Can you believe it’s 2019 already?!
It seems like 2018 went:
Jaaaaaaaaaannnnnnuuuuuarrry February March April May June JulyAugustSepOctNov December!
This year, I left a job that wasn’t meeting my needs, learned some new skills and we became debt free. We’re looking forward to what 2019 has in store because we know we can only keep going UP from where we are right now!
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we have planned for the new year:
Expectations
There are a few things changing with our incomes in 2019 so this is what we’re expecting to see:
- DJ’s income will increase by 13.52%
- Our household income will increase by 109.75% once I start my new job
- We’ll continue living on DJ’s income in order to save 100% of mine
Money Goals
Now that we’ll have a bit more money coming, we want to continue being smart about what we do with it. Since we’re debt free, we can put our money towards things that will help us enjoy our lives (rather than just paying off dumb decisions from the past 🤦🏽).
Fully Funded Roth IRAs – $12,000
We previously shared how we invested for 2018, but in 2019 we’ll be increasing that a bit. DJ already invests in his TSP (government version of a 401k) and I have a Roth IRA that I’ve maxed out the last 2 years.
We’re going to start maxing out DJ’s Roth IRA as well now. Our goal is to fully retire by the time he retires from military service so we want to maximize ALL of the investment options available to us.
Travel fund – $5,000
We traveled to Los Angeles, spent a week in Mexico and celebrated Christmas in Reno this year! Traveling is high up on our list of priorities so we’re putting away some coins to spend on more great trips.
We aren’t fans of buying things because we care much more about experiences.
Special Event Fund – $2,000
Speaking of experiences, we were able to purchase surprise tickets to see Michelle Obama during her “Becoming” book tour, we attended the Joyce Meyer conference in San Jose and we enjoyed all of the Broadway shows included in our season membership. This never would have been possible if we didn’t have our finances reigned in the way that we do now.
Going forward, we want to have a separate line item specifically for special events so that when great opportunities pop up, we can comfortably pay for them right away.
Puppy Fund – $2,000
We had a puppy, years ago, but we sold her when we were both super busy with DJ’s deployments and I was working far away from home. My new job will be fully-remote and DJ’s flying schedule is more predictable now, so we want to get a new puppy.
A teacup Yorkie or Maltese/Poodle mix is what we’ve decided on, so we want to have the money saved for that.
Car Maintenance Fund – $1,000
We spent close to $1,000 on repairs for DJ’s car this year! She’s 10 years old and has served us well, but it’s about time for us to start looking for something new.
In the meantime, we’ll have an emergency fund just for when things go wrong with the car until we find a suitable replacement!
Life Goals
Life-wise, we’re also focusing on some goals that don’t involve money:
- Continue working on improving and sustaining our marriage
- Cook 90% of the meals in the vegan cookbooks we’ve been collecting
- Focus on our health: I’ll be joining a Pilates & Kickboxing gym and DJ is joining a Muay Thai/martial arts gym
- Volunteer more time doing things for other people
- Attend more personal growth related conferences
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We accomplished a lot in 2018 but we’re expecting 2019 to be one of our best years yet! We’re confident that we’ll be able to knock all of these goals off of our list and even do some things we haven’t even figured out yet.
Hopefully, you guys will be able to do the same. See you in the new year!!! 🎉🎉🎉
$tay Wealthy Friends,
— Dannie