My Goals for 2018 (& How to Reach Them)

Welcome to 2018 – the year everyone’s hoping won’t be so much of a dumpster fire like last year. Politics aside, now that I’ve paid off the big credit card, I get to have a little more fun with my goals this year.

To recap, my 2017 financial goals were:

1. Pay off the credit card! DONE DONE DONE
2. Build an emergency fund again NOT EVEN KIND OF
3. Go 12-for-12 on sticking to my budget I GOT 50% ON THIS ONE

So funny story, it’s hard to rebuild an emergency fund when you keep having emergencies. Losing my job. rather unexpectedly, moving, and my driver’s side window suddenly not working were all pretty annoying, but hey, why have an emergency fund if not to use it when one hits? Because I had my $1000 from Dave Ramsey‘s baby step #1, I didn’t go into debt due to these events, but this does mean I have to save it back up…for the third year in a row.

The big news, obviously, is paying off my credit card!!! I’m still super happy to not have that one anymore. I still have one more credit card, as you’ll see in a second, but it’s not nearly so much money.

As for budgeting, I think I finally figured out all those every-few-months things I have to pay for (like my bar dues or haircuts) and have started saving that money in my sinking fund.

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Now, onto 2018, the shiny new year that is hopefully a lot less like 2017. Here are my goals for this year:

1. Pay off my final credit card – no more consumer debt for me! (Goal is to have it paid off by my birthday.)
2. Build up a semi-full emergency fund of $5000 (Goal completion date is December)
3. Learn German to nearly triple my salary at work

If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail, right? Well, I’m planning to meet these goals a couple of different ways: through my old friend automation (emergency fund & credit card payments), maximizing my earnings from working on weekends & this blog, and Mint to track my progress. I will also be snowballing my credit card payments into my emergency fund savings goal after July. I’m being a little less ambitious this year, but by the the end of it, I will only have student loan debt plus some savings, and then I can finally have a little fun.

Finally, I’m planning to learn to read German so I can increase my salary at work. This one is a money goal mostly because increasing my salary is obviously financial, but it’s also been a personal goal of mine for a while too.

If you’re still looking for financial goal ideas, check out VTX Capital’s list for more money-related ideas.

-ECD

Tell me: what are your financial goals (& plan to reach them!) for the New Year?