By: Revanche

2018: New year, new plans

January 8, 2018

I broke this out of my 2017 year end review because it was too unwieldy. Besides, fresh new goals deserve their own post. Correction – some are goals, some are just habits to build.

At first, I thought my trouble setting goals this year was because I don’t know exactly what I want next for our family and that makes it hard to plan for the next 1-3 years. That’s true. But there’s another aspect to it. I’m instinctively doing something sensible.

Being laser focused on one thing, wealth building, is a good Right Now habit. It’s that habit that gets me to the goal. But it doesn’t prepare me for achieving success in the big picture. Like coming into money when you’ve not had any before and haven’t had time to build good money management habits retirement, whenever it happens, is a huge transition.

On the micro scale, obsessing about money when you’re making it is easy, replacing that obsession when you’re retired and only spending or managing it is likely much harder. On the macro scale, I’m starting to envision the person I want to be in ten years. I want to be someone who has the time and energy to go on adventures, someone who explores the world a bit and then comes back to her books and little gardens at home, who doesn’t have to work for income and can relax with her family at home most days and entertain herself doing volunteer work. I want my family to have the best shot at education and opportunities they can handle, and the confidence and support to go for them.

To become that person, I’ve got to start working on improving our health and fitness (for PiC and me anyway, we’re Old), improving our finances, researching soil pH and garden planning.

Hello 2018!

These three were more like directives to make decisions left over from 2017. I’ll likely spend time on these over the course of the year.

• Organize our retirement funding for tax and income efficiency.
• As part of the above, research the backdoor ROTH IRA and decide when would be best for us to do one. I think I’ll need our CPA’s help running some numbers for this.
• Decide if we’re going to hoard more cash (investing it) or pay down more mortgage, then do it.

{Money Goals}

1. Max out PiC’s 401(k), my IRA, his IRA, and one parent worth of contributions for JB’s 529. Is it cheating or good planning to have already set aside the funds for JB’s 529? Let’s go with the latter.
2. Save 35% of our income in addition to the above contributions.
   This is a stretch as expenses go up this year but I’m trying anyway.
   
3. Invest at least $50,000.
   I’ve got much of this set aside from the home sale, I have to cash flow the rest of this amount. This may go to our brokerage, but then again the stock market is so high that I’m hesitant. I’m researching other investment options. This isn’t just about willpower and saving, it’s about making myself take the leap of putting this money to work somewhere instead of holding onto the cash like the miserly miser that lives in a small corner of my heart.
   
4. Reduce mortgage principal by another $10,000.
   We’ve made huge prepayments in 2017, I won’t set a huge goal here until we see how our new mortgage and the tax plan settles down.
5. Increase charitable donations by 50%.
   We can do better with donating. I was originally thinking 75% but remembered we also give to people in dire straits that come up during the year and that’s not “charity” but it comes out of the same money pot.
6. Increase side income from $2000 to $5,000
   This will be tougher this year because I’m not motivated to play the Chase bonus game again which accounted for $1100 in side income but who knows. I might change my mind!
7. Create a FIRE outline
   I’ve been putting this one off because I know our assets are low in comparison to even our lowest milestone goal for being comfortably retired. I think we need approximately $2M in invested assets, free and clear of real estate liabilities.

{Health & Fitness}

1. Walk or run an extra mile every day for an average of an additional 365 miles this year.
2. Put on sunblock before we go out every morning.
   This shouldn’t be difficult to remember considering where we live but we forget constantly. Skin cancer is no joke! I’m carrying sunblock in my bag from now on so that it’s on hand even if we forget to do it before stepping out the door.
3. Get PiC out for runs at least 3x a week.
   We haven’t done a good enough job of making space in the schedule for him to do this and it’s bad for everyone’s mood when he gets out less.
4. Read Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey.
   I bought this partly to support the first woman translator of the text and partly because an excerpt showed it to be a really accessible and readable translation, unlike what I slogged through in high school. I don’t love or hate the classics, but I think it’s important to feed my brain which feels like it’s been atrophying.
5. Sleep train JuggerBaby again.
   Ze has been nightmare-ridden for months and so wants us with zir always at night but we’re working on zir sleeping alone again.
6. Supplement Seamus’s diet with veggies so he doesn’t think he’s starving.
   He already gets canned sardines for his skin, and it’s done wonders, so doesn’t need extra calories but he needs more bulk because he still thinks he’s hungry. We briefly experimented with a huge treat for him that had green beans, potatoes, butternut squash and venison. The smart money is that he loved the venison part but he gobbled down the rest of the veggies as well, so we can cheaply add some of those to his daily kibble.
   

{Life}

1. No more hard boiled leprosy eggs. I’m baking our eggs from now on.
2. Bake mini muffins once a month.
   Got a great, and most importantly, super duper easy favorite recipe? PLEASE SHARE.
3. Mail hand-written letter to one of JuggerBaby’s surrogate grandparents every month.
   Do thank you cards count? I haven’t decided.
4. Perhaps add to our family.
   We’ll see.

:: What are you working on in 2018? How are you working on becoming the person you want to be ten years from now? Who would that person be?

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