Financial Goals 2020: Naming Rights to Thread Available

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YeahTubaMike: Mar 24, 2005; *hic* Gotta finish thish . . .; Doctor Rope

Before I start listing goals, I just want to say that I'm maxing out my 401k contributions.

2020 Financial Savings Goals (for someone who grew up broke & spends broke-ly despite a substantial increase in income)
1) $5,000 in the emergency fund
2) $2,500 in the travel fund (I still can't decide where I want to go)
3) $500 for a trip to the spa ;-*

4) $320 by March for my yearly renters insurance & various subscriptions so I don't have to worry about them anymore

Financial non-savings goals
1) spend less than $40 a week on alcohol/Uber
2) spend less than $20 a week on takeout/delivery

Non-financial goals
1) get (and stay) under 200 lbs
2) build a wardrobe that enables me to avoid wearing merch in non-concert & non-baseball game contexts
3) practice listening, pronunciation, and grammar in Norwegian at least three days a week :norway:

# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 04:11

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 01:53

YeahTubaMike: Mar 24, 2005; *hic* Gotta finish thish . . .; Doctor Rope

Oh, we do EOM checkins? Alrighty.

quote:

Before I start listing goals, I just want to say that I'm maxing out my 401k contributions.
I cut back to 15% for reasons that will become clearer as my post goes on.

quote:

2020 Financial Savings Goals (for someone who grew up broke & spends broke-ly despite a substantial increase in income)
1) $5,000 in the emergency fund
My emergency fund now has $123.46 (down from a high of $1,055.99) in it from taking my cat back & forth to the vet (x-rays, pain meds, multiple consultations, blood work) trying to diagnose a problem that can only be solved by surgery. I included Uber rides to & from vets in the emergency fund because my cat can not ride on public transportation without yowling like a toddler being mauled by a coyote.

2) $2,500 in the travel fund (I still can't decide where I want to go)
$1,000.91 in the travel fund. Gotta love that sweet sweet interest Hopefully I won't end up having to spend it on cat surgery

3) $500 for a trip to the spa
No spa money yet, but in all fairness, 1) I've had other problems, and 2) this was a "by the end of the year" kind of goal anyway.

4) $320 by March for my yearly renters insurance & various subscriptions so I don't have to worry about them anymore
$214.28 in the yearly bills fund, right on track

quote:

Financial non-savings goals
1) spend less than $40 a week on alcohol/Uber
Vet trips blew the goal right out the window, though I've been good about keeping my alcohol consumption low (and inexpensive).

2) spend less than $20 a week on takeout/delivery
...I'm still trying.

quote:

Non-financial goals
1) get (and stay) under 200 lbs
247.6, down from 248. Pathetic.

2) build a wardrobe that enables me to avoid wearing merch in non-concert & non-baseball game contexts
I have money saved for clothes($140.73), and I spent other money on jeans after the inner thigh parts of all my jeans got rubbed out. I haven't bought any shirts yet.

3) practice listening, pronunciation, and grammar in Norwegian at least three days a week
This has been easy, fun, and rewarding.

YeahTubaMike fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Mar 2, 2020

# ¿ Feb 3, 2020 14:49

YeahTubaMike: Mar 24, 2005; *hic* Gotta finish thish . . .; Doctor Rope

March check-in! Updates:
-I'm still at 15% for 401k contributions.
-I'm still paying off my cat's knee surgery.

quote:

2020 Financial Savings Goals (for someone who grew up broke & spends broke-ly despite a substantial increase in income)
1) $5,000 in the emergency fund
My emergency fund now has $425.92, which will all go toward paying for my cat's knee surgery.

2) $2,500 in the travel fund (I still can't decide where I want to go)
$222.66 in the travel fund. Flight to Toronto, hotel, and pet-sitter are all paid for.

3) $500 for a trip to the spa
No spa money yet. In addition to this being an EOY goal, I also got diagnosed with some massive fibroids a couple of weeks ago so getting them removed is higher-priority than hot tubs & massages for now.

4) $320 by March for my yearly renters insurance & various subscriptions so I don't have to worry about them anymore
$321.65 as of March 1. DONE!

quote:

Financial non-savings goals
1) spend less than $40 a week on alcohol/Uber
edit to remove old comment: there has been more Uber than alcohol this month, which is...an improvement?

2) spend less than $20 a week on takeout/delivery
I'm not even entirely sure how badly I screwed this up, I just know that I did.

quote:

Non-financial goals
1) get (and stay) under 200 lbs
I stopped weighing myself after a distracting couple of weeks, and I figured the fibroids would probably inflate my weight anyway.

2) build a wardrobe that enables me to avoid wearing merch in non-concert & non-baseball game contexts
I spent my clothes money on the cat.

3) practice listening, pronunciation, and grammar in Norwegian at least three days a week
I've been distracted, to say the least. I did start taking notes during text-based conversations with friends, so that I could jot down words that I learned during the conversation along with Norwegian-language definitions.

YeahTubaMike fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Mar 2, 2020

# ¿ Mar 2, 2020 17:37

YeahTubaMike: Mar 24, 2005; *hic* Gotta finish thish . . .; Doctor Rope

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

I think it might be helpful for you to measure how you blew your takeout/delivery goal, since that could help you prevent doing the same in the future. If you don't look in to it, it's hard to change behavior.

Laziness, and the lack of immediate financial repercussions if I don't go grocery-shopping. Yes this has been a stressful month, between dealing with a cat recovering from knee surgery and my own fibroid-addled uterus, but I'd be lying if I said that my reaction to these things was ordering in. Or maybe it is and I just don't know it, but I don't think that's the case at all.

As far as what I'm buying, I work in a building with a cafeteria, so breakfast & lunch there can cost around $12 max. I sometimes grab DD on the way to work ($7-ish); there's a Chinese takeout place, a Mexican place, and a fish market on the way home ($10 max). There are just so many options.

Hoodwinker posted:

Reinforcing this suggestion. It's hard to make effective changes without looking at the data (you have to be gathering data) and understanding what it implies.

Yeah I know, and I ran through Mint AND my bank account for the purposes of posting in the first place, but there were a few withdrawals that I can't actually trace to anything. I've been assuming that they're Uber/delivery tips and takeout. I try to stay on top of this sort of thing, and I did a great job in January at least! :sigh:

Logging my use of cash as soon as I withdraw it is a habit I have to get back into. I think March is going to be a "getting back into good habits" month.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2020 18:10

YeahTubaMike: Mar 24, 2005; *hic* Gotta finish thish . . .; Doctor Rope

Yeah, I'm trying not to get too defeatist about it. The year is still young, after all!

# ¿ Mar 2, 2020 21:18

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 01:53

YeahTubaMike: Mar 24, 2005; *hic* Gotta finish thish . . .; Doctor Rope

DJCobol posted:

Updated 2020 Goals:

1) Don't die - so far so good
2) Stay employed - check
3) Don't check stock prices multiple times per day - Fail
4) Try not to cry - only crying a little

Pretty much! :smithicide:

# ¿ Apr 2, 2020 03:16

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