By: Revanche

2019: New year, new plans

January 14, 2019

Hello 2019!

I started breaking out the new calendar year goals into a new post last year and I like that format.

{Money Goals}

I don’t know what PiC’s raise will be this year. I assumed he would get something nominal, though that could be wrong and I’m making myself paranoid about assuming right now. They had a few rounds of layoffs and normally that would come with a hiring or salary freeze year but there was confirmation that some raises were happening. I already negotiated mine for the new year, so that’s set and budgeted: we’re splitting it between our regular savings and saving for big expenses. Whatever PiC’s raise is in the spring, that’ll go into savings and cover increased expenses. Daycare will go up again, I’d love to put a little bit more toward mortgage principal, we’ll also need to add (and pay for) some activities for JB this year. If he doesn’t get one, I’ll shuffle our savings rate around a little to take care of those expenses.

  1. Investment vehicles: Max out PiC’s 401(k), both IRAs, reduce contributions for JB’s 529 to the annual $5000 Dependent Care FSA. I’ve got enough left from our cash savings in 2018 that was intended for investing to cover our IRAs right off the top this year. I set aside the cash for JB’s 529 at the end of last year and was able to do that for PiC’S IRA, this year we saved diligently enough that I can take my IRA out of the monthly equation. That will increase our cash flow by $459, which goes straight back into investing. I’m reducing the 529 contributions so I can focus on our retirement contributions this year.
  2. Save 35% of our income in cash for investing. This continues to be a stretch.
  3. Invest at least $30,000.
  4. Reduce mortgage principal by $15,000.
  5. Maintain charitable donations at same level as 2018 or 10% more.
  6. Maintain side income at $3500. This is going to be tough because none of this income is passive and we’re pretty crunched for time with the adjustments to our jobs of late. Edited to note: This is per year but I wouldn’t say no to per month!Ā 
  7. Create a FIRE outline. I’m still putting this one off. Our assets are low in comparison to even our lowest milestone goal for being comfortably retired.

{Health & Fitness}

I’m not in the mood for a lot of detail this year. Keeping it simple.

  1. No sugar, low carb.
  2. Walk every day, maybe hike the dogs twice a month.
  3. Put on sunblock always.
  4. Put JB in swim and self defense classes. ($200 a month, I think)

{Life}

  1. Continue to deal with the consequences of adopting a second dog – training, socializing, training, and training!
  2. Take a pretty cool vacation.
  3. Be grateful that I have an incredible partner and that I love my chosen family. Use that privilege and gratitude to help others.

:: What are you working on in 2019? How are you working on becoming the person you want to be ten years from now? Who would that person be?

10 Responses to “2019: New year, new plans”

  1. OFG says:

    Happy New Year! My husband and I meet every February to discuss our yearly goals. It’s so romantic discuss money over Valentine’s Day šŸ˜‰ but oddly enough we’ve never written specific monetary amounts with those goals. We’ll say save more or spend less, but never placed a dollar amount next to the goal. I plan to adopt your strategy for our next meeting. Best of luck on meeting all of these goals in the new year. What type of self defense courses are you signing JB up for? I’ve seen karate classes but never specific self defense courses for kids. I’ll need to look into that.
    OFG recently posted…With Intention Comes WealthMy Profile

    • Revanche says:

      I love that tradition! I much prefer an annual money meeting for Valentine’s Day over the usual spending of money. šŸ˜€ I hope you find adding the specific amounts to your goals is helpful!

      My super awesome massage therapist recommended a local self defense course for kids – they do jiu-jitsu and muay thai for kids and I am hoping we can pique JB’s interest.

  2. My fave goal of yours – Be grateful that I have an incredible partner and that I love my chosen family. Use that privilege and gratitude to help others.

    Following your blog for a while and its great to see personal/spiritual growth and happiness. In spite of tough health issues and dog/JB adventures, its reassuring to see the upward trajectory.

    My husband and I are expecting our first kid this July. As the finance person in our house it is really scary to consider how this will affect our finances and lives in general. Daycare OMG! My husband is very chill about this so this helps me keep grounded. A new kid will definitely be a change for myself, my hubby and our two senior dogs. Trying to take it a day at a time and not beat myself up about not being ambitious enough with work/volunteering and so on.

    This year our goals are:
    1) Max out Simple/401(K) roths again
    2) Max out roth IRA’s
    3) $5k in FSA
    4) Game plan for daycare
    5) Husband will take a certification course for resume boosting
    6) Maintain donation levels
    7) Cut down on volunteering time that requires me to physically attend something but increase executive volunteering through another organization
    8) Find ways to keep infant/new kid expenses to a minimum (tips welcome!)
    9) Continue to keep up with my twitter folk

    Thanks for the inspiration and good, solid posts. While I dont always comment I do always read your posts. Thank you and a happy new year to you and the fluffy/human family!

    • Revanche says:

      Thanks so much for being a reader and even commenting! It’s always great to carry on the conversation here.

      I feel your feels, truly! I was a bit petrified by the costs as I wrote them out on paper, when I was pregnant, but it’s reassuring to know that it can be done with some compromises.

      Also, I hear you about the beating oneself up about being “not ambitious enough” at work. I still struggle with that.

      We relied a LOT on hand me downs for the first year, and still do, for clothes and some basic supplies. I would suggest reaching out to folks who have youngish children in case they might be hoping to unload a lot of their used stuff, it’s often still quite good and people are usually eager to send them on to good homes!

  3. I love money goals. I don’t always reach them, BUT they’re usually pretty straightforward. Congratulations on raises for you and PiC!
    The $76K Project recently posted…19 for ’19: My Goals For The New YearMy Profile

    • Revanche says:

      I can’t accept congrats on a PiC raise yet, I’m just assuming we might get one and hoping that doesn’t bite me!

      Money goals do make me antsy though. I want to get them all done RIGHT AWAY. I don’t know why.

  4. GYM says:

    Fantastic goals- love the $3500 side income per month- that’s awesome! Also putting sunblock always is very good- I’m very lazy about it even in the summer!
    GYM recently posted…16 Ways to Save Money Fast in 2019My Profile

    • Revanche says:

      Oooh I should have specified! That’s $3500 in the year! but $3500 per month would be so much better šŸ˜€

  5. Kris says:

    Great goals you have especially you life ones!! Any particular vacation spots you’re targeting yet?
    Yes, being grateful for your family is something we all should do most of the time because you’re fortunate to have them in your lives and you wouldn’t want it any other way.

  6. […] giving. I upped this amount a bit in 2018 as well, but I want to keep growing that number. I like Revanche’s idea of 10% more than last year – perhaps the theme of 2019 is to do 10% better across the […]

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