2014 is going to be an exciting year. Obviously my marriage will be the biggest and most exciting event but I also look to sell my condo and purchase a house with my new wife in 2014. These events also make some of my goals for the year a bit challenging. I have never managed finances with another person so that will be an interesting change as we figure out the best way to handle our combined finances.
Forward 12 Month Dividend Income (DGI Account only) of $1200 by end of year. I ended 2013 with $829 in forward dividend income. I started the DGI account in June of this year and am very happy with my progress so far. $1200 will give me an average of $100 per month which is a nice psychological threshold. It’s not clear how much I will be able to add to this account in 2013 given wedding/honeymoon expenses and purchasing a house but I will be very happy to hit $1200 by year end.
Track every dollar spent for the entire year. This one will be interesting as I will be tracking only my spending until the marriage and then our combined spending afterwards (including my personal account but not her’s). I’ve tracked spending in the past for months at a time but never an entire year.
(Soon to be) Wife’s Student Loan Debt paid down to $35k. This is currently just over $40k.
Savings rate of 30% - I will be excluding the honeymoon, condo sale and home purchase from this calculation so it will be a bit fuzzy for 2014. This will be my first year truly calculating my savings rate (the horror!) but I estimate I have been around 26-27% for the bulk of 2013. Given my fiancée’s low income, a new home purchase likely leading to some new furniture, and the challenges in merging our finances, I expect this to be an extremely difficult challenge for us.
401(k) balance of $140k. Obviously this one is dependent on the markets so it is not as significant to me as the rest of my goals. I expect my balance to grow slower in 2014 than 2013 as my contributions will likely be relatively flat (and potentially decreasing – post to come) while the market is unlikely to have as strong of a year. I ended 2013 with a balance of $116,593.71
Happy New Year! May all your goals be reached in 2014
Congrats on the upcoming wedding! Hitting the $100 per month mark sure feels good and is a great first milestone on the path to FI through DGI. Reaching a 30% savings rate is a great goal and hopefully y'all can hit it. Buying a house sure can add some expenses though as it nearly doubled my average base expenses. Best of luck in 2014!
ReplyDeleteThanks and best of luck to you on your goals for 2014!
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