I know I’m a little late with my goals, but life has been hectic.
Last year I only had two goals, to decrease debt and increase our savings. We were only successful with one of those. We decreased our debt by almost 50% last year. But our savings decreased as well. On the plus side, however, we didn’t increase our debt and cash flowed nearly $20,000 of expenses in that year.
Our goals are pretty basic. I have the same goals for 2024 that I had last year as well as one additional goal. I want to decrease debt (with the outside goal of eliminating our credit card debt), increase our savings to $5000 (from $1500), and move across the country without accruing more debt.
Goal 1: We owe right around $10,700 on our credit card. We didn’t quite make our goal of $10,500 by 12/31 but I’m not trying to dwell on it. We will definitely decrease out debt, but I’m hoping we can actually get rid of this credit card debt once and for all. I think becoming consumer debt free is a stretch goal this year, but I don’t think it’s impossible. To stay accountable, I also want to write debt updates every month. Some months will be better than others, but I think consistency and accountability will help our overall progress.
Goal 2: Increase our savings from $1500 to $5000. Our savings took a hit this year. 2023 was an expensive year for us between travel and helping our kids launch into adult hood. This year should be better so we shouldn’t need to dip into our savings as much and in fact should be able to build it up some. With each of The Husband’s 3 paycheck months, we will dump an extra $500 into savings which should help us meet our goal.
Goal 3: We have a potential (but likely) move across the country coming. We know it will be expensive so we have been planning for it. We are hoping to be able to cash flow the whole move and what we will need to buy when we get there. We plan on leaving a lot of our furniture, as it is very old and worn down. We have a “furniture” sinking fund that we have been putting money into, as well as a sinking funds for appliances and home repair. We are hoping this will be enough savings to move without accruing any more debt.
That’s it. Those are our goals for 2024. All doable, but all needing planning and perseverance. I'm hoping 2024 is the year we finally get out of credit card debt!
What are your goals for the year?