Does your family have a 5 year plan? If so, what kinds of things are on it?
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I wish. I keep trying to get my husband to help me out on this one, but he refuses.
On my 5 year plan:
- Be in our next 20 years home (ideally we would not move while the girls are in school)
- Buy a van
- Only debt be our house (we're close) -
Hawaii vacation in 3 years, it's for a milestone birthday of mine.
Possible house renovations: master bath, paint exterior
Reduce expenditures
Replace my car -
I think DH and I have probably independently thought about this, but we haven't really talked about it. We just sort of have loose goals! I will definitely be bringing this up with him though...I like the idea.
In my head, in the next 5 years...
- DH finishes grad school, which he's been wanting to do
- Finish our home renovations in the next 1-2 years
- Have baby #2
- Figure out our next career moves
- Ramp up our savings plans for college & retirement
- Travel to a new country or continent, or consider living abroadAnd of course, keep working toward our groove as a happy, healthy family. I'd really like to try and create more balance & family time for us. (Also, I like the idea of a 5 year plan having different categories: career, education, family, personal, etc.) You've got me thinking!
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I love this!!
We're having our last baby later this year, which feels like the realization of our "ideal life plan".
Beyond that:
we hope to buy a home
travel a lot (we'd love to visit Europe and travel the US)
focus on retirement savings
buy a family adventure mobile (like a sweet VW sleeper)
have two kids that sleep through the night -
I have a plan that takes me through 2021:
2017 - close on the sale of our forever home (March) and rebuild emergency savings (5-6 months)
2018 - pay down all of our student loans that are above 4% interest and hopefully have enough to wipe them all out
2019 - save for massive kitchen and family room renovation
2020 - embark on renovation and put savings from having one in school and one in pre-k back into retirement accounts which are fully funded
2021 - I'd probably like to do other projects around the house that we haven't been able to get to yet (save for finished basement, deck or outdoor fixtures, master bath) -
In no particular order:
-have another baby
-move out of our current city
-better job for DH
-buy a house
-pay off student loan debt
-ramp up savings of all kinds -
- have our basement finished
- save up for a trip to DisneyWorld -
- Pay off DH's remaining student loans
- Figure out where we want to settle long term and buy our long term house there
- Make a decision on completing our family (whether to TTC or adopt)
- Get a dog
- Savings stuff
- Do a big family vacation probably to Hawaii -
-move to our home state
-buy a house
-focus on retirement savings (we're working on it but we're focusing on our down payment right now)
-have the cash for our next two vehicles set aside
-take vacations that aren't just to visit family (will be more possible when we live closer to family)I would like to have a second LO but DH still isn't sure.
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We are trying to decide if we are going to stay in our current metropolitan area. Pros: Job market liquidity, proximity to family. Cons: Expensive cost of living, rat race culture, exhausting, competitive, really hot summers. During the next five years, I will probably need to either leave my company or commit to staying on for awhile longer. So we need to decide on this by then.
We may or may not have another child. If we do, we will probably outgrow our current condo. Even if we stay where we are, we may need to change communities because of the caliber of the schools here. Ideally this decision will dovetail with the job decision I mentioned above so that we can make one choice that will address both concerns.
We also need to hit the gas on our retirement strategy and management. Our actual savings rate is fine. It can always improve, but we live in an expensive area and still manage to save a decent amount. But our investment strategy needs work, and we don't actually have a formal goal we are working towards. So we need to manage this more proactively. Ugh.
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Yea! Now that we are done with our big "family goals" of 3 kids, we can move onto other things.
Before kids we paid off my student loans, I finished my MBA, he finished his AA and we bought a house. So we felt pretty good "coasting" for a few years while we were in baby survival mode which will continue this year with 2017. However, once our youngest turns 1:
1. Finish paying off my van
2. New windows in our house (hopefully we can do this in 2017)
3. DH finish his bachelors
4. Decide to pull the trigger to move cities, move to a new house or renovate our current house. This is going to be hard!
5. 10 year anniversary trip with DH ! -
This is a good one!
Try(ing) to have another kid
Buy a larger car
Pay off student loans (both DH's and mine)
Move into a larger rental if that kid #2 thing happens. We live in NYC. Ugh.
Plan for and take a vacation just the two of us -
DH gets a new job.
We move to a different country.
Travel to new places. -
I'm not sure that we have a true 5 year plan. But over the next 5 years I expect us to:
- Pay off my grad school loans (2017)
- Buy DH a new car when his lease is up (2017)
- Buy me a new car and trade mine in (2018)
- Go back to Barbados for our 10 year anniversary (2022)
- Go to Disney with the kids at some point, maybe in 2 years
- Do a Disney cruise when LO2 is 3+Other than that, I'm not sure what else. We've passed a lot of big milestones - we're in our forever-ish house, we're done adding to our family, and we don't really have much debt.
@looch: Total side note, but did you decide what do you about your Leaf? We ultimately decided not to keep ours and we're getting the plug-in Pacifica hybrid.
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@ShootingStar: Oh interesting! We don't need a larger car, but the lease on our Leaf is up in June, so we're going to wait and see. I really want a Mini Cooper, but don't want to go back to gas and the electric version isn't slated to be released until 2019! They have a hybrid it seems but the electric range isn't good.
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We are having our last baby this summer, so the family goal is done.
In no particular order...
-Buy a mini van this spring
-finish some indoor projects (painting, decorating etc)
-figure out if/when I am changing careers. I currently SAH.
-have DH finish his masters or plan for his MBA
-take our 10 year anniversary trip to Spain in 2021I don't think we will be able to move to a bigger house in the next 5 years, probably once I am working again.
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Pay off our debt (2017)
5th anniversary trip (2018)
Baby #2 (2018)
Move to a bigger house (sometime before DD starts school)
Disney vacation (when #2 is 2-3 years old) -
@Anagram: great idea for a thread!
in the next 5 years:
-move into new house/sell current house (hopefully both of these in april!)
-make partner at my firm (hopefully october)
-finish basement in new house (closer to 5 years out than now)
-upgrade our cars (~3 years out)
-institute one real family vacation per year (we hardly do any traveling and never really have, boo) -
6 months plan: close on our forever home (in 2 weeks
)
sell our condo
sell our investment property
renovate our forever home
TTC #25 year plan:
All of the above AND-
pay off all debt (except new mortgage) with 2 home sales
grow my business so it can 100% cover private school
family trip or party for my husband's 40th
family trip to hawaii for my 40th
renovate the new house's basement into a playroom/guestroom
renovate the new house's loft into my office -
Some things I would like to see happen in the next 5 years:
-Decide on having baby #3 or not
-Upgrade both of our cars-one being a mid/large SUV
-Plan a 10 year anniversary trip (2021)
-Renovate our kitchen and buy some nicer deck furniture
-Potentially change jobs if I can find something similar with a shorter commute -
Hmmm...
Sell our condo
Add to our family
Buy a family friendly SUV/ truck
Cadillac Test Track Vacation
Fun 40th bday for DH
Pixie cut for me
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We have a list of all the things we want to do to our house and approximate years for them. Most of them are within the next 5 years. So, save enough to finish slowly updating the house.
Other than that:
Grow my business, so that if we need to pay for private school we can
Buy a really nice piano
DH get a new job
Continue to add to savings -we have an emergency fund, a car fund, and no loans except mortgage but we'd still be screwed if everything broke at once. -
1. Gut and renovate master bath
2. Have LO #2 (August)
3. Pay off DH's student loans
4. Take a big family trip and a 10 yr anniversary trip
5. Move to forever home. -
@Anagram: great idea for a thread!
We have some financial goals to hit.
I want to remodel our 30+ year old kitchen & bathrooms.
I want to plan and go on a Disney cruise with friends and generally start traveling again.
We will need to replace at least 1 of our cars in the very near future. -
- Pay off my student loans
- Figure out if we want to stay where we are or move somewhere else.
- Make a decision on if we are having any more babies
- Get a dog
- A few family vacations - Hawaii, Europe
- A few alone vacations with DH
- Run another marathon or two
- Continue to save, especially more on a monthly basis rather than relying on year end bonus money -
In 5 years my youngest will finally be in kindergarten! Hopefully both DH and I are making more, so we can re-do our budget and shift our focus like saving and investing more aggressively again.
Withih these 5 years:
- big trip to Asia to visit family (2018)
- my car will prob die within this time frame; I'm open to a minivan!
- Prob just slowly get some more house projects done where funds allow, like re-doing front stairs/driveway and re-doing pavers in back yard -
haha, same as everyone else: decide if we're staying in our city, buy a house, finish having kids, make more money, and try not to fritter away the rest of my youth worrying about all of the above.
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@snowjewelz: Yes! I just added up our child care rough costs.
2017 - Estimated $21k (Infant, toddler, and Kindergartner)
2021 - At the same rate, no inflation $13k! (3 kids in elementary school!) -
Yikes! What does it mean that I don't have any kind of plan? This thread has me pressured to start thinking!
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The big goal is to do an addition on our home so that it will be the home we've always hoped to have. A little bigger with a more open plan layout. Other than that, we have an international trip planned in 2018.
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@T.H.O.U.: I think I will cry when the day comes when there is no more daycare bill!
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Up our emergency fund to a full 6 months worth (halfway there!)
Buy a new(er) family car when mine dies
Have my husband finish his bachelors and get a salaried job (!!!!)
Ramp up our retirement savings
Save up for a house downpayment
Have baby 3
Probably have me transition to SAH
Take a real family vacation with just us@T.H.O.U.: I love your #3
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-Rebuild our savings after unexpected medical bills this year
-Buy our first house!
-Work on retirement and college savings for kiddos
-Replace DH's car
-Take a 5 year anniversary trip BY OURSELVES -
@snowjewelz: We are still estimating that after school care and summer camps will cost about $4k per year per child
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Build a custom home and/or buy a vacation rental
Travel to Europe for 2 weeks without DD prior to TTC baby #2
Have baby #2
Pay off all debt but mortgage -
-be finished with fertility treatments and pregnancies
-sell house
-get new jobs (DH and I)
-move to GA -
We're basically wrapping up our 5 year plan now- since 2012 we've bought a new house and completed a few projects on it, had a baby, paid off student loans, and I've gone from FT WOH to SAHM/WFH. We don't have any formal goals for the next 5 years other than continue to meet our ongoing savings/retirement goals. We have some home improvement projects in mind but have yet to decide what order to do them in.
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I posted this thread because my husband and I are having a small issue of agreeing on appropriate mid-term financial goals, haha. So we agreed to make a 5 year plan and see if that helps our overall vision and then see if it helps us figure out a month to month or even yearly plan.
His main goal is paying off the house. Like...he wants to pay off our entire mortgage in next 5-7 years and because of that goal, he's fairly stressed about money on a monthly basis. Even though on paper, with our income and expenses, he should not be stressed.
I feel like we can to be a little more relaxed about paying off the house. We just bought 4 years ago, so not many people in our housing market/income level/without family help are able to pay off a house in 10 years while they have two kids that need full time child care. So I want to balance his financial goals with our "wants/needs" as a family. I want an occasional date night. I want 1-2 vacations a year. I want to enjoy life and not just constantly stress about random self-imposed financial goals all the time.
So...the 5 year plan. I'm going to suggest vacations and every-other-month date nights. I have 1 school loan left, so I will put paying that off on the 5 year plan (I haven't been in a big rush to pay it off before because it's a 2.1% interest rate, and I get to deduct interest payments from our taxes anyway). But that's a "goal" I can bring to the table that isn't just paying off the house. Other than that, we don't have any other debt, and we are on track with retirement savings.
Basically, I would like to convince Dh to adjust his mortgage goal and make it 12 years. or 15 years. And then make room in our budget to live a little. So I wanted to see what others are doing.
Further info:
-we currently have a nanny and I want to keep her at least until the end of this school year. If we start LO 2 in daycare near me, and do before and after care for LO1, we could save about $1000/month. But our lives will be infinitely more stressful, with 2 drop offs and 2 pickups, and me already having a 1 hour commute each way.-I could propose quitting my job entirely and then maybe our scheduling childcare stress goes down, but then we'd have to run numbers to figure out the financials. Also, our tax bracket would be lower, so that might help.
I don't know....I'm stuck. I need some #squadgoals
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-finally start our family
-establish regular travel plans to visit DH's family
-pay down student loans
-replace flooring in kitchen and dining room
)
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