There’s perennial talk about the importance of goal setting in personal finance. SMART goals, checklists, apps abound. All of these posts and tools are designed to set people up for success. Looking ahead, though, I am not just interested in success. I’m looking to fail. Here’s why:
Looking to Fail
There’s real bravery and power in accepting the idea of not yet. Mostly, I am not that brave. I am not that powerful. Instead, I still tend to set goals that I know I can achieve. It’s great for preserving my perfectionist tendencies, but it is also a hindrance to really pushing ahead with our goals, financial and otherwise. Looking back at the first quarter of the year, we achieved some impressive things. I’m hoping by pushing ourselves more in the second quarter, though, we can get some real momentum going when it comes to destroying our debt.
Quarter 1 by the Numbers
$1,995. This quarter marked the end of my tuition payments for all of grad school. Or at least, for the end of this graduate program. I still have my capstone to complete in July but no more bills to pay! I do a little happy dance whenever I take a peek at my tuition savings account and see that there is money leftover. I am not throwing it at my debt yet, though, since I am sure there will be processing fees and all sorts of other rigmarole before I can actually get my paper and go.
$144,320.69. I hate our mortgage. I hate, hate, hate our mortgage. I am so excited that we started the year below $150,000 and are now under $145k. Here’s hoping we can get a little more aggressive with paying this down in the next quarter.
$5,023.97. We are chipping away at our principal by paying extra each month. While we are only allowed to make one payment per month, we can add as much extra toward the principal as we would like without penalty. This was my #1 sticking point when I took out a mortgage to buy our house.
$1,295.56. To everyone who says mortgages aren’t the end of the world, I would like to share with you this number. We have paid over $1,000 just for the privilege of paying back our bank. Awesome. ::rolls eyes::
$1,700. We are making steady progress toward maxing out our Roth IRA’s for 2018. This is my current progress, and I expect to almost completely max it out thanks to our anticipated tax refund.
$1,506. Our munchkin is rolling in the dough when it comes to his 529 for college. I know not everyone needs to go to college to be an entrepreneur or to be on FIRE. But my hunch is that he will follow a pretty typical educational path, and we are saving accordingly.
$268.57. Using mobile apps like Ibotta and online shopping apps like Ebates, I’ve managed to squirrel away just under $300 for Christmas just by clicking a few buttons before or after I shop.
855,681. This number surprises me! I logged a ton of steps on my Fitbit this quarter. That’s mostly because the streak I started in February is still going strong. I’d like to say it’s because of the health benefits, but really I’m afraid it’s a matter of principle and pride. Vanity thy name is Penny,
22. That’s how many single-use beverage containers I used wasted this quarter. It’s pretty sad when you think about it. I’m not talking about the cost of my chai lattes (but I do believe in the latte factor). I’m talking about waste from an environmental standpoint. In January, I place 11 mobile orders at Starbucks. In February, I placed 8. Then in March, I decided to only allow myself to place in-store orders so I could use my travel mug. But then I failed three times.
3. I made 3 online sales this quarter. That’s pretty pitiful considering I used to rake in over $1,000 a year reselling my clutter. This week, though, I added a handful of listings to Poshmark, and rounded up another dozen or so things to list.
Quarter 2 Plans
$8,000. Here’s where I might be setting us up for failure. Just over $6,000 went toward principal and interest first quarter. So let’s up the ante some, shall well.
$3,800. I am going to max out my Roth for the year. That will free up some income for us to get more aggressive with our mortgage. I plan on keeping it in the crosshairs as long as we have one, but I also want to make sure that our retirement goals are either met first or simultaneously.
$1,050. We are going to keep adding to his 529 at a steady clip. Nothing out of the ordinary for our budget here.
945,000. My plan is to keep the 10,000-step streak going. That’s a lot of walking, but since I’m not going to be the passenger in the buggy anytime soon, I had better get used to it.
5. This number should probably be 0. Disposable coffee cups and single-use plastic bottles are horrible for the environment. To be honest, they probably don’t hold anything particularly beneficial to me either.
10. I want to triple my online sales. I’m hoping some of these sales will be bigger ticket items, seeing as I’m finally ready to part with a lot of Coach shoes. I also have two vintage Gucci bags I need to bid adieu to as well.
So Tell Me…What are your plans for this quarter? Are you better at setting aggressive goals than I am? What are your tricks?
I love the way you laid all of your goals out! This quarter, I would like to get back to saving aggressively for the tiny house. This goal has gone woefully by the way side as a number of unexpected expenses seemed to come at me one after another since Christmas. Here’s to hopefully no more surprises!
I am right there with you, Britt! No surprises this month, please. Unless it’s a birthday present 😉
Awesome progress Penny! I’m so impressed with your extra payments, we do about 100-300 each month but 5K extra principle, wow! And very smart to make sure Roth contributions keep pace. We maxed ours and felt the pinch Jan-Mar, but now the rest of the year has more breathing room. Cheering for you!
Thanks! That’s the total, so we’re only about $2,500 ahead for the quarter. I’m hoping next quarter will be close to $5k or more, though!
Great progress Penny!
I’m also trying to avoid disposable cups, luckily I don’t get coffee out all the time, but when I do, I cringe at my use of the cups.
I understand everyone is different, but I don’t sweat mortgages. They enable the middle class to get on the property ladder, and I don’t view it as a millstone. I could technically pay off my mortgage, but will never do it as I can make more in the market.
It’s purely psychological. I know I can make more in the market, which is why we’ll always max out our Roths before getting more aggressive. But seriously paying over $1,000 for not a darn thing last quarter bums me out.
I pick up bottles, yes I do, I find them everywhere(!) and bring them home for the bottle deposit. I use my thermos for coffee I make at home and try try try to not use plastic and disposable cups and plastic bags anymore.
I will continue to use Ibotta and Checkout51 as well as a survey app for my supermarket that pays me a teeeny bit to watch advertisements. Also will use my credit card this quarter for 5% back on grocery and gas (up to $25 for the quarter)
UBER frugal April means super limited eating out-only one planned restaurant event this month and I’ve told everybody I’m sticking to it.
The goal is to mega save for a trip to visit our daughter in South Africa this summer, it is gonna be pricey but so worth it.
You’re a genius to add that bit about credit cards, Karen! Discover is 5% for me this quarter for groceries. I just told my husband we have to remember to switch over from our BoA one. It adds up!
South Africa will absolutely be worth it! That is the trip of a lifetime for sure 🙂
I’m going to be working on reselling a lot of things and saving what money I can before I move this summer. I’ll be living on my own for the first time o: so I downsized partly to have less to move and partly because after all the reading I’ve been doing lately I’ve been thinking a lot more about what I want in regards to owning stuff, and saving money, and spending money.
That is awesome, Deanna! I hope you will post on your progress. Decluttering and reselling feel like such processes, but I’m so glad to be doing it.
Last month I realized that my “aggressive” goal for paying down the mortgage was not even at all because I miscalculated how much we’d be paying in interest. The new goal isn’t that much more of a stretch just yet, we need to figure out how to cash flow multiple investments going into 2019 first! That’s probably our stretch right there – fully funding the 401k, two IRAs, half the 529, and keeping up with all the regular payments.
Still keeping up with all our little earnings so I stay in practice for the bigger stuff: Swagbucks, the odd little freelance thing, banking all our cashback from sites and CCs.
You are always doing SO much and giving yourself so little credit. WHEW! Look at you go with that money!
Great way to list your goals, so concrete. Thanks for sharing.
Vintage Gucci bags! Fancy!!
Your mortgage number is actually quite beautiful! If someone was carrying a mortgage like that in Vancouver, they would be smiling every day lol. There are people with $1,000,000 mortgages here (I have a friend who has one).
I like the idea of limiting disposable cups and bottles, that’s a great goal to shoot for- thank you for sharing the idea. I am guilty of using the disposable cups, I should bring my travel cup more often 🙁
Totally fancy! And bought at a garage sale from my parents’ neighbor. She’s worked in fashion her whole life. Oh, the castoffs!
I didn’t really think about how problematic Starbucks cups were. I already felt guilty about water bottles and soda bottles. But when I realized that Starbucks cups are coated in plastic, it was a total head slap moment. I can do better!
Okay, I’m hoping on the tracking disposable cups bandwagon. I don’t use MANY, but I bet it’s more than I realize…..
It’s a slippery slope! I have become incredibly aware of the different kinds of packaging everything comes in. I’m trying hard to only either use a water bottle or travel mug or buy aluminum cans in bulk. But now the cans are even bothering me!
Awesome progresss! My mortgage debt doesn’t bother me, up it’s probably because my interest payment is so low ($200/month).
I rarely go out for coffee, but when I do I rarely bring a travel thermos, the baristas near me act all confused when I do….am I doing something wrong? Other than making sure it is clean are there any other rules?
That is my problem, too, Mrs. Kiwi! The second to last time, I brought my own mug (clean, thankyouvermuch! haha!). And they passed it back to the barista, who promptly poured my drink into a disposable cup. I asked for my mug back. He poured in my drink and threw out the cup. Womp womp.
I constantly make crazy goals that I can’t reach and call it “success through failure”. If I tell myself to make $200 this month on ebay, and only make $160 I’ve technically failed. But it’s up $90 from my “comfortable” goal of $70.
I haven’t tracked cups though… In general I want to do a waste reducing challenge and this seems like a nice way to start. I was thinking that I’m pretty good about this, and then I realized that everywhere that I get free tea/coffee I also tend to use a disposable mug. I’ll throw a mug in my bag and see what changes 🙂
I would love to know if it works for you. I felt like I had a decent handle on waste, and this was a total eye opener!
Ok… in the last 15 days I’ve used 9 cups. That is so much more than I thought it would be!
My goals this quarter are to continue paying down the non-student loan debt while also enjoying myself and my friends. Once I finish paying for all the dental stuff – I see you new retainer I’ll need after Invisalign – I need to then take care of new glasses. A bunch of small steps will get me where I’m going.
I made a deal with myself this week that if I work on my new skill every day of a week, then I can buy an extra SP500 share. Hopefully that is the incentive to get me over this final hump and allow me to take a job in the skill.