Nearly two years ago I undertook the 31 Day Financial Challenge I found on The Simple Dollar. I decided it was time to review the goals I set during that challenge to see how things are going.
In 25 years I would like to:
Have 3 children (possibly 4)
- Be living in a detached house with 4 bedrooms, family room, office space, 2 bathrooms, driveway and/or garage
- Have published 3 books
- Be debt free (the one exception to this is that we may still have a mortgage, but hopefully it will be at least half paid off).
- Cultivate a family lifestyle of fitness
- Develop a meaningful relationship with Jesus and be able to pass that deep faith on to my children
What about 1 year from now?
Put at least $1,500 toward principle of our student loan debt
- Have finished two chapters of my novel
- Query all potential publishers for my Advent Devotional
- Be pregnant with our second child
- Participate in physical activity (walking, Pilates, dancing) at least four times a week
- Have developed a daily devotional habit and finished reading the entire bible
- Have completed a list of no/low cost renovations and landscape projects on the house
I don’t think my opinion on the 25 year goal has changed much. If anything I feel less strongly about the urgency of moving to a larger house and more strongly about living debt free. So I still hope to be in a larger house, but I hope that will only happen while being relatively if not completely debt free.
As far as my goals for one year from then, well I don’t know if I actually accomplished them in the following year, but I was pleased to see that I’ve made progress in the last two years. We did pay off another $1,500 of our student loans in 2011 and another $1,700 this year. I’d like to be further along, but every little bit is encouraging. Hopefully we’ll pay off another $2,500 at the end of this year and then maybe another chunk after next year’s tax returns. Our biggest hope is that my husband’s soon to be published novel will be a success and allow us to finally free ourselves from those student loans for good.
I am several chapters further into my novel. I have also sent many queries regarding my advent devotional. Sadly, I haven’t gotten any interest from the religious publishing market, so I’m considering self-publishing, which I never thought I’d be doing.
As far as growing our family is concerned, our second child joined the family in March of 2012, our son Robin Isaac.
I am currently very physically active, usually 3-4 days a week, though I shoot for 5. But that hasn’t been the case consistently. One year after I made that goal I had just gotten pregnant for the third time, after miscarrying earlier that year. So exercise, while important, wasn’t high on my priority list. But I am attempting to make it a priority again now, mostly because I know that it helps me to control my anxiety and because it makes me feel good about myself.
Well, I am currently working on building a daily devotional habit, something I continue to struggle with. My times of daily prayer and bible reading ebbed and flowed for the past two years though I currently feel like I’m on a good track with a system that works for me. Though I still haven’t finished reading the Bible all the way through, but hopefully I will have by the end of the year.
Probably the biggest failure of my goals is the lack of progress made on our house. With the two pregnancies in a row and now with a new baby in the house, we haven’t accomplished much. I have made some minor additions to my garden but mostly we’ve been trying to declutter; giving items away or selling them on Ebay. Last year we divested ourselves of an entire box of my husband’s childhood He-man toys, which helped pay for Christmas expenses. They also helped make extra student loan payments and contributed to our hospital co-pays when the baby was born. Though we haven’t done any more Ebay selling since the baby was born, I’m hoping to get back into it soon, both for decluttering and financial purposes.
While overall I’m more pleased than I expected with my goal progress, being the perfectionist that I am, I’d rather be making larger strides. But as a parent of a newborn and a toddler I’m also learning the meaning of “good enough.” I think my success is good enough for now and I’ll keep plugging toward the future.
Just thought I’d leave a comment about your student loans, I’m not sure if bank/student loan lenders work the same where you are but I know that for myself I paid my student loans by sending in checks. Therefore I paid my student loan before the actual date it was due they never charged me interest. Hence that saved me lots of money. There were only about 3 times that I paid interest on my student loans so when they were paid off I only paid $49 in interest although it only took 2 years to pay off but still that is still way less than what I would have paid if it was 2 years of paying on the due date. I would check into this so that your interest amounts are less and you can pay it off faster.
Hope this tip helps you in paying your student loans off faster.
Oh, this also works for bank loans too- just go in a couple days before the due date and put a payment on it. If you do that they won’t pull it out of your account as its already paid and no interest. 🙂 more money for you less for them.
Unfortunately our student loans are compounded daily. So interest accrues every day, regardless of when you pay the bill.