2019 Goals

My 2019 goals are pretty basic and all include improving our financial situation.

I came up with 6 financial goals I want to meet in 2019. Some are repeats, some are new, but I feel they are all realistic. So without further ado, here they are.

2019 Goals

1.       Decrease debt/no new debt

2.       Pay kids back (including interest)

3.       Pay off car by 12/31/2019 (about 2-3 months early)

4.       Credit card debt under $10000

5.       Save/budget for Christmas

6.       Stick to cash only budget

Goal 1: Decrease debt/no new debt

Our first goal almost, almost, goes without saying. We don’t want to accrue any more debt and we want our current debt to continue decreasing. Last year we not only added credit card debt but also financed solar. This year, the plan (I can already hear God laughing) is to not add any debt this year and keep plugging away at paying off our credit card.

Goal 2: Pay kids back (including interest)

We still owe our kids $300 each including interest. We have steadily paid them back $50 per month each and I don’t see any reason why that should change. We should finish paying them back in June if not earlier as long as we keep the schedule we have been following. I will be very happy to have that debt paid off!

Goal 3: Pay off car by 12/31/2019

Our car is scheduled to be paid off in March of 2020 and I want to pay it off just a couple of months early. I’m not sure yet if this is really feasible. Obviously we could do it by decreasing our credit card payments each month, but our credit card accrues interest and this loan doesn’t so I’m not sure where this loan is going to stand.

Goal 4: Credit card debt under $10000

Ideally we would/will be credit card debt free by the end of the next year, but I’m trying really hard to set realistic goals that we will be able to meet.  I don’t know that we will be able to pay off almost $19000 in credit card debt in one year. That is like our super stretch goal, but getting our credit card debt under $10000 in the next 12 months is doable. Starting in 2019 we should be able to send $1200 per month towards our debt. As long as we can stick to the plan and our budget, we should be able to bring our credit card debt below $10000 by next year.

Goal 5: Save/budget for Christmas

Christmas is not a surprise. It happens the same time every year and we have the same costs, but we don’t plan for it. In the coming year, I want to budget for Christmas. Starting in January we will budget $200 per month towards Christmas. As I haven’t been the best at tracking our Christmas spending in the past I’m not sure if that will be enough, but I do think $2400 will be a good start towards paying for Christmas. As we shop for so many people, I shop all year round for Christmas (in fact, I’ve already started shopping for NEXT Christmas). It will be nice to have some money to draw from starting now instead of waiting until November of next year to fund our Christmas shopping. Going forward I’m also planning to keep extra money in our “food” envelope to help alleviate the pain of paying for the food for our Christmas party.

Goal 6: Stick to a cash only budget

I’m going to take the credit card out of my wallet again. That really caused me to be more cautious with my spending and only buy what I could really afford. This will help me to be more conscious of what I’m buying and why. (I haven’t physically taken the card out of my wallet yet, but I will do that this week. I have, however, not been using it. Twice this week when tempted to put something on my credit card, I took out my debit card and used that instead. That’s good because I paid cash (essentially!)).