Goals for 2017

[tripods68]

For 2017 we have a few items, other than retirement and investment goal.

For the new house
-we need a design concrete to bridge sidewalk to back patio.
-build ceiling dropdown 4x8 (2) safe rack garage organizer
-build front yard with
-Hyundai repair for a steering fluid leak.

[clatoden99]

Well, now is the time to start thinking about it, isn't it. Yet, as when 2016 started with a medical kaPOW, I look forward to 2017 just arriving.

“ THRIVE “ will be my word for 2017, because if life is just surviving on earth, that's not a life worth living every day. To need to work to survive the human basic needs eclipses the long patience I've developed and learned.

It would be nice to see the entire world with access to free water, clean food, basic electronics, good sanitation and free WiFi so we can start building with the life to create on Mars or another solar being.

THRIVE.

[terri77]

Pay off credit cards.

Max out 457b & Roth IRA.

Contribute 50% of earnings from my second job to 401k.

Finance LASIK surgery with tax-free contributions to flexible spending account.

Next year I will finish paying mr grad school loans. Less than 2k to go. Yay!

[TexasHusker]

- Read the Bible every day
- Max out attending all my kids sporting events and choir concerts
- Play 1 round of golf per week with my son
- Praise and recognize my managers and employees
- Keep saving for college

[breathemusic]

So many things to do in 2017!

*Buy a house which means actually doing lots of little goals:
-Cash out my whole life insurance and instead buy a term plan (current guaranteed return of 4% makes it not worth cashing out until I actually need the down payment money, since the money would sit in short term savings for that purpose rather than get invested in any other option with higher returns)
-Move out of my apartment
-Sell and buy various furniture as several homes are combined into 1

*rebuild savings (which will be drained significantly but not completely for the house down payment)

*possibly increase % of income going into my retirement fund

*fund at least 1 vacation abroad, hopefully 2

*get engaged? (patiently waiting for the b/f to pop the question) :P

*possible last phase of dental work since my invisalign treatment will be complete

*contribute more (time/money/goods/combination) to charitable causes that are important to me

[msomnipotent]

I have goals every year, but something seems to happen or "someone" decides that he doesn't agree with the goals but won't say anything, and just does what he wants anyway. I have decided to set very realistic monthly goals so I can adjust if I need to and not have to tear my hair out.

First, I plan to go through all of our medical bills and have a realistic amount taken out for our FSA. We blew through the amount my husband decided on in the first 3 months last year. I'm pretty sure we will have to figure this out by the end of this month.

I would also like to hire a tax advisor and perhaps contribute to my IRA if we are able to.

Those are all I'm willing to set my mind to right now. I have to figure out how much we can contribute to the emergency fund and the college savings later.

So this is only the first day of the new year and I have already met my goals (pretty much). I have the tax advisor picked out and will call tomorrow for an appointment. From what I read online, I don't think I can contribute to the IRA, so I will see what she recommends. We went through the bills and raised the FSA amount quite a bit.

I raised our emergency fund contribution by another $100 per month. I will revisit it once I see what our paychecks will be with the added 401k and FSA withholdings. I'm leaving the college savings as-is for now.

My new goal is to gradually get the 401k contribution up to 10%.

[Nutria]

Maintain EF in cash at 30k.

That seems... high. How many months is that?

(We've got $23k ATM, but there's a lot of churn, and only 43% is dedicated to Something Bad, though other funds can be tapped if needed.)

[Jluke]

That seems... high. How many months is that?

(We've got $23k ATM, but there's a lot of churn, and only 43% is dedicated to Something Bad, though other funds can be tapped if needed.)

I would guess about 10-12 months of expenses. It's at CapOne.

That's just a feel good number for cash savings that can cover many things. For instance I had it built up to a higher amount and used that for my 2017 Roth and additional investment in my taxable account. It's still just above 30k.

At my credit union, I do have a separate savings account for property taxes and a money market for paying bills (credit card and car loan). My checking account balance is $20.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

increase nw by $150k.

[StormRichards]

One of my goals is to max out my 401k for the first time ever. Paying off our car loan late last year should make this one realistically attainable for the first time.

This particular goal is off to a much better start than expected due to a mishap with my contribution. Last month I realized I screwed up and missed the opportunity to max out by not bumping my contribution as soon as the car was paid off. Still, I wanted to get as close as possible and jumped my contribution up to 75% for the last pay of the year. It essentially wiped out my paycheck, but it got me within $1,000 of the max.

The first day back to work in the new year, I made sure I dropped it back to my typical contribution. WELL, it appears there was a moratorium or something because I just looked at my first paycheck for this upcoming Friday. Oops. It is still at the 75%! My 401k contribution on the official plan website is correct, so it has to be an issue with payroll.

So I am off to a good start!

[Jluke]

One of my goals is to max out my 401k for the first time ever.
This particular goal is off to a much better start than expected due to a mishap with my contribution.

I just looked at my first paycheck for this upcoming Friday. Oops. It is still at the 75%!

Nice! one thing I had to do last year was to turn off my spillover election so when I hit the 401k max, it didn't go to after-tax (my preference). may not apply to everyone's plan, but something to look at.

One general reminder to all: if your employer match requires you to contribute to every pay check, then don't try to hit the max before the last paycheck of the year.

[StormRichards]

Nice! one thing I had to do last year was to turn off my spillover election so when I hit the 401k max, it didn't go to after-tax (my preference). may not apply to everyone's plan, but something to look at.

One general reminder to all: if your employer match requires you to contribute to every pay check, then don't try to hit the max before the last paycheck of the year.

Two excellent and very important points, one of which I never really thought about because I never had to. Our plan is set up to cut off employee contributions when they hit the max, but I am not really sure if they still put in the match. Will definitely look into this. If maxing out early stops their contribution, then I will definitely need to tweak my future contributions to account for this month's mishap.

[thestrongprofessional]

Making extra income on the side

Hey guys,

Glad to see that there a such great goals being set. One of my big goals for 2017 is to build a side income via freelancing. I would like to earn 1k on the side per month by September 15, 2017. I'm going to accomplish this by sending out 2 between 5-10 freelance requests per week on the site Thumbtack. This will enable me to gain more exposure on the site and hopefully get some paying clients. I'm confident that if I stick this plan I will be making that amount by my deadline.

Raphael

[bigdaddybus]

My goal for 2017 is to build savings by $15,000 over JAN 1 balance.

My savings historically bounces between $10K and $30K. And we ALWAYS find major purchases to deplete savings, and I am not good at prolonged growth in savings like in my retirement accounts. I am going to be more intentional with long term savings this year.

My approach is going to be:
I started by moving 10K from my primary savings to a second savings account and I will not touch this unless its a dire emergency.
Anytime I have a balance over 15K in primary savings I am going to move it to the secondary savings account.
I am not sure how high I want the balance of the secondary account to get. I am thinking when I hit a comfortable balance I will move any overage into my brokerage account.

[97guns]

Making plans to build a house in Thailand, we can get a custom 1800sq. ft. House built for $60-70K

About 3/4 of the way done now and we're only into it for $36k with most all the material on site already, looking at $45k tops, hopefully. Not bad for a custom 3 bedroom 3 bath house using top of the line material