2019 Goals

2019 Goals

• Finishing paying off our credit cards
• Pay off the loan (from the AC/Furnace)
• Pay off Ivy’s dental work
• Save money for our new car
• Pay off Michael’s student loans
• Continue our decluttering process
• Organize the items we’re keeping
• Work on the blog
• Work on our home
• Eat better
• Exercise
• Children’s education/Homeschooling?
• Finish my next degree

We have some big financial goals that we plan to accomplish in 2019. The first of the goals is paying off all of our credit cards. We came just shy of paying off nine cards last year. We still owe $500 on card #9. We plan to pay that off in January before working on paying off credit card #10, also known as the last credit card! After that, we will pay off Ivy’s dental work. She had to have oral surgery in November. We have dental insurance and chose to take a loan with a 1.9% interest rate so we could continue our plan to pay off our credit cards.  Next, we will pay off our loan from the AC/Furnace. Once we pay these off, we will only have student loans and our mortgage left.

The next thing on our financial priority list is to save $5,000 for a car down-payment. We intend to buy a minivan, van, or SUV for when we begin traveling. We haven’t decided on which one but we know that we need a bigger vehicle. Both of our current vehicles are acceptable for daily life but neither of them is ideal for our travel plans. We may not buy anything until 2020 but we want to know that we have a significant down-payment set aside in case we find something sooner. Our plan is to save the $5,000 and then continue to put $1,000 a month into savings for our car.

After putting $5,000 in savings, we will start working on paying off Michael’s student loans. Everything over the $1,000 a month (car savings account) will go toward his student loans. We hope to pay them off quickly. We are so sick of being in debt and desperately want to be done with all of it. We know that it is currently impossible to pay off my student loans this year unless something spectacular happens.

We want to continue working on decluttering our belongings. We are trying not to buy things that aren’t completely necessary. We will continue using up the excess items we have on hand. We are doing a spending freeze on certain items until we completely run out. Some of these items include lotion, soap, nail polish, hair products, make-up, and cleaning supplies. We are making an effort to use the craft supplies we have on hand before buying more. The girls have a ridiculous amount of coloring books, crayons, beads, and craft kits that we have been using for their daily arts and crafts time. Octavia likes to do 2-3 small crafts a day when we are home. I am trying to avoid throwing these types of things away because I know that they will be used eventually.

We are attempting to get and stay as organized as possible. As we have fewer possessions, it becomes easier to keep our items organized and our home clean.

I love blogging. I have set some huge goals for this blog in 2019. I want to get into a regular posting schedule. I’m thinking Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for now. I will reevaluate in a month or two to see how it’s going. I am researching and learning about things I don’t know as much about. As many of you likely know, I’m a research junkie and love learning about new things. I have learned a ton in the last year and have really enjoyed myself. There are still so many things that I don’t fully understand that I want to work on over the course of this year. We intend to take the blog on the road with us in 2020 and I want to be fully prepared.

We have some things about our home that drive us crazy and we have quite a few projects that need to be completed before we put it on the market next year. We will be working on something each week/month depending on the length and cost of the project. We need a new fence in the backyard, some landscaping, indoor painting, kitchen countertops, to finish the basement ceiling, flooring, and some tile work. We will be doing almost all the work ourselves so we have to take time constraints into consideration when deciding on an order for accomplishing things. There are also some things I can easily do myself and others that Michael will need to do or that we will need to work on together. I will update as we go.

We want to eat better and exercise more to prepare for long-term family travel. We plan to do a lot of physical sightseeing including hiking with our kids. I’m concerned that if we don’t begin exercising more as a family that it will be a harder transition. I don’t want anything so simple to hold us back. We will continue to introduce our children to new foods. I stopped cooking as much while I was pregnant with Octavia and just started cooking a lot again last year. I want to continue to cook healthy meals for my family and myself. I have been slowly losing weight and hope to be back to my goal weight by summer.

We are researching schooling options for our daughters. We have a meeting soon for our oldest to start an online public school through her current district. Our middle daughter is gifted and three years ahead in math and English. She has the ability to understand complex mathematical and scientific concepts well beyond her years. She is currently in third grade and has recently begun expressing how bored she is during class. They allow her many freedoms during class. She is able to read a book of her choosing after she finishes her class work. She does the math and English programs online to challenge her. She has been taking Japanese since Kindergarten. We have decided to try homeschooling over the summer to see if she enjoys it. The whole thing is complicated but we will do whatever is needed for our children to have every opportunity to live up to their full potential. Octavia will begin preschool at home later this year. I will update you as things progress.

I have put it off many times and I need to stop. I am a few months from my BSN. It will make no difference in my current job and knowing this has made it hard to justify putting in the time and money needed. It may make a difference while travel nursing and when I want to find a regular job again so I’m going to just get it done this year. Also, I took a contract to work weekend option for a local hospital this year. This will give me more time to complete this goal.

That’s quite a list of goals! What are your goals for this year? Any thoughts on ours? Please, leave me a comment below.