As promised, I will be sharing a bit more about money and budgeting in this space. And what better way to kick things off than laying out our goals with money for 2020 to show how we plan to start this decade on good financial footing.
Avoid Lifestyle Inflation
This is a big one! Last year, we lived on one income. However, 2020 will be the first time that we will be a 2 income household with full time salaries. But we've got a lot of financial goals so I don't want to be tempted into spending more in our daily lives. Thus, our 2020 budget will very closely follow our 2019 budget in order to allow us to hit the financial goals listed below.
Pay $75k to student loan debt
Now that Husband and I are both officially done with grad school, we are on a mission to pay back our student loans aggressively. Because this is my first year working and my income is variable, it's hard to pin down exactly how much we will be able to put towards student loans, but I'm thinking that $75k is a reasonable target goal and a good first year start to tackle our six-figure student loan debt while still achieving our other money goals.
Max out my IRA
I am 30 years old and have never saved a penny for retirement-covers face in shame. Having just spent the last decade in school with minimal income, there wasn't much to save. But now it's time to catch-up. Husband is fortunate enough to have a 401K with a match that we've been contributing to already, but now I will be starting my retirement savings with an IRA. I want to pay the max into my IRA, which the government has capped at $6k for 2020.
Get a Better Bed
When I was still in medical school, I promised myself that I would use my first paycheck to buy a really nice bed. In actuality, I put my first paycheck into savings and months later still haven't bought the bed because I feel guilty spending so much money on an object. But I can't stop thinking about my dream bed. My job is very physically demanding, so I don't just want this bed, I genuinely feel like it will extend my career and improve my quality of life. I've decided that I'm going to do it-I'm going to get a Tempur-pedic bed.
Fund a Move
We love the location of our current apartment, but are in desperate need of more space than our 800 square foot apartment can provide. Of course moving apartments means paying new fees, security deposits, moving truck, etc. The saving grace is that we will likely be moving to a less expensive area in order to get more space without significantly increasing our rent.
Create a Home Office
As apart of moving to a different area, this will create a commute for Husband. Since Tom can technically work from home several days a week, we will be looking into funding a desktop computer for a home office once we move. This has been on Husband's wish list for a while and since it will mean that he's at home more, I'm on board.
Cashflow Travel
For me, travel is life and I never want to have a year of my life that doesn't include travel. So, we will 100% be traveling in 2020. I'm saving up all the travel rewards points, but we will still need cash to fund our bigger trips. We have an international trip planned already for the spring. Then, we will hopefully take a second big trip this summer-either an international trip or a trip to the west coast. We also have an out of state wedding in the spring and I would really like to do a small trip for my birthday this summer since it's over a weekend this year.
Host my Sister
Schedules permitting, I'd like for my sister to come visit during the summer, it would be nice to host her completely in terms of paying for food and activities.
I'm all about planning out big purchases and making money goals in advance because if you're not paying close attention, it goes fast.
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