2014 Financial Goals

[TKE Super Dave]

I think these are going to be my plans.

• Finish saving $5k for my emergency fund. Currently at $3.7K. $5k will be my 3 month emergency money.
• Fully fund my IRA for the first time ever.
• Double my net worth (currently 5.5k, so needs to be 11K or greater)
• Take control of any accounts my father is still holding on for me (my grandmother and grandfather has been gifting me money to different accounts for years and I have no idea how much and how many, my father has been taking care of them for me until I was ready)
• Save enough for the weddings I have to go to. (Two this year and my little sister's next year)
• Fully furnish my apartment.
• Begin saving for a family cruise in Hawaii in 2 years, estimated needing about $3000 (possibly less). (We'll be celebrating my Aunt's retirement from work, my sister, mom and I are her only family and this is what she wants to do)
• Possibly write a will. (I have no dependants but I'm finally starting to accumulate enough stuff that I should think about who I'd leave everything to)

1. Completed. I actually made it $6k as I rechecked my math and I was off in the amount I spend.
2. Unfortunately not going to happen, although I will have gotten more than I ever had. Just going to fall a little short.
3. Done. I made it to 11k net worth. Not sure how but I did it.
4. Will be doing it this, this week. Apparently there is some decent paper work to get it transferred to me. From my under standing it's 2 accounts with decent amounts but not going to make me rich or anything but should be a good at getting me started toward FI.
5. Done. Got to go to the two weddings and one was extremely fun and the other was a family obligation that had to be meet. I'm looking forward to my sister's next year.
6. This didn't happen but mostly because I moved which caused most of that money to get used in the move. But the new apartment is a lot smaller so I just really need a dinning room table and a tv stand and coffee table.
7. Found out this is not necessary as my aunt will be paying for everything and luckily for her it's not going to be as expensive as I estimated.
8. Just didn't do this. Now with everything else I'll probably do it next year.

[daverobev]

Tricky, tricky.

1. See more of the continent. I've been here 3 years and haven't got too far, too many times.
2. This is a vague one as it involves restructuring debt and making a deal with my wife - but anyway, combined goal is something like pay off the LoC (used to buy an investment property).
3. Chill out about money a bit. I'm a bit too uptight about it all. Relax...
4. Maybe use the freed-up LoC to buy another property.

*Edit* financial goals, hmm 1. doesn't really count.. except it does, it means (like 3) relax a bit and spend some of the money I've been hoarding the last 3/10 years, enjoy life while I can!

1 went down to Florida, came back through Kentucky, so kinda did that. I want to do mountains next year.

2 LoC paid, wife bought a house which we rolled into our main mortgage. Sold one house, buying another one now and invested the rest, so all good.

3 kinda. Not really. But I have work lined up for the first 6 months of next year so I'm feeling pretty relaxed.

4 bought another property, but not using the 6% LoC.

What do I want next year... hmmm!

[Nancy]

1.) Max out our 401Ks and IRAs and contribute to taxable accounts for a 74% total savings rate (net)
3.) Reduce eating out/grocery budget
4.) Sell older bike

Edited for increased badassity

1.) Hit a 67% savings rate (net). So we missed this goal, but I'm still pleased.
2.) I'm pleasantly surprised that I actually did reduce my eating out/grocery budget by $1,500 this year. I wasn't trying to despite the goal, but I did anyway. Score!
3.) Fail! I forgot about this goal, but I still need to do this.

Edited to fix savings rate.

[Ipodius]

Great thread :) I'm impressed by a lot of the goals around here!

1. Increase income by 50% minimum (change jobs)...
2. .... while not increasing our living expenses
3. Max out pre-tax retirement accounts
4. Increase overall savings rate (taxable and pre-tax) to 40% of gross income
5. Pay for an overseas trip to visit my sister cash

So it's 2015 and I guess it's time to review how well me and my wife did:

1. Managed an 102% increase in income, and have a promotion due in January - so a big win here. Also found a job I really enjoy, that has great growth prospects (both at the company I'm at and in the field in general)
2. Failed on this one. Although we kept most of our expenses the same, we spent more on restaurants and random luxuries, I had to buy a new work wardrobe (a once off, but still annoying - previous job was shorts & t-shirt). But the big failing here was a combination of unavoidable costs (medical expenses, my wife writing off her car (paid in a bit more for a slightly newer, nicer car) and avoidable expenses (Random crap I bought, and I would've preferred to have given my wife my car and bought something older for me). Need to work on this the next few months.
3. Succeeded - maxed out these accounts
4. As per #2, failed. Only hit about 25% post tax. 
5. We decided against the overseas trip, but we did pay cash for some local travel.

So overall not bad - my number one goal, the improved career prospects, went better than my best hopes - so I'm very happy with that. I am frustrated by the random costs, but know that they are random and we'll have other years where we get lucky breaks :) Need to work hard on the lifestyle inflation that came in, and refocus on our FI dreams! 

[Ipodius]

Awesome to see people hitting it out of the park! Reading through the last few posts was very inspiring.

So, our 2015 goals:

1. 50% salary increase for me. This will be a lot harder than last year, and looking at it now it almost feels impossible - but considering how dramatically I exceeded my expectations last year, I'm going to go for it!
2. Getting into a good Psychology Masters programme for my wife. Very competitive in SA, and they have stupidly small classes. So also a big goal.
3. Getting a decent job for my wife for 2015 (degree would start January 2016).
4. Pay off 100% of our remaining debt - this combined with #5 is definitely a stretch goal, but doable if #1 and #3 are achieved (or even semi-achieved).
5. Max out pre-tax retirement accounts.
6. Complete a Certificate Course in Business Analysis. Already signed up and have verbal agreement from company that they will pay for it - just need to get that official, if they won't pay I'll have to pay it myself.
7. Grow side hustle income - currently about $300 a month. Either expand the current hustle, or add on something else.

So there we have it :) Excited to see what everyone else says.

Otherwise, on a housekeeping front - do we want to make a 2015 Financial Goals thread, or make this the "New Year Financial Goals" thread we always update, and get a mod to change the title?

[Anatidae V]

Our goal is to live on one income (<$55k). All money above that will go into house deposit or investing.

So, I thought I was going to come back here and say we'd already failed. However, YNAB tells me we have spent $41.5k so far this year, so we haven't gone over the line yet. With 4 months to go and $14k, I think we'll end up over spending, maybe as much as $7k over, depending on if expenses fall in December or January. Fingers crossed we can drop a few things and keep it down to get closer :)

We went over by $9k, and the spending was spread over many pieces rather than one obvious splurge. OK, there was one splurge, my engagement ring :)

Our goals for next year:
1. <$60k in basic spending
2. Get married, while keeping the spending sensible
3. Actually buy some ETFs.
4. SO gets a regular income source.

I think if we manage all those, we'll be sweet. They are all reasonable and achievable, no stretch goals in there. Life is bouncy enough!

[iris lily]

We are up $148,000 in the year 2014.

Edited because we are still getting figures in, will report when it's finalized. Fortuantley, things look better than that figure.

[NICE!]

Isn't there a 2015 thread? Time to put this one out to pasture...