond that is intimidating.

[brooke77]

Mine are very similar to last year!


- contribute to 529 for DS
- set up estate plan
- make extra mortgage payments each month
- meet with financial advisor to discuss best ways to catch up on retirement savings
- track spending/make a budget

[ny96]

Mine is to put a minimum of $2k a month into savings. We make good money, but save hardly anything and it’s likely that DS1 will be attending private school next year so we’ve got to get in line, financially.

[konapoppy]

1. Do the floors and begin planning the garage remodel, if not start it.

2. Be more mindful of day to day spend. For example, I can get most non-produce items at TJs.

3. Keep up progress on utilizing Buy Nothing (got some Christmas gifts from the group, borrowed things I only needed for a short time, etc.). I gift a ton too.

4. Finally (?) increase monthly savings.

[minzy]

I think we’ll be getting a new to us car. I’d like to give more away (focus on environmental issues), and spend meaningfully on experiences/thoughtful gestures.

[mae0111]

1. Pay cash for some home improvements. The list isn’t finalized yet, so hoping this is achievable.

2. Contribute to 529s.

3. Increase charitable giving, including our DAF.

4. Contribute to 401k - hit fed max and profit sharing.

5. Put something into brokerage. This will be a challenge with additional expenses (tuition, mortgage for 2nd house).

6. This is squishier, but be more mindful of spending. Too many stupid Amazon orders and Target runs. I need to be better about that.

[plutosmoon]

Pay off my car, I have about $5000 left. I could pay it off with some savings right now, which is very tempting, but I think I'll cash flow extra to principal instead.

Increase 403b by 1% in July when I get my raise, this should be doable. Unmatched contributions are placed in an annuity, not my regular investments which seems weird and confusing, so I may put money in my roth if I can't figure out how to get the money in regular investments.

Take a nice summer vacation with DD. We haven't had a big vacation since our 2019 Disney trip.

Save for my garage. I really wanted a house with a garage, but it didn't work out that way. Once the car is paid off I can redirect part of that money to my garage fund. I plan to build a detached garage along with an actual paved driveway (I currently park on mud ruts in the lawn), I think I'll have enough saved by spring of 2026 if all goes well.

[tcu2003]

Mine are similar to last year:

Max 401k accounts for DH and me
Fund kids 529 accounts to the max we get a state income tax deduction for
Max backdoor Roth IRA accounts for DH and me
Fund our taxable account at least at the level we did in 2023
Increase our charitable giving
Take advantage of PTO and kids time out of school to take some meaningful trip with the family (I ended up losing a few days of pto this year, and I don’t want to do that again)
Be more intentional with shopping - we have too much stuff and I’m slowing working on purging, but if I bring needless crap into the house, it definitely defeats the purpose

[flygirl]

Keep my job for another year! We were massively short on goal this year so I’m not sure what this year will hold.
H bought a new vehicle and I’d like to get the balance to 1/2 of what it is today.
Fund another summer road trip and max our retirement. I’m a broken record apparently with very similar goals to last year.

[simpsongal]

Ours will be pretty renovation focused...
- finish the reno ~March - outstanding costs at the start of the year are about $72K
- pay off 0% CC by end of the year (opened Oct '23, 15 mos 0%) - balance $19K at start of the year
- network & apply for new job by COY
- fund kids' 529s ($4K each)...[I'd prefer to delay this a year but DH won't]
- work on estate planning w/mom
- "reach" goal - buy a baby grand piano
- throw a catered Christmas party
- fund a vacation in Jan '25

[wildrice]

I actually don't have a lot in mind for 2024! Which isn't to say we have everything in order (lol, we don't) but there isn't anything major upcoming that feels pressing - unless something breaks, we don't have any major purchases coming up. So with that:

1. Increase general savings by $500 a month. This should be easy to do if I am more mindful about spending, I hope.

2. Plan 1-2 vacations and cash flow the cost. We haven't made any actual plans for these yet, but need to get on that soon. We should have enough points available to pay for plane tickets for at least 1 trip.

3. Create a will/estate planning.

4. Take a better look at all the streaming and other subscriptions we have and try to cut some of them. None are super expensive so this always seems low priority, but I don't think we are getting our money's worth from everything we pay monthly on, either.

[fortnightlily]

1. First and foremost, meet with a Financial Advisor.
2. Move a bunch of our liquid savings into higher-earning vehicles
3. Figure out what the hell I want to do with my career. I'm having kind of a midlife crisis and would love to just take a break from working at all for like 3 months to do a mental reset. But the job market for tech isn't great, so my husband is against it (and I am nervous) because of the risk it'd take me a long time to find something new when I was ready.
4. Figure out if we're on track for me to partially retire early, when DH retires (still many years away, but he's a lot older than me).

[trissie18]

1. Take out a HELOC to purchase an additional 8 acres next door.

2. Pay off small personal loan.
3. Possibly start in-state 529 plans for DSs to get the tax benefits (currently have out of state plans).
4. Add $$$$ to our liquid savings.
5. Cash flow family trip to Montana/Wyoming this summer

[EvieEthelGarland]

*Buy car with cash. (This is likely happening this week.)
*Remodel Kitchen. (We’ve been sitting on this cash for years)
*fund 23 & 24 Roths
*go to Italy with my sister
*continue spending money for family travel. DS graduates in 27 and I feel like time is running out.
*start saving for new fencing in 25 and roof/painting in 26. Then my house will be done!

[bee20]

fortnightlily, I've seen several people use FMLA for mental health leave, you can protect your job and get the break you need. Most have come back to the same role but some go in a different direction after the leave.

[bee20]

My financial goals are tied to some pretty personal life goals, but essentially there is a major life decision fork in the road this year and I'm looking forward to having some clarity so I can drop down to just one planning scenario spreadsheet.

ETA: A more shareable goal, is I realized this year my spending is below the MIT living wage for my county and metro area.  I would like to keep my spending below the Living Wage, but it gives me a reasonable target for allowing myself some luxuries.

[fryjack2]

I want to be more mindful of spending. We put everything on our CC and pay off it off every month, but I could be more conscious of what we spend. Eat at home more often, take breakfast to work, etc. It would add up and there are much more exciting things we could do with that "saved" money.

Open a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Or whichever one gives global entry.

Meet with a financial planner and invest outside of retirement accounts. I say this every year and have yet to find one

[chpmnk1015]

Jan 2, 2024 20:19:22 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

I want to be more mindful of spending. We put everything on our CC and pay off it off every month, but I could be more conscious of what we spend. Eat at home more often, take breakfast to work, etc. It would add up and there are much more exciting things we could do with that "saved" money.

Open a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Or whichever one gives global entry.

Meet with a financial planner and invest outside of retirement accounts. I say this every year and have yet to find one

If you need a link for sapphire preferred lmk.. I think I got my Global entry through my chase united card

[sadie]

1. Buy some CDs and pay off my husband's last school loan with my husband's bonus
2. 529s
3. Bedroom carpets. Do something about the backyard after we sell swingset.
4. Continue to pad savings/plan out roof replacement timing

We are not foreseeing any huge imminent house reno expenses this year, so we'll be planning for future projects.

[midwestmama]

Jan 2, 2024 16:03:14 GMT -5 EvieEthelGarland said:

*continue spending money for family travel. DS graduates in 27 and I feel like time is running out.

I feel you on this one!  My DS graduates HS in '28 and DD graduates HS in '29.  I definitely am of the same mindset to spend money on travel these next few years to make as many family memories as we can.  

[ssmjlm]

1. House painting - interior and exterior

2. Pay off a bigger chunk of DH's truck loan. I just hate having a car payment.