Friday, May 8, 2020

May 2020 Goal Check-In Part Two


Welcome back to installment 2 of May's 20 for 2020 update. In my last post I reviewed the first 10 goals of our 20 for 2020. Here’s how we are doing on the last 10…

1.       Open, and use, a Health Savings Account for The Husband’s braces.

Pass: This is done! The Husband’s company loads all the money at once, even though it is only taken from his paycheck each pay period. The braces are paid for in full (we got a 5% discount for paying all at once) and The Husband loaded a little extra money to pay for doctor’s appointments throughout the year!

2.       Increase my 403b contributions by $100 sometime during the year.

No progress here: Still no action on this goal.  Hopefully sometime in the next 10 months.

3.       Increase The Husband’s 401k contributions by 3% by the end of the year.

On-track: The Husband earned a 3% raise this year! Yeah! We have already designated 2% to his 401k and when his work-aversary comes around in August, another 1% will automatically be added! He is very close to maxing out his 401k contributions. Next year should do it and then we can start upping my contributions!

4.       Have one billing period where I don’t charge ANYTHING (except autopays) on my credit card.

Fail: Charged way more than I even wanted to last month and already have several charges on the statement for April. Again, with “sheltering-in-place” we don’t have many options but to purchase online!

5.       Have a successful “No-Spend” September.

No progress here: It’s not September…

6.       I want to drink the loose-leaf tea I already have and not buy anymore until I am only down to 3 flavors.
Back-On-Track: I bought loose leaf tea once and have since been drinking what we have. I also “shopped” my mom’s cupboards as she is staying with us and have been drinking some of her flavors, but I didn’t buy any more.

7.       Add all our “subscriptions” to our monthly budget.

Pass: All done! Going forward, all our “subscriptions” or monthly recurring charges are an item line on our monthly budget sheet.

8.       Don’t spend any money, out of pocket, on supplies for my classroom. (This does not include lessons I might choose to purchase.)

On-track-ish: This one suddenly got much easier! You don’t need to supply your classroom if you aren’t in it!

9.       Keep current (monthly) with what I owe The Kids.

Pass:  The Kids did some more work for us over the last month and I made sure I tallied up what they were owed and paid them all out! We broke it down into savings, spending, and tithing and I am now current with what I owe them!

10.   Check in on my financial goals monthly.

Pass: Same as last month: so far so good. It’s so easy to be vigilant at the beginning of the year. The real test will be if we are checking in on our goals next October!

Overall, I’d give myself a B. I am “passing” on 10 of 20 goals, on track with 4 more, “failing” with only 4 of our goals, and “on hold” or “not yet started” another 2. I’m feeling pretty good about our start. We still have a long way to go but are making pretty good progress.

Overall my successes are in mostly the same categories and so are my failures… Must do better. Must put in more effort!

I can’t stress enough the fact that if we are successful with these goals, we will definitely be creating a firmer financial foundation!

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