After an almost four-month hiatus from blogging, I think it is a good idea to review my 2020 goals. Not keeping up with A Dime at a Time hasn’t been good. I know I lost a lot of my focus, and it put these goals a bit of “out of sight, out of mind.” So, about those goals. Here is what I started with, and where we are now:
- Get rid of PMI. $125 for the BPO. Achieve by March 1. Accomplished in February.
- Complete house remodel/addition plans. Zero OOP. Achieve by April 30. Delayed because of COVID, but we are making progress.
- Use the remainder of the certificate—wild guess of an added $2,500 needed. Achieve by September 30. No change.
- Fix our truck and get new tires. Achieve by May 31. Wild guess of $2,000 No change other than an additional $300 repair made. We debated selling the truck, but are now opting to keep it.
- Repair our zero-turn mower. Achieve by June 30. Another wild guess of $1,000. Not yet. Hubs is using it as-is but does check the oil level with each use. I’m using our push mower, which takes longer, but I like the exercise.
- Save $12,000. Achieve by the end of the year. Making some decent progress. We will, however, exceed this once I get my inheritance. More on that later.
- Increase 401K to 12%, Achieve by the end of the year. We are exceeding this by now contributing 23%. We also get a 3% company match. At some point, we will decrease this and/or look at other investment options.
I did have a couple of added (unofficial) goals.
- One I have totally flopped on is M-Turks and Motivational Mondays. Earning $2020 in 2020 is very unlikely to happen. On a positive note, I have been getting in extra hours taking care of the kiddo.
- Reducing our electric bill has been consistent.
- Reduce mortgage principal by $40K. Making some progress. We are at around $16,000. I could run the exact number, but not right now with my morning brain fog.
- Track all our numbers and spending. With the way 2020 has been, this has not happened. I have continued tracking our overall numbers each month but failed at recording where every dime has gone.
Having revisited my 2020 goals, I think given the year it has been, we are doing ok. There are times in life when you need to pick your battles and 2020 is certainly one of them!
Hi Lucy, thanks for the update. Glad to see you are ok. I wondered if you were still working with the kiddo and if your hubby was still traveling for work. I was excited to see your progress on your mortgage. It won’t be long now. We are ok here. Hubby is essential personnel, so he has been working. Our finances are ok, still plugging along. We have 2 big pieces of news. First of all, our daughter had a baby girl last Thursday, so 2 granddaughters now. They are ok. The second thing is that our son is closing on his first house tomorrow. I took some $$ from our savings and gave to him from us to help with his closing costs. We had done the same for his sister when they bought their house. We are grateful to God that we were able to do this. My parents had done this for hubby and me when we bought our first house, so we were trying to pass it along.
Not a whole lot has really changed for us. Congrats on your new granddaughter! What a blessing and bright spot! Way to pay it forward helping out your kids with their first homes! Love that!
I think ANY goals accomplished or even partially in 2020 is good seeing as this year has been a dumpster fire on wheels!lol
You got that right, Sluggy!
Sluggy – No kidding
Good to see you, Rhitter!
I have flopped on MTurks too….my goal was $3000 for the year. I’ve been telling myself that my $12,000 a year increase in my side job pay is making up for it.
It happens! And I’d say that your $12,000 increase has more than made up for it! Nice raise!