Well, it’s that time of the year again! Since starting this blog, I’ve found it extremely helpful to write out my financial goals. I’m one of those people that will forget my New Year’s resolutions halfway through the year if I’m not constantly reminding myself, so this is my accountability post. Plus, it’s always interesting to see just how much my situation changes over the course of the year (and how far things stray from what I predict).
Last year, I tried to keep things simple, and set three goals:
- Max out 401(k) & IRA contributions
- Find ways to give back
- Have $30K in my personal investment account
I failed… at all of these. Why? Well, back in October, I lost my job. I did manage to max out my IRA, but fell a few thousand short for my 401(k). My personal investment account allllmost made it to $30K, but then the market tanked. Alas, life can be unpredictable. C’est la vie. Instead of finding ways to give back, I ended up focusing on surviving the rest of the year (with my thankfully well-funded emergency fund).
2019 Financial Goals
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. I won’t repeat my 2018 goals, but it’s still important to me to have goals that are clearly defined. There are plenty of things that are outside of my control, but if I don’t give myself any direction whatsoever, I usually end up going nowhere.
Buy A House
You’re probably thinking, “Whaatttt? Where did this come from?”
I haven’t blogged about this recently, but in the past, I’ve mentioned having the real estate bug. Since then, I’ve realized that at this point in my life, NYC isn’t feasible as an investment property no matter how much help I get. Instead, Ian and I have been scoping out more affordable areas on the East Coast with better projected ROI. We’ve saved up enough for a 20% downpayment in an area we like, but we need to keep saving to factor in additional expenses like closing costs, and have more wiggle room for competitive bidding. More on this to come!
Make 2019 A Six-Figure Income Year
In 2018, I finally reached a six-figure salary. A much younger Jane once made it a goal to reach a six-figure salaried job by 30, so finally reaching it was extremely gratifying. (I even completely redid my about page to factor in the big change!) However, with my layoff in October, my total income for 2018 ended up below six-figures. This year, I’m climbing back to the top, baby! Keep in mind here that it’s January and I still don’t have a full-time job, so I’m really getting aggressive here with the types of positions I’m pursuing.
Build Up My Wedding Fund
While house buying and the associated monthly costs will be my top priority, along with the standard retirement saving and investments, my other priority this year will be building up my savings account that is earmarked for a wedding. Weddings are super expensive, but I don’t want to sacrifice any aspects that I want due to price, and I especially don’t want to rely on family to pay for things. My goal is for this account to have a balance of $10K by the end of the year.
Why am I focusing on this account now? Well, I’m engaged!! Ian proposed while we were in Japan and it was a wonderful surprise! We’re not looking to get married until 2020, in part because we have other goals (buying a house, being employed full-time again heh), and also because there are already three weddings this year happening within our close family circle—2019 is going to be crazy! This will give me time to save up for the wedding I want, and also hopefully get some good deals by doing my research and booking early.
2018 taught me to be more flexible to change (and new opportunities). I couldn’t have asked 2019 to start off on a better foot, and I’m really looking forward to see the progress I make this year—personally, not just financially. I’m wishing you a successful 2019—may you make progress towards the goals you’ve set!
Comments
Ah that’s such exciting news, yay! I’m super curious—where on the East Coast are you looking at real estate?
Thanks Erin!! It still doesn’t feel real yet hehe
We’re thinking of Baltimore – we’ve got a friend in the city who really loves it, and there’s a lot of business investments (under armor, etc) so renters should also be in good supply. Plus, it’s a fraction the price of dc or nyc.
Yeah Baltimore definitely sounds like a good bet. And it’s so close to DC but soooooooooooo much cheaper.
The proximity to DC via 95 is actually another big reason why we’re interested – there are quite a few people we’ve met while getting to know the area who make that commute on a regular basis, and that just makes Baltimore even more appealing for us.
Congratulations Jane!!!
Thanks David!
I KNEW IT. Congrats Jane and Ian! The ring is beautiful.
And I feel your pain about NYC real estate. Look forward to hearing about your adventures in buying property!
Thanks, Luxe!
Looking back, such a luxurious Japan trip overlapping with a 5-year anniversary made perfect sense for a proposal, but because the trip had been my idea in the first place, I completely dismissed the thought!
❤❤❤
also excited you are thinking of Baltimore! I know some realtors there if you need recs.
We’re far enough along in the process that we already have a realtor! It’s a mortgage approval that we actually need more help with, but that means I need to hurry up and get a real job again >.<
Congrats on the engagement, Jane! I look forward to more updates on your wedding prep and real estate adventure!
Thanks, Ms. FAF!
I’ve only been doing wedding research for a few days and I’m already overwhelmed by how expensive everything is. That, on top of trying to buy a house, is going to make 2019 verrrry interesting for us.
Congrats on the engagement!! Great idea on building a wedding fund, it will help you guys know how much you can afford on certain things on your wedding day. For our wedding, we spent around $16K for 200 guests which is pretty good for that many people.
We are looking a home as well here in the SF Bay Area, which is a very expensive area to live like NYC. Hopefully we can find home at a good price(for SF price standards).
Please keep us updated on all these happenings for you this year, which sounds like a very memorable one!!
Thanks, Kris!
$16K for 200 sounds so reasonable! I wish I could say we’re shooting within that budget with half the guest list but with NYC prices… I can’t say for sure >.< I'm tracking every update and change, though, so I'm looking forward (albeit with some trepidation) to seeing what the final price tag on this wedding will be.
Ahhh congratulations!! Such wonderful news! Also all the best on the home buying adventures…2019 is going to be such an exciting year for you both!
Thanks Kate!
We’re so excited for what 2019 has in store for us – January alone has been an amazing roller coaster lol