I really enjoy having this blog as a chance to better connect with other young professionals and their personal finance journeys, but also to better connect with myself on my own journey. I’ve been running this blog for 11 years and it’s fun to look back at where I was in life. One great way I’ve been able to do this is by tracking my own personal financial resolutions / goals each year in January, then doing a mid year checkin and finally a look back. Here are the links to the initial goals in 2023, the mid-year checkin and here is the look back! 

Grow net worth by 5% – MET

Over the past few years, I’ve tried to set a financial growth goal for myself. I am saving 15% to my employer stock purchase program and 15% to retirement so off the top I’m saving 30%. From there I’m also saving a bit here and there in a high yield savings account and in a individual brokerage account. Then I am invested in the stock market and real estate and I hope that those are growing too. 8% is a number I frequently refer to – the historical average annual growth rate of the stock market. To wrap it up, I am following the cardinal rule of personal finance whereby Income = Expenses + Saving/Investing. So, I would expect our net worth to grow each year. 

In years past the growth has been all over the place – as high as 25% and as low as -5% (2022 wasn’t great for the stock market!). In 2023 coming off of a rough year for the stock market I set a modest goal of growing our net worth by 5%. 

I’m pleased to report that we met and exceeded our goal; in fact our net worth grew by 20% in 2023! It’s truly not easy – paycheck to paycheck I work hard to save and control our expenses but it’s not super easy with kiddomoneyfinances running around the house and just things generally being expensive. It’s super encouraging at the end of the year to be able to report a number like 20% growth, it gives me drive to keep it up in 2024!

Finish tiny house construction – Not Met / Cancelled

We are no where close to finishing construction on our tiny house, in fact we’re no where close to even beginning! We got pretty serious with the plan to build in March/April and that was right as interest rates were beginning to increase, coupled with construction costs still being high. We gasped at the price of construction but accepted that it’s just expensive to build right now but then I nearly fell out of my chair when I was told that a construction loan would be 8% and then once done I could roll it into a normal mortgage, but that a normal mortgage was still 7%! Interest rates remained that high until the end of 2023 when they fell to about 6.5% but still expensive nonetheless!

Of course I reminded myself that as long as the rental income looked strong and the numbers made sense that we could still make it work and I didn’t accept the pro forma (the rental income estimation) from the property management company and I went to AirBnb myself to check. I was dismayed to learn that most rental properties only rented for 3-5 nights PER MONTH. Yikes. This was less than ideal information but at least we learned this before we signed the contract and took the loan!

I’ve since learned that oftentimes vacation rentals are cash flow negative – meaning you spend more cash than you bring in each year and that you make your money through the increase in the value of the home. However in this case we bought a tiny house lot in a community of 50+ other tiny houses that all look the same, and I’ve noticed (of course I’m tracking via zillow!) that prices have slowed down in their ascent. There was a big jump 2020-2021-2022 but then things really slowed down and actually fell in 2023. 

So, in the middle of 2023 we decided to put the brakes on any tiny house building for the time being. I had a few dreams this winter of how nice it would be to have our own cabin, but for the time being I decided I didn’t want a cabin that badly! We’ll revisit throughout 2024 to see what interest rates and construction costs do, but for the time being we’re going to hold off! 

Help Mrs. Moneys side hustle be profitable – Not Met

Starting a new business is risky; there always a good chance it’ll fail. It can take a lot of time, patience, luck and money to get it going and keep it running. It was the second half of 2022 when Mrs. money really started dedicating her time energy and focus towards this business full-time well by full-time I mean half time. She was fortunate enough to negotiate a work schedule that let her work half time at her job. So that ended up being a blessing as she still had some income coming in. It was the spring of 2023 when we had to make a hard decision. Mrs. Money works at a school and schools operate on a summer start so in March she had to let her work know whether or not she wanted to go full-time or remain part time. 2022 had been a slow start, but still a good start. Mrs. Money was doing all the right things she was out there in the community, face in the place as we refer to it in the sales organization that I work in and it felt like she was giving it her best. We ended up making a tough decision to have her go back full-time in the summer of 2023 and affectively slow down, and eventually shut down her business.

I’m very proud of her for the risk. She took how she got out there tried something new and gave it her best. Starting a new business is risky and we knew that going into it. Ultimately, I’m thankful that she was able to remain part time while doing this, and eventually go back full-time. in hindsight, I think it was a great solution, but it was too new of a solution for the market.

 So, we ended up not meeting this goal, but I’m ok with how it turned out.

Fully save for winter in the fall – MET

Over the past few years, I have noticed how expensive October November and December can be. There are lots of expenses and events and things to buy all around the holidays and the end of the year in general. Our HOA dues come due. I have a couple of credit card annual fees. There are lots of Christmas presents and holiday travel that we like to do. We also like to make some end-of-the-year financial donations. In years past I’ve not done a very good job of preparing for these expenses and find myself in January and February in a bit of a hole that I then have to delay my January and February savings to make up for that spending. It all works out in the end, but I’d rather be on top of it, and be proactive instead of reactive. It was for this reason that I set a goal to fully safe for winter in the fall.

In 2022 I sent this as a goal, but didn’t really know how much to set aside. I did my best guess estimate and ended up still a little bit short. So for 2023 I had a lot better of an idea of how much we would be spending and did a better job saving for it. I got a little bit lucky as I was on paternity leave starting in October, and that resulted in my paycheck shifting. typically I get my base pay and then I get a quarterly bonus but for whatever reason when you’re on leave you get a smaller bonus but that bonus gets paid out more frequently. I had also maxed out my 401(k) and my ESPP contributions and my paychecks ended up being a little bit higher for those months. So I kind of lucked into being able to save enough for winter in the early fall! 

I suppose I could’ve done a better job actually saving earlier on instead of kind of catching a break with how my paycheck worked but hey, I’ll take a win where I can. Next year I don’t expect to be on paternity leave at this time, and therefore will need to remind myself to do a better job, but hey, if I met my goal this year, I can meet it next year!  It’s nice entering January not as financially stressed.

Not open a new account – MET, but with an asterisk 

I’ve had a bad habit of chasing new investment fads over the years, which have resulted in me opening a number of different types of accounts. Some of them have worked out like Lending club. Others have not worked out as well; like BlockFI or Fundrise. Lol. Sometimes I look back and chuckle on how I thought it was a good idea to lend out my cryptocurrency for such high returns that ended up proving to be too good. Having too many accounts ended up being a little bit of an administrative and headache come tax time and on and ongoing basis just keeping an eye on my money in different places.

So in 2023 a set of resolution not to open any new accounts. I’m pleased to report that I did not open any new accounts! I didn’t necessarily close any of my existing accounts, but hey, at least things won’t be more complicated come tax time. The one small asterisk that I will make is that I upgraded one of my credit cards. For a long time I have held the Delta American Express credit card in my wallet and one thing that I like about those cards is that you can very easily upgrade or downgrade within the Delta American Express family. During Covid, I downgraded my card to the zero dollar annual fee credit card as I really didn’t expect to be traveling much. In 2023 as travel was picking up, I revisited what was in my wallet, and found that it made sense to upgrade to a higher tier card. I ended up upgrading to the Gold Delta Amex which has a $99 annual fee but also allows me to take 15% off flight when I book with Skymiles. I had a big trip to Spain that I booked with Skymiles and it just made sense to upgrade with what I was saving! 

Contribute to after tax 401(k) – MET

2022 was the first year that I maxed out my 401(k) contributions, $20,500. it was an accomplishment that I was super proud of and that I’ve worked hard on for many years to try to actually be able to set aside that much money. In 2023 I had heard of something called an after-tax 401(k) contribution and as I learned about it, realize that it was a way to contribute above and beyond the max. I figured that I wouldn’t be able to contribute all that much, but I did want to at least get it set up get it figured out and contribute at least one dollar. I ended up contributing about $250 to my after-tax 401(k) so not a ton of money, but still some thing that I’m very proud of that I was able to accomplish. In 2024 knowing that I’ve already done the research and have gotten this set up, I expect to be able to make more contributions. it’s exciting to be able to contribute a little more above and beyond to my retirement.

So overall looking back, I achieved four of the six goals that I set for myself. The two that I didn’t achieve. I’m totally ok with not having achieved after the circumstances change during the year. Setting goals has been really fun for me and I look forward to doing this again in 2024. I’ll do a future post where I cover my 2024 goals.

Good luck to you and your goals this coming year!