Hellobee Boards

We have big goals this year ... We're currently saving for a house in a crazy market.

For us, I automatically put 10% of my income into a savings account, and do an automatic transfer of an additional set amount each week. I put all small checks (like DH's public transit reimbursement from work, $ gifts from family, and other little checks) into savings too.

I find it super helpful to have a goal sheet, with spaces to record my progress. It sounds silly, but seeing the $$ adding up is really helpful.

We're majorly cutting back on extra expenses (eating out, shopping, vacations), to focus on saving $ this year.

GOOD LUCK!!

I have some goals. Establishing and keeping savings, building credit, saving for a car. We haven't traveled since 2010!!!!!!!!!! But I am planning a trip for 2017, for next year. Focusing on actual mental health and happiness vs. external things is my personal tip. If you can be happy not traveling, not having (fillintheblank), appreciate the little things, it'll help you no matter what your lot in life is.

To cut down an already pared-down budget, I would negotiate/shop around for cheaper car insurance, home insurance, internet, cell phone bills. Buy/receive used items whenever possible. Plan meals around what's on sale at the grocery store. BUY NO books. Read everything on a Kindle or tablet for free by checking them out online via your library website.

My financial goals are to NOT use any raises and continue living as is, without raising my standard of living. Also, not waste food and find more tax deductions/shelters.

Well 2015 was a big year for us. I was on an unpaid mat leave until September, we unexpectedly bought a house in May, got unexpectedly knocked up in September, spent a fortune paying my parents mortgage last year, took a trip to Hawaii for my best friend's wedding (had to!), and then bought a minivan in November (we bought certified used and put down virtually all our savings to take out a tiny note.)

We made it through okay but we had to defer our goal of paying off my law school loans by like 9 months. So our first goal for the new year is paying that off in January. Our second goal is to keep putting as much towards DH's student loans as possible this year and get him down to 5 digits (we are a double law school loan family). After that I want to save up cash to buy DH's leased plug-in cash at the end of his term in March 2017. The minivan note should get paid off pretty quickly.

We are expecting LO2 in May and I will be on unpaid mat leave again through the end of the year plus childcare costs for DS, so no vacations for us (not that we'd want to go with 2 under 2!). We will have to save up for Xmas bc the ILs are insisting we all come for the holidays (sigh). In an ideal world we would do some more small renovations to the house (last year we did tree trimming, paint, kitchen cabinet painting, new sinks and faucets in guest bath), but I don't know. Perhaps we can just do faucets and sinks in the master this year since one of the sinks is starting to rust and just get the carpets cleaned (would love some new flooring!!!)

So not much in savings for us this year, but given that we were facing IVF with ICSI a few years ago we are taking our two surprise naturally conceived babes as a bonus and just deferring a lot of savings goals for a while. We have no debt other than the house, school loans, and the small minivan loan, so I think we are in okay shape. Things will calm down in a few years I'm sure! I am turning 35 this year so if we are debt-free but the mortgage and have no car/lease payments before we turn 40, I will be stoked. I think right now we will be able to do it by the time I'm 38 - just in time for the youngest to hit preschool and give us a breather!

Well, we're starting off the year with my husband taking all of January as unpaid FMLA, then we start daycare in February. So we're going to have to account for that. We also started up a 529 for my son that we hope to contribute to in 2016.

Overall, we're trying to get a handle on our new budget since having our son and find a financial adviser who we can pay by the hour to look over our investments and give advice.

The other big thing is that both my husband and I are considering going to 4 days per week (0.8 FTE). I just got a 10% raise, so I'd really only be losing 10% from my normal salary but my husband makes more than me, so him cutting back would be a bigger hit. We still think we'd be fine, but we want to be sure before we go for it. But I think it would be so nice to have some more time at home with the baby!

We'll also finish paying off my husband's student loans this year, which is our only debt, so that'll be nice!

I'm too scared to make financial goals until June is over. Maybe July 1st, I can make some financial goals for the second half of the year.

We just made some childcare choices that are more expensive (but needed for my mental health, really) that are going to mean my husband's entire bonus is going to childcare, plus pretty much my whole paycheck each month. Wamp Wamp. Kinda depressing.

Nothing specific. Just continuing to contribute to our various retirement and investment accounts as well as to DD's 529 account.

2015 was big for us in that we bought our first car, and finally built our first house after saving for 3 years in crazy DC market. We are so used to aggressively saving, I don't think it will be different this year. We moved over thanksgiving, and have slowly been buying new furniture. I'd like to have the house fully decorated by thanksgiving of this year. I turn 30 next year, and it's our 5 year anniversary, so we are saving for a big trip, although I don't know what yet!

We are currently trying to cut back on eating out to give us more breathing room in our budget. We now have a surcharge we have to pay every month for me to be covered on my husband's health insurance, so we need to factor that in. But otherwise, we are saving up for vacation so we don't have to rely on our tax return and we really, really need to replace our carpet this year.

Our main financial goals this year are:

- Pay off the car loan for the car I bought my parents last year
- Pay off my husband’s student loans

Unfortunately I don’t think there are many easy “secrets” when you are already living very leanly besides cutting spending or earning more. If you don’t really have any spending to cut, then you need to bring in more $$. It’s great to save $5 here and there making small changes, but that isn’t going to hugely impact a budget.

I am focusing this year on billing more freelance work hours, and putting that $$ towards the debts above, rather than having that dedicated mostly as my “fun money”. It’s hard since I already work FT, but it is what it is. As soon as my husband has a signed contract for his second book he can go up for full professor, which is a huge pay jump. He should have that by around summer (I’m realistically hopeful), so I’m really trying to push that, without being a nagging wife about it, this year too.

We set goals each year. I think its a great exercise to do and we do a monthly check up against our goals and make adjustments in spending if we need to.

We need to replace our roof and part of our fence this year. We have the money in savings but my goal is to be able to replenish whatever we spend on those things (likely in the $15k range) by the end of the year. Plus our normal, automatic retirement and other savings contributions. We should be able to do it, but it will definitely mean shaping up on food costs in particular -- fewer lunches out and coffee runs, better choices at the grocery store, etc.

We recently hired a financial planner to manage our investments (rather than continuing to let the banks do so), and to help us meet our financial goals. This month we will be setting up an RESP (Canadian 529) for LO, and will stop contributing to our RRSPs (401(k)). Because we are expecting really good pensions when we retire, it doesn't make sense to continue to contribute to those; we would lose too much in taxes when we retire, due to the retirement income putting us in a higher tax bracket. Instead, we will be pursuing other investment opportunities, including mutual funds, and the newish tax-free savings account.

In the short term, we will have the added expense this year of daycare, which is very pricy in our area. So limiting how much we order in, which is normally healthier choices like Indian and Thai, would certainly help our budget. We ordered in a lot last year due to end of pregnancy exhaustion and being busy with the newborn.

I want to pay of the few small debts we have and then just save save save. Next year we will only have DH wage, while I am on leave so I want no extra expenses. This year is about preparation.

I really really want to stay at home with LO, so everything we do financially this year will be to get us ready for that transition, which we are hoping to do next year. We are going to live off of DH's salary and we going to use my salary to pay off our credit cards and my car. The 8 months I get paid next year (I'm a teacher, so weird salary schedule) will all go into savings so we have a cushion for when I start staying home. We also want to TTC for #2 next year and we want to do so with no debt.

Our big goal this year is a new car for me. It's time and we want to upgrade before anything major happens with my current 20 year old car.

We are also planning on doing a refi to shorten the length of our home loan to pay off the house faster.

I want to put money back in our TFSA, pay down the cc and cut back on our discretionary spending. It's gotten completely ridiculous.

This year we streamlined the budget to a point where there's nothing left to cut, so our focus for the next few months is on increasing our income.