Each year we like to look back at how we did on meeting our goals for the year, as well as set new ones! You can see how we reflected back on our 2015 goals here. That was a big year for us as we become debt free that year! We didn't hit all our goals for 2016, but things change (like the fact we got pregnant early in 2016) but we feel great about how we've ended this year!
Now on to goal setting for 2017! (Yes, you may be thinking "but you still have an entire month to accomplish these goals!" but with the baby coming soon I've rearranged a few priorities here...so I'm taking December off and plan to simply take life as it comes this month!)
2016 Goals Revisited
1. Meet with a Financial Planner.
Whoops. Nope, I never did get around to doing this. Honestly I think the buying a house took way more effort than I expected, along with managing medical bills for the pregnancy. I still feel great about where we are financially, but those things took priority for me when it came to our finances.
2.Continue to Learn about my Investments. More specifically make better informed decisions about retirement accounts and what we are investing in.
I'm certainly doing better at this, but could continue to do this once again for 2017.
3. Buy A House. This one is somewhat terrifying for me, but we are accepting that it is time we start looking at houses. It is a tough one for me, since home ownership has not been high on my list...but we are ready to settle down and make an investment.
Done! We bought a house in July 2016 and have no regrets!
4. Travel to either Canada or Mexico. For all the places we've traveled we have not yet made it to Canada or Mexico together. We thought this would be a great year to hit those up!
Well, we didn't end up doing this. Mexico was out once finding out we were pregnant (Zika), but we did go to Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland all in 2016! We are hoping to make it to Canada next year!
5. Volunteer Once Per Month. This is something we let slide this past year, as we were doing so well in 2014. I'd like to set a goal to volunteer at least once a month.
I'd say I averaged once per month...but didn't make it every single month.
6. Visit Out of Town Family Once Per Month. We have a lot of family that lives about an hour away (Lincoln) and because of photography it has been hard for us to get there in the past 2 years. I want to make more time for family in 2016.
We are certainly doing much better at this than we did in 2014 and 2015. Now with a baby and maternity leave we are planning to do this even more!
7. Complete at least 5 MBA classes. You may have seen that I started my MBA, and I want to be well on my way to completing it by the end of 2016. It is going to become more difficult as the year goes on and photography picks up, but I want to make it a point to make time to educate myself! I have a total of 11 MBA classes to take (because many of my law classes count for credit) so 5 will get me almost halfway there!
I feel like I've blamed everything on the baby lately, but this one I can say I successfully did despite getting pregnant! I finished up my last of the 5 MBA classes shortly before my due date. 6 more classes to go!
8. Read 50 Books. This time, I'm not making a goal to read financial books, but rather read a variety of books...even rereading some old ones. You can follow me on Goodreads to see what I'm reading!
I did hit 50 books this year! 58 to be exact, then sort of fell off the band wagon on reading. We had a huge change in priorities mid-year when we bought the house and found out we were expecting. I read everything from books on pregnancy, to classic children's books (Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland), and went through a bunch of biographies (we even picked out Lorelai's nickname "Lilah" as a result of the Warren Buffet biography)
9. Learn Stress Management. I tend to be a bit high strung at times and now is the time in my life that I need to learn to how to manage stress, or else I'll likely die at the young age of 40. Whether it is yoga, meditation, reading books or talking to a physician...I'd like to get a better handle on my stress levels!
Yikes okay, so I tried yoga...and hated it!!! Shortly after getting pregnant I felt my stress levels traumatically drop which was pretty awesome. I read about how some women go through this because their body tells them that so long as baby is fine, then everything is fine. I felt I worried about things much less, which was reassuring. Hopefully that carries on through motherhood (but I'm guessing it won't)
10. Attend 3 classes together. Whether it is a marriage seminar, a class on making sushi, spanish 101, or a lecture on Photoshop...learning together is something I want to make a priority for this year!
We signed up for one or two that were canceled, but didn't try much longer than that. However, we learned TONS of stuff about home-ownership and did lots of great projects together around the house. We had a blast ripping up carpet (and learned we never want to do that again), painting, and doing all sorts of home improvement things together.
2017 Goals
1. Take a trip out of the country with Lorelai. We are still hoping for Canada or Mexico on this one!
2. Set up a college fund for Lorelai. I know basically nothing about setting up a college fund...and I'd like to make some informed choices about how we will be saving for Lorelai's college.
3. Meet with a Financial Planner.
4. Date night once per month. I know there are going to be so many changes in our lives when we are parents...I feel like this could be a small start to making sure we are spending time with each other.
5. Be on a strict budget for at least 3 months. We've never done a traditional budget, but I'd really like to try one. We mention how we do our budget based on priorities (here) but I'd like to do a strict written budget and see how it works for us. Going to 1 income is going to be an adjustment!
6. Pay Down Our Mortgage. This one may be tough since we are just learning how to live off 1 income...but I'd love to see us get our mortgage down to $80,000. We are starting 2017 owing about $96,500 (compared to the $112,000 we took out in July 2016). This goal would mean we would be putting an extra $10,000 in 2017 towards our mortgage...lets see if we can do it!
7. Join A Parent Group. I have no idea what this will look like in reality, but I've never been super awesome at socializing. However, for Lorelai's sake I know Kevin and I really need to get better at that. Who knows, maybe I won't hate being around a bunch of moms as much as I think!
8. Complete Another 5 MBA classes. This may be a stretch because I know life is changing so much with a baby...but I know it is not going to get any easier. I have 6 classes left for my MBA program, and I'd love to keep moving forward on these!
9. Go on lots of walks. Its going to be hard to quantify this...but taking Lorelai on walks after work is something I always envisioned when we had a baby. This could be "read to Lorelai every night" or "sing to her every day" but right now I want to focus on walks.
10. Lose the Pregnancy Weight. I'm just like every other mom out there....I'd love to spend this year focusing on getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight on top of everything else! I can't wait to get back to being able to walk down a hall without being breathless...because I'm at the height of large-and-in-charge preggo right now.
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