Goals for 2014?

cbee817 · December 2013

Anyone have any 2014 goals to share?

Ours are:

1. Save $500/paycheck ($13,000/year) despite having a huge day care bill (about $20,000) this year.

2. Keep our cars (2003 and 2006) running for another year

3. Not do any big home improvement projects this year. We have an upstairs bathroom that I would love to gut, but we're not sure if we'll be moving in a year or 2. Our school district is facing major budget cuts/consolidation and if our amazing elementary school closes (one of the reasons we moved to the neighborhood), we need to get into a better district for DD#1 starting school in Sept 2015 (and DD#2 in Sept 2017).

jessica490 · December 2013

Ours are to:

1. Keep saving as much as we can for a house DP. We plan on buying in fall 2015 (hope to have 20% saved, but not too sure we will make it)

2. Keeping on top of DH's school payments (school starts Jan 2014 and goes for 18 months- we already have the money aside)

3. Keep adding to our e-fund to make it nice and big for when we buy a home

4. Keep paying extra on our mortgage to get ourselves from being underwater on our condo so that way when we do buy a house we won't loose anything

5. One thing we keep saying we'll do is pay more towards DH's ridiculous car loan (up in Jan 2017) but we have too many other important things to save for right now. Maybe we can get to this

6. Save up for some vacations!

vlagrl29 · December 2013

1) get to 6k in e-fund, just need 2,500 more to achieve that.

2) start contributing to retirement again once we hit our e-fund goal.

3) hoping to purchase a hot tub for our patio (we've been saving)

4) put the savings we currently have for DD in a money market

Xstatic3333 · December 2013

Good topic! Ours are (in order of priority)

1. Add 10,000 to our down payment fund (very doable)

2. Pay off H's small student loan (this will definitely happen-just about $600 to go!)

3. Pay off H's car (with 9,500 to go, this one will take some seriously discipline)

4. Pay off about half of my Grad PLUS loan (get the balance to $1500)

6. Open a Roth IRA for H and set up regular contributions (which will be small to start)

5. Continue to pay off my Stafford loan at the 10-year repayment rate (I signed up for the 20 year plan to give myself a buffer in case one of us loses a job, but have been paying at the 10 year rate with occasional extra payments)

*I understand that putting the down payment ahead of the car loan flies in the face of accepted financial advice. We're doing it for "life" reasons and are comfortable with the decision.

I've signed up for lots of extra work at my third job (teaching diving) next year, which will help. Hopefully posting here will also help keep me accountable. Maybe we could do monthly/weekly check-ins on our progress?

Erikan73 · December 2013

1. No matter how hard it is, stick to our planned out budget

2. Continue to work on paying off debts

3. Get Life insurance policies outside of what employers offer us (working on that right now)

4. Update my will to include husband (did mine before ever meeting him) and to get a will for husband

cbee817 · December 2013

Erikan73 said:

1. No matter how hard it is, stick to our planned out budget

2. Continue to work on paying off debts

3. Get Life insurance policies outside of what employers offer us (working on that right now)

4. Update my will to include husband (did mine before ever meeting him) and to get a will for husband

Need to add this to mine for 2014- thanks for reminding me! We've been meaning to get something set up since DD#1 was born in 2010.

hoffse · December 2013

Love this thread, and I love Xstatic's suggestion of monthly/weekly check-ins. Let's start that on Monday

Our 2014 goals:

1) H will graduate from law school. Finally.

2) H must pass the bar exam. Not really any question about this, but it's a big milestone. He and I went to the same law school, and I can tell you our law exams were a good bit harder than the bar. But still - the bar exam is an 18 hour test over 3 days that's entirely closed-book. There are 21 subjects it could possibly cover. And my year, we took it in a warehouse with unsanded wood tables that gave us all splinters. And I had the pleasure of sitting next to a mouth breather. The whole thing kind of blows.

3) Assuming all goes smoothly with #1 and #2, H will start his legal practice at a big firm. That's going to help us a lot financially.

4) Right after the bar, we're taking a trip to London. Lawyers call this the "bar trip" because it's typically the last huge vacation you get for awhile. In fact, I just booked our very first thing today - special access tickets to Stonehenge at sunrise so that we can walk inside the circle! We are nerds. I choose to embrace it.

5) Possibly buy a house - we will have enough for a downpayment saved by the end of 2014, it just depends on inventory when we're ready to buy. This might be pushed to 2015 if there's nothing that really speaks to us.

6) Start paying down H's student loans in earnest once he begins working - how much is still TBD once we see exactly how much he brings home.

It should be a pretty big year for us!

SmrBrd2012 · December 2013

1) Continue aggressive saving for a down payment of between 10-20% & an emergency savings

2) Hopefully find a condo or house by the spring

Once we buy/move in:

3) Spend 1k to buy in-laws old car that will allow me to finally find a job outside of the city.

4) Increase retirement contributions

5) Pay off H's student loans as fast as possible

6) Start throwing whatever is extra at the mortgage

7) If all goes according to plan, MAYBE start TTC by the end of 2014???

MommyLiberty5013 · December 2013

1. Save for and buy a used Toyota Sienna.

2. Pay down principal on our mortgage (plan to make at least a $10k payment).

3. Increase automated principal only payments another $100 per month.

4. Take video footage of each room and all valuables in the home for insurance purposes (this has been on my to-do list for about 4 months now and I just cannot seem to get it done).

Ducktale · December 2013

1. Finish funding our baby fund and start TTC in early 2014

2. Save enough to buy our next car in cash, whenever our current one dies or becomes too expensive to maintain

3. Save enough to get some remodeling started on the house (new siding and soffits, new windows, removing panelling on the walls

4. Purchase extra life insurance

5. Get a will/advanced directives in place

6. Start education savings account for future kids

7. Buy a freezer and work on stocking up on food when on sale or in season

lifeonthehill · December 2013

1. Save the 10,000 we want in our emergency fund so we can start TTC

2. Pay another 6,500 on DH SL

3. When we do start TTC start funding an exclusive baby fund to pay co pays, hospital bills, and buy baby items.

4. Fund DH 401k as much as his job will match.

5. Scrap DH old old car for a couple hundred.

6. Hope my car keeps running until early 2016. This will be the hardest one. Haha.

Mom987 · December 2013

Hmm. All of yours are good!

1. Come to an agreement on whether to increase Roth IRA contributions or extra mortgage payments (posted about this yesterday, just need DH to get on board).

2. Only spend money at grocery stores or if it's a family outing. No more lunches or silly spending (I'm already very aware of this).

3. Even though we have 7.5 months emergency fund, we might increase our contributions on one mutual fund because we're making great returns.

smbenevides1989 · December 2013

I like this idea!

1. Starting January, we will solely be living on DH's income. My income will go to CC (see #2) then the Efund and DP.

2. Payoff our CC debt by March - only one month more than originally planned.

3. Buy DH a new-to-him car with our taxes as a DP - should be in March, approximate monthly payments already budgeted for next year.

4. Put away $3K into an efund as a start.

5. Start aggressively saving for a DP. We would like to have 10% if not more down, plus closing costs, start up costs, and tool/appliance purchases. We already have all our furniture. We are looking to buy by the end of 2014/start of 2015, if not sooner.

6. Start TTC in April.

Smonet · December 2013

Great idea!

#1. Stick to new budget! Thanks to you guys we made it through month 1!!

#2. Continue to put at least 1K in savings each month-and not touch it!

#3. Up DH's 401K to match employers contribution. He thought he was at 4%, and I looked and its at 1% argh.

#4. Sell Apple Stock and open Roth IRAs for both of us

#5. Buy trailer for boat to eliminate winter storage costs

#6. Start making room in budget for LO #2 and 1k per month in DC costs when the time comes

#7. TTC sometime in 2014

#8. Keep my '04 car going as long as possible. Its paid off and our only one. This is such a huge area to save by keeping it!

Good luck guys!

juliebeannn · December 2013

*stick to budget -- really focus on eating out less
*buy a house in the summer/fall -- goal of $18k savings (+ another $20k gift from in-laws) - Savings Due Date: July 2014
*additional $10k in savings for e-fund
*increase 401k contribution 1% every quarter
*maintain our 2 used cars -- 08 and 99 (both currently going strong)
*start looking for new job (depends on what happens during promotion time in March)

anssett · December 2013

* Pay off student loans! (estimated July or Aug 2014)

* Start house down payment fund (after student loans are gone)

* Get life insurance

* Estate planning (wills and stuff)

* Max out Roth IRAs earlier in the year (instead of end of the year like 2013)

* Decide if I'm sticking with this job or find my next career adventure

Wulfgar · December 2013

1. Rebuild savings accounts, this was a horrible year for us when it came to medical bills etc.
2. Continue to TTC our second child.
3. Try to pay off MW's student loans (figure it will be 3 more years).
4. Hopefully our roof can go one more year prior to needing to be replaced.
5. Start tracking our spending from our savings better. (we do a decent job of tracking our monthly known expenses it is our "emergency" and "vacation/ gift" accounts that we don't track as well).

CuriousKiddosMama · December 2013

1. Save $250 a month for college for our baby
2. Pay back our savings account for the van we just bought (should take us about 4 more months)
3. Pay as we go for some home improvements (new carpet, paint, and baby proofing

) Possibly some more depending upon what's possible, we've lived here for 4 years now and haven't done anything to fix it up or make it ours.
4. TTC baby #2
5. Get our wills done

HoneyBee973 · December 2013

Stick to a budget.
Beef up our savings account
Continue TTC (year 3)
Make extra payments on our car and mortgage.

mana8503 · December 2013

1. Pay off last CC (January)
2. Pay off last sl (may-June)
3. Pay off my jeep (may)
4. Work towards our 6 Month efund
5. Start H an IRA
6. Start saving towards a new car for me.

brij2006 · December 2013

1. Begin the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover.
2. Pay off everything but our cars by the start of 2015.
3. Hold 4 parties per month with Tastefully Simple, and apply that extra $ toward debt.
4. Sell double the amount of policies at work in 2014 than I did in 2013. Apply extra commission amount toward debt.
5. Finish the spare bedroom and den in our home. Get everthing prepped to carpet.

Belthil · December 2013

Our goals for 2014 are a little up in the air as I'm waiting to her back about my board exam. If I've passed our goal is to:

1. Figure out a montly budget and stick to it. I'm not sure why this is so hard for us but I feel like we're always spending more than what we should be despite our very restricted spending and occasional dinner out. I'm going to need to investigate this before 2014.

2. Start an e-savings, my goal is to get at least 3 months built up by July

3. Make aggressive payments on my SL. I would like to get the first one paid off by this time next year.

4. Keep both of our current cars running as they're both paid off

5. Start saving for retirement.

6. Increase our life insurance

7. Get my name put on our house and update my will/get one made for H

8. Start saving for our trip to Europe. It won't be happening for a few years but I'd like to start saving for it sooner than later.

I know that Dave Ramsey's book has been mentioned several times on this board so my goal before 2014 is to take a look and see if I can incorporate some of his techniques into our finances.

orangehills · December 2013

Our goals are to:

* Pay off the Harley, then sell it this spring
* Get to our 7 month e-fund amount of 24k by September, and then start on new house fund
* Fix the paint in the current house we own! That costs money.
* Start putting more towards retirement
* Pay off all of our 2014 vacations.. well, money is already booked for this, but I guess that's part of 2014
* If DH gets some money his way he is supposed to, paying off the rest of the 6k of student loans we have, then the rest into savings
* By the end of the year, start TTC because we'll have hit the goals we wanted to!

irishfemme · December 2013

In no particular order:

1. Pay cash for a new metal roof on our house (I am estimating this to be about $6K) this summer.

2. Work my new car payment into our budget (a relatively huge unexpected expense that we can manage, though I was hoping to keep my car for another few years, but with 120K miles on it and lots of driving to do this year, I need something reliable...merry Christmas to me, I guess).

3. Continue to pay cash for my graduate school tuition (and hopefully graduate next fall!).

4. Keep our CC paid off.

5. Build our savings back up to where we "like" it to be (probably about $5K to go after the holidays and some minor repairs to our home).

mkerr09 · December 2013

I am finally DEBT FREE (minus the mortgage), so it's so nice to start 2014 with a clean slate.

1. Aggressively save. My (realistic) goal is to put $1k into our money market account per month.

2. Increase 401k contributions by an additional 2%.

3. Open up an IRA.

4. Redo the backyard. It's a hot mess from our old garage demo/new garage build.

5. Start TTC.

hmd · December 2013

Our goals are:

1) Save to build our house/pay down our lot loan.

2) Pay off DH's school loan.

3) Pay off DH's boat.

4) Build up our regular savings.

Goals for 2014?

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