I love words.
It’s sometimes weird electing to spend all of my virtual free time in a world that values numbers when it is really words that speak to me. But when I look back at my progress this year, I have a confession to make:
The numbers make a difference.
I used to be all about setting goals lovely goals that oozed inspiration. Elegantly worded, sometimes in fancy fonts, maybe they had a number or maybe they didn’t. (Let’s blame Pinterest, shall we?) But there’s nothing quite like having to reconcile one cold hard number against another. So I’m going to try to go stay true to my Q1 and Q2 recaps here and go easy on the words.
I’ll let the numbers do the talking. And honestly, they have a lot to say because we crossed a huge mortgage milestone last quarter.
2018 Q3 Recap
$129,777.69 Our mortgage is under $130,000. ::breathes deeply:: I don’t know if it’s a sigh of relief or to keep myself from fainting, but I can’t help but take a deep breath when I think about this number. For real. We have owned our house for less than six years and we only really got serious about paying down the mortgage 2.5 years ago. Somehow (OK, I know how. All hail the side hustle and the pay raise!), we’ve cleared over $85,000 from the principal alone.
RELATED POST: How I Fell into Six Figures of Debt Without Noticing
$7085.04 toward our principal. Maxing out our Roths early is allowing us to be more aggressive than usual with our mortgage. And it feels great!
$1201.75 to interest. Ew.
$0 toward retirement. We already maxed both our Roths. But I suppose there’s an asterisk here. I am starting to squirrel away about $300 a month in a 403b. My husband has yet to open his. More on that…later.
$1709.80 to college. I know there’s tons of talk about disrupting the higher education model. I support that. But I also want to make sure that HP is able to go the route I went if that’s necessary. As a first-generation college graduate, I still see the difference that made in my life. So yeah, money for HP! Double yay for all the family and friends who gave us money for his college fund for his first birthday.
RELATED POST: What a Bounce House Rental Says About My Values
710,487 steps. This is just bad. I fell so far short of my goal. After reflecting some, I realize part of the problem is that kayaking (my favorite summer pastime) isn’t accurately reflected here. And one day, my FitBit only clocked 4 steps. Even so, this is a hot mess of a fail.
3 single-use cups. This was my goal, but I’m still disappointed. I’m really trying to prioritize the environment in the decisions that I make. I’ll keep working on this for sure!
1 online sale (of 6 items). In an experiment that I will finally be able to write up in 14 more days time, I sent a giant box of stuff to thredUP again. I thought things changed. It turns out they did. They got worst. Post forthcoming, I promise! Beyond that, I didn’t make any real effort to sell online. To be honest, I am still sitting on a half dozen designer items that I really need to take the time to list. Otherwise, I’m enjoying giving things away too much. This was a fail and a huge win!
2018 Q4 Goals
$8000 toward our mortgage principal. This is a stretch goal. I have to ride this wave as long as we can. Once the calendar flips to 2019, it’s back to socking money away in our Roths. Retirement will always take priority over aggressive mortgage payments. You’re welcome, Old Lady Penny.
$1000 in HP’s 529. Going to go hard again this quarter in order to scale back later. The hope is that after these few initial years we can let compound interest do the heavy lifting.
Any dollars toward retirement. I said I would stick to numbers. I lied. My only real goal for this quarter is to continue to forget my own 403b account access info (it’s already automated!) and actually get my husband going with a self-managed fund. His work keeps sending back managed funds at 1.5%+. HARD PASS.
950,000 steps. I’m back at work. There’s no excuse to not nab at least 10,000 steps a day. Fin.
3 reusable cups. I should say 0. But know thyself, right? 1 a month isn’t catastrophic. In 2019, I am hoping to come up with several goals each month that are more environmental than financial.
RELATED POST: Why I’m Skipping Starbucks
10 Freecycles (or sales). My priority is decluttering. I know there’s no recouping the thousands of dollars I wasted on shoes. So I’m focusing on making more space than finding a few pennies. (THE HORROR! Things I thought I’d never say.)
So Tell Me…What are your plans for this quarter? Are you better at setting aggressive goals than I am? What are your tricks?
Wow you are freaking slaying it! Great job!
By single use cups do you mean kcups for coffee? If so, you can get compostable kcups on Amazon. Convenient and not as terrible for the environment!
I actually mean the Starbucks ones that I can’t (or shouldn’t reuse). I have a travel mug. I just get lazy and use the app to order ahead and they put it in the plastic-coated paper ones. GAH!
My goals are to continue to save for my trip to Europe so its not a debt filled trip (my mom and I have been putting $20 a week away, plus my own personal side savings) and fingers crossed maybe finish my class on time?! I’m pushing the class to this semester but would like to try and keep the same deadline… just give me some breathing room so I can take oh my birthday weekend off to go to the mountains and not have to be on a laptop the entire time!!
Good luck on your goals! Continue to Slay lady!
I think I need to know more about this Europe trip! Isn’t it amazing how socking away money each week can really start to add up?
My mom turns 65 next year (35 for me this year!) and she always said she wanted to be in Italy when she turned 65. I found a 2-1 cruise (start/end France, 3 stops in Italy, 1 in Spain and 1 In Malta) the first week of Feb next year and basically said weeeeelllllll its not your birthday… but your birth year?!?! and then we are going to add another week in England/Ireland.
And yes we started close to 11 months ago and have another 3+ months left to save for. Cruise is paid for, flights will be paid for at the end of this month and then its just figuring out the nitty gritty!
Jo-Anne! This is incredible. What a remarkable adventure you are both going to have. Hooray for celebrating that birth year 😉
Congrats on getting your mortgage down!
Things are getting better on our financial front, so my big goal is start socking away as much as possible into my new SEP IRA and to max out my Roth IRA. It’s embarrassing that I haven’t already done the latter, but at least I have until April, right? I’m also going to increase my (already padded) mortgage payment. It won’t be huge, but it should shave a few more years off.
Whoa, whoa. It is NOT embarrassing. This is the first year that we ever maxed out our Roth early. It was a combination of me earning a lot less but HR not adjusting my withholdings on my mat leave and HP being kind to us at tax time.
So I think you’re kicking butt, friend!
Congratulations. I don’t have quarterly goals, but look at finances once a month. Based on our current trajectory, we should have a 100,000 net worth by January 2020, so that’s the big marker we’re working towards.
The cups though… you got me tracking my usage, and the thing that kills it every month are free wine tastings. They do not want to re-use the little cups because it muddles the flavors. And the draw of free wine is too strong.
Maxing out your Roths, dominating college saving, and annihilating so much of your mortgage?!?!?? You’re killing it! I’m always sooo torn between paying off my mortgage and investing. The debate has been beaten to death, but I never know what to do haha.
I do both. It’s the only way I can sleep at night. It’s hard otherwise. I would feel like I was missing out either way!
Congrats on the new Mortgage milestone! That is sweet. I don’t even have a mortgage yet, which is weird because I both want to get one, and at the same time dread having that much to pay off…
I’m still making headway on my student loan, but I’ll be at the 10k milestone soon! Woohoo!
Good Post!
That is a huge milestone, John! Congrats!
I hate our mortgage, but I love our house and being a homeowner (almost all of the time :D). But you do what is right for you!
I love this cup tracking idea! I’m doing it! I need to do an audit first to figure out my average and then set progressive goals.
I don’t think it’s a lot, but how would I know?!?
I was so alarmed. I have gotten things under control considerably, but it is a slippery slope for me. I would be curious how your numbers compare!
Penny, do you guys have a retirement plan through work? A pension or a plan they contribute into for you? I’m just curious as an educator. I’ll never qualify for a pension because I simply won’t have worked full time in education for enough years, but I may become a W-2 employee at some point. I contributed to a 403b when I worked for my non-profit and was able to roll it over into my Vanguard Roth IRA when I left, which was a big benefit if we ever retire early. Two of my three goals this quarter we already reached (pay for and enjoy our Disney trip and add to our emergency fund) but my third one, socking more $$ in my i401k, is looking iffy since I’m not working as regularly. I’m feeling okay about it though since this has turned into the “Year of the Move” with all its associated expenses and upheaval.
We do. We both put 9.4% of our salary toward our pensions. ::cries:: We don’t include that figure in anything for several reasons. 1.) The retirement system is so opaque that I don’t know where my money is or what it’s worth. 2.) I doubt we will see much of any pension b/c our state is so heckin broke. Sigh.
I think you are KILLING IT this year with your move. I would imagine that third goal is more challenging, but that’s the point of goals, right? They help us stretch and even if if we fall short, we are better off than where we were. And it sounds like you are way better off than most thanks to all your hard work!
Congrats on getting your mortgage down to under $130K!! You are definitely on top of everything with maxing out your Roths and contributing a good amount to HP’s 529,
I opened Baby with Cents’ 529 a few months before he was born, wanted to get a head start on it. We increased his 529 contributions every year but not as much as you guys. But we are thinking about having a birthday party for him when he turns three in the spring and recommend everyone who plans on giving a gift to rather contribute to his 529 than to give him a toy/clothes etc.
That is so smart that you opened one before he was born. To be honest, I didn’t know you could do that! Getting family to write a check for $20 instead of buying a game has been a bit of a tough sell, but it hasn’t been as bad as I thought. I think a lot of people realize they can only play with so much! What does bum me out is when people downplay what they’re doing. “Oh, it’s only $20. That’s not even a single textbook.” DON’T MAKE ME GET MY COMPOUNDING CALCULATOR OUT, FAM! 😀