We’re all no strangers to either not setting resolutions or failing at our resolutions. There are a few ways to better set yourself up for success with achieving your goals and one is to write it down and another is to make a plan. That’s what I hope to do in this post! I did this in in 2021 and achieved 5/7 of my resolutions. Here’s to hoping I can go 100% in hitting my 2022 goals!

Grow net worth by 25%

I think it’s good to have some sort of a measure of how much progress you’d like to make, and that includes your finances. I’m saving hard, investing hard, and trying to control my expenses, all with the goal of continuing to grow my net worth. I set a 25% goal somewhat arbitrarily in 2021 and ended up growing my net worth by 27% in 2021. I thought about increasing my goal for 2022, like maybe something to 30% but have decided to keep my goal at 25%. Growing a bigger number at an even faster rate seems like a lot and I don’t see any huge bumps in income for 2022. Mrs. Money is looking to start a business in 2022 so that’ll likely cost us some money and now earn too too much (hopefully some) the first year.

25% feels like a good number to aim for!

Purchase 2 rental houses

I’ve talked a lot on this blog about real estate, how it’s done well for Mrs. Money and I, and how we’re looking to double down in it. I like it because it’s something Mrs. Money and I do well together, as in we have complementary skills that together are more than the sum of their parts. I believe real estate in our area will continue to increase in value, and I believe rental income is a great way to build long-term wealth.

We did start looking in about October of 2021, saw probably a dozen houses, put offers on two, went under contract on one but ended up backing out of it. It’s definitely a grinding process to find a house but we’re being picky in hopes of finding a quality house at a good value.

My goal is to end 2022 with 2 rental houses in our portfolio!

Save for winter in the summer (including daycare)

Ugh, this just seems to be an ongoing struggle year after year. Every year around November, random end of year bills start rolling in, inducing daycare (I budget daycare differently), HOA dues, credit card fees, Christmas presents/travel and things get expensive. It feels like we barely make it into the New Year with some semblance of a budget, and I spend January/February recovering and by then it I’m already a few month into the new year in terms of trying to hit my savings and investing goals. I always tell myself that I’ll be proactive and in the summer start saving for winter, but with mixed success. A few years ago I didn’t do this at all, then I’d save a little bit (which would help), and last year I covered Christmas well enough but not daycare. This year I hope to be different and I’ll start saving enough and start saving early!

So, my goal for 2022 is to end December not feeling overly stressed with end of year expenses.

Make sure I’m maxing out retirement

As I wrote in an article earlier this year, 2021 was the first year I really came close to maxing out my 401k. Each year you can contribute $19,500 (it slightly goes up each year) to an employer sponsored 401k. I think I technically came in at $17,500 so I didn’t quite make it but I was much closer than I’ve ever been before. I’ve realized that saving in a tax advantaged account is obviously much preferable to saving in a non-tax advantaged account, and so I decided that I would try to devote more and more of my excess investment money to my retirement savings instead of a general savings account.

To further complicate things, with Mrs. Money changing jobs last summer to a part-time (4 days per week instead of 5) job and now does not have the ability to contribute to a 401k as her employer doesn’t offer one for part-time employees (employers do incur some fees which makes sense that they offer it as a benefit). So, her other option is a IRA (individual retirement account), which the rules get a little confusing around income levels before you can’t contribute any more. There’s also the possibility of using a back door Roth via a Post-Tax Contribution. I’ve had a few friends use it with success. Simply put I need to do some research on this.

My goal for 2022 is to contribute $20,500 (the amount will go up periodically each year) and to contribute to a IRA or a post-tax 401k.

Help Mrs. Money launch her business

Mrs. Money (like many of us) has been on a career journey of her own, trying to figure out what she’d like to be when she grows up. About halfway through 2021 she decided that she’s really passionate about helping other Moms-to-be go through the journey of becoming a Mom after feeling like there was so much to learn and figure out during the birth of BabyMoneyFinance and SegundoMoneyFinance. I’m all for it and think she’d do well at this! Her goal is to become a consultant/coach, and she will help ‘coach through the motherhood transition’. It’s all super exciting and it’s my goal to help support her in any way that I can!

Focus

Every year I like to pick a word, for 2020 it was ‘resilience’, 2021 it was ‘thriving’ and for 2022 I’ve picked ‘focus’. I feel like I’ve got a bad habit of starting or halfway doing a lot of things, and while those things are great and cool, I wish I would focus and see fewer things out vs. just halfway trying a lot of things. In 2022 here are my focus areas:

• Focusing on the side hustle that makes me money – this blog
• Focusing on my attainable goal of buying – 2 rental properties
• Focusing on moonshots – either this carbon sequestration using seaweed or NFTs.

I hope that by focusing I will accomplish more!

There you have it here are my 2022 financial resolutions! I hope that by writing them down, telling others about it, and doing a mid-year check-in that I will be more successful in achieving them!