The beginning of the year is a common time to set goals, so I shared mine a year ago. Now I'll talk about how things went.
Pay High School Tuition From Checkbook, Not Savings
This didn't happen. We had to withdraw about $2,000 to pay tuition and fees this year. However, we also started putting away money every month to cover the bill when it comes due in June, so hopefully this year will be better than last.
Continue 401(k) Contributions at Current Level
We managed to do this.
Work On Monetizing This Blog
I started the year off with a bang, scoring a couple of sponsored posts and garnering clicks on AdSense, but things slowed down thereafter and I haven't pushed it. Not sure how much of a 2018 goal this will be.
Buy at Least One Share of Stock Per Month
I've been buying stock regularly, primarily with money I've been withdrawing from Kickfurther. My Robinhood portfolio is over $900.00.
Continue My Freelance Writing Jobs and Selectively Try to Find More
Both my regular clients decided not to maintain a blog anymore. I've taken a few glances through Upwork but the reality is that I can find a lot more interesting ways to spend my evenings than writing 500 words about some product for $10. Yes, it adds up, but I have more than enough work at my office and they pay much more than $10 per hour.
Add $4,000 To Our IRAs.
We've sort of met this goal. We deposited over $4,000 in each IRA; unfortunately the money came from Prosper and Lending Club primarily. Only a small amount was newly saved and it didn't total as much as we withdrew to pay tuition and other bills.
Cut Spending On Food
Total fail; but on the other hand, who wants to live like they are broke when they aren't?
Home Renovations
We are working on this. My job is requiring me to use up accumulated sick leave and vacation last year and this year, which means I spent three weeks last summer pulling wallpaper and painting my house. It looks nice and while the paint did cost several hundred dollars, there are few renovations that give you so much bang for the buck.
We still have paneling in our den that needs to be replaced, and I still need new flooring throughout the house.
*Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on brokeGIRLrich.*
We still have paneling in our den that needs to be replaced, and I still need new flooring throughout the house.
So, How Was the Year?
Overall, not bad. I'm a paralegal and if I get involved in a big trial, it means a big overtime check. We didn't have any of those this year, so my income was down. My husband's seems to be picking up a little.
My older daughter has graduated from college so her tuition bills are done, and she is taking on more and more of her own bills. We have high school bills built into our monthly spending via a special savings account.
Big expenses for the year were my teeth, a medical incident for me, the house paint, a trip to Universal Studios and a new piece of furniture for our foyer. We also starting paying for me and my youngest to visit New York City with the Girl Scouts this summer.
On the plus side, neither my husband nor I had car repair bills beyond normal maintenance.
The stock market has made us a good bit more wealthy this year and we can see that retirement date approaching. Two people with whom I work closely are retiring soon; I'm going to miss them. Seems hard to believe that it will be me in the not-too-distant future.
Could we have saved more? Sure. Do I regret not saving more? Maybe a little, but not enough to substantially change my behavior. All the calculators we run say we are on track, and there is little point to living life like I'm poor now so I can die rich.
It's smart to know where your lines are when it comes to spending money. You're right about not taking it with you.
ReplyDeleteWe are going to our first high school meeting this week, and I'm curious about what high school bills you're paying from your budget. Would you mind elaborating just a little? I want to know what we're getting into! (I already knew that diapers are not the most expensive part about raising kids! haha)
Jamie, my daughter is in Catholic high school so the biggest expense is tuition, followed by the $400 fee bill we pay in the fall. We also have to buy a Chromebook and support fundraisers (and I prefer to buy the raffle tickets to trying to pawn them off on friends and family).
DeleteHowever, I did send two kids to public high school, and as you've surmised, it's not free either. It is a lot less expensive. There are still fundraisers but of course they are optional and as a general rule I'd just send them a check rather than buy the junk. There are field trips, class material fees for things like art and we had to buy a band instrument. Here, new schools mean new uniforms, but as a way to dress school kids, uniforms are cheap. There were class dues over $100 which bought class tshirts and paid for some activities. There were tickets to ball games and dances, and then all the graduation ring-a-marole has to be paid for too. My daughter was offered two trips her senior year--the senior class trip to Disneyworld and her AP Government class trip to a competition in Washington D.C. I made her pick between them (she picked D.C.) Also there are standarized test fees but some of those can be waived if money is a problem.
"there is little point to living life like I'm poor now so I can die rich. "
ReplyDeleteI love that. And income is variable--even when we have steady jobs! Congrats on all your wins, and I think it's great that while that $2k didn't come out of the checking account, you guys had enough in savings to cover it without freaking out.
Glad you're not taking $10 posts! That's crazy! What niche do you like writing in? I don't know if I'll turn anything up, but I can keep my ear to the ground for you.