Have you started outlining financial goals for 2019? What are yours?

[disneysteve]

^^

Disney, can you unflag my post as spam. not sure why it was flagged by the system. I'd prefer not having to type the thing out again. lol

thanks

Your PM box is full.

Done. And thanks for letting me know about my PM box. I'll have to clear that out. I'm surprised the system didn't notify me of that.

[~bs]

Done. And thanks for letting me know about my PM box. I'll have to clear that out. I'm surprised the system didn't notify me of that.

I appreciate not writing that whole thing out again.

The crappy thing about the flagging post is there there's no opportunity to copy or save it before the system zaps it. lol

[Singuy]

-Pay ~30k to College prepaid program for my 2nd child
-Save 60k in 401k
-Goal to save 200k in taxable accounts
-Want to hit 1 mil net worth without house asset by the end of the year(the way the market is going, I doubt it)

[scfr]

- Sell house & move
- Figure out where to park proceeds from home sale given we don't know when we will be buying another house (1 year? 10 years? unknown at this time)
- Firm up budget in new location (have completed only a very rough one)
- Buy new car (probably, not definitely --- We had talked about going to only 1 car after our move, but I was the instigator of that discussion and DH is having a change of heart --- we will do what he wants, this move is going to be harder on him)
- Continue to contribute as much as we are allowed to 401ks, but put taxable savings on hold
- Fuzzy goal: Try to hash out how much assistance to provide to family members

2019 is going to be a year of change and figuring things out, financially and otherwise. We are moving in order to go live near family members who need our help. I'm glad we are way ahead on retirement savings. We can decelerate savings and still reach our goal.

[mo0n]

- Pay off travel trailer (barring anything catastrophic, that'll happen in Feb) Balance is currently at $14,902
- Begin to save aggressively for a down payment (a house purchase or build probably won't be until 2020, it's dependent on money and work)

That's really all I have, I'm kinda boring and one-note at the moment. The thing I can't decide is I still have a car note at $7600 but it's at 1.9%. I'd pay it off because I don't like debt, but I need to keep something around for my credit score, and the 1.9% isn't really hurting me as far as interest goes. Hmm. Decisions decisions...

[disneysteve]

I need to keep something around for my credit score

You should never take on debt or delay repaying debt just to try and boost your credit score. Don't let the tail wag the dog.

[kork13]

I honestly haven't even put a thought to it very much yet. Hopefully over the Christmas/New Year's holiday I'll be able to sit down with DW to think through it.

[msomnipotent]

My husband and I are trying to come up with exact numbers for things like vacation fund, savings and such. I tend to slag off if I just think, "I'm going to save more this year". I need an actual goal. Our goals this year tend more towards personal improvement more than financial, but things like not letting the family take advantage of us and taking care of my wrist and shoulder so I can cook more often will help our finances in the long run. Now that our dog is in her final stages, we will be able to meet our goals more easily. I don't mean to sound callous, but she blew our savings to bits in the end. We are definitely starting a pet fund this year separate from savings because our cats are getting up there in age.

[Like2Plan]

1. Continue contributing to 401K for DH and IRA for me.

2. Continue our multi-year tIRA to RothIRA conversion plan--we did our first conversion this year (2018). Most of our savings are in pretax retirement accounts, so conversions will help smooth out the taxable income when RMD's kick in.

3. Make a plan for kitchen and bath renovations.

4. Figure out when DH will claim social security.

The goals look pretty similar to last year's goals.

[frugal saver]

As interest rates have been coming up, and I expect stocks to fall a bit more, my tentative plans for 2019 are:

1. Add additional CDs. A local bank has a current 3-year CD of 1st year at 3%, 2nd year at 3.5% and 3rd year at 4%--too good to pass up.
2. Continue to add to my balanced/dividend mutual funds every month. I don't expect them to drop too much more though.
3. Review all the companies that I hold stock in. If the company is solid, use the drop as a buying opportunity.
4. I just paid off half my Visa balance--I'd like to pay off the rest this year, or at least a good chunk of it.

[Scallywag]

2019 goals:

1. Build up our emergency savings (6 months)

2. Save up 10% of projected downpayment so that we can buy a home in the Summer of 2020.

3. Pay off car note.

4. Get a second job to boost income.

[srblanco7]

2019 Goals
401k for me at $25k and for Mrs srblanco7 at $10.5k
Backdoor Roth IRAs for each of us at $7k
529 contributions at $6k
Vanguard fund contribution of $2k
That's the minimum I've budgeted for next year. Still more work to do to ramp up savings for next year.
Only debt we have is a mortgage, but the interest rate is 2.5% and I can not bring myself to put extra money towards payoff (vs investing those funds).

[amarowsky]

Financially, 2018 was exciting. A few months ago I sold about 50k Worth of taxable sp500 index funds (luckily when SP500 was at a plump 2850-2900) and we paid off or home! That opened a door of cash flow to allow to me max my 401k for 2018, the first Time ever!

Part of the reason to pay off the mortgage, was to enable retirement savings over drive mode! Good timing as we just entered our thirties (31 me, 30 her).

2019 Goal:
1) contribute at least $27,000 to wife and i's 401k's.
2) Max both Roth IRA's. ($12k)
3)5k into HSA
4) aquire and finance another rental property (80k Target price)

Extra credit:
1)max 401k contributions at $36,000
2)max HSA contribution, $6,900? (I think)
3) use any extra income to pay off debt on my current rental principle (4.6%) or remaining car debt @1.9%

*Extra credit pending any promotions, opportunities, bonuses, or raises.

[amastewa93]

Good timing as we just entered our thirties (31 me, 30 her).

You are doing AWESOME! My fiancee and I are getting married later this year and I'm hoping we will be at about this point in four years (when I am 30). Congrats on your success so far and looking forward to seeing what more you accomplish!

[amarowsky]

You are doing AWESOME! My fiancee and I are getting married later this year and I'm hoping we will be at about this point in four years (when I am 30). Congrats on your success so far and looking forward to seeing what more you accomplish!

That's very sweet of you, and thank you for saying that.

It has been a lot of deferred gratification. But the fruits are ripening, and if our plan continues (assuming at least 2 ~medium setbacks within the next 8 yeras). We the wife and I should be cleared to go to part-time work (that includes insurance). So we will be able to focus on raising our future kids (planning on trying/adopting within the next 3 years) and enjoying our social life, projects, and entertainment.

The most gratifying thing is we did this on completely "normal" incomes. Between the wife and I, we're only actively earning about $115k. We have some other "passive" income from equities, our 1 rental, and some small side hustle businesses. The only thing unique about our plan was living below our means for the typical stuff. (I.E = we avoided luxury cars, buying a bigger home than we needed/wanted, savings on food cost from our 700 sq/ft garden, doing most of our own housework/updates, and overall shopping for good values instead of based on brand/status reputation.

I'm not afraid of the future, despite it's daunting uncertainty. It's a feeling of solace, when you feel like you may be lost, but knowing your lost wandering deeply in the right direction.