Monday, January 4, 2010

New Year's Resolutions

I don't normally do New Year's resolutions. But last year was such a big year in so many ways that there's a lot of stuff that kind of got tabled as we dealt with more immediate things. So now, this year, there are several things I'd like to get done. I'm pretty excited about all of them. As you'll see, many of them are relatively big things--my resolutions aren't so much in the vein of "clean the bathroom regularly." Though of course I'd like to do that stuff too.

1. Get our finances in order. Financially, we're relatively well-off. We both have good jobs and we earn more than we spend. Our only debt comes from our mortgage and our car loan, and we are paying both off aggressively. I have an automatic 403(b) contribution from my employer. So we aren't doing too badly.

However, there are a lot of things we could be doing better, and I want to make that happen. I want to start by meeting with a financial planner to help us figure out how to balance our spending and saving priorities. Off the top of my head, the things we could/should be funneling money into include retirement funds, college savings funds, an emergency fund, and house upgrades (new windows, new blinds, proper furniture, etc.). Plus, there are things we'd like to spend money on, like travel, and I think it's OK to make that a priority, but I'd like some advice on balancing priorities.

I'd also like to hear some input on things like how much life insurance we should each have, whether it makes more sense to pay off our mortgage as quickly as possible or put more money into retirement accounts, what types of personal retirement accounts we should open in addition to our work-managed accounts, whether there are any estate tax issues we need to worry about in relation to Torsten not being a U.S. citizen, and so forth.

Basically I want some advice on being a grown-up and having our finances reflect our grown-up status. We'll see.

2. Start working on obtaining a child. Yes, I know it sounds crass the way I've phrased it, and yes, the phrasing is partly a joke. However, it's also a nod to the fact that pregnancy is not the only way to become a parent. I want to explore our options, select one, and begin moving down that path, whichever path it may be. And I want the path to be selected and the movement down it to begin this year.

3. Help Torsten advance in his career. I am very happy with my job. It's progressing in the direction I want, I feel valued, and I love the work that I do. Torsten's job is a bit more complex. He's doing the type of work that he wants to be doing but faces more obstacles and hurdles, and also more work than he's really able to handle. His boss seems to be open to trying to improve things, so hopefully that can start to happen. It would not take that much for Torsten to be much happier and more relaxed when it comes to work. I see my role here as the support, encouragement, and occasional outside voice of reason for when he's too close to a situation. I really think things can improve here, and I want to help make that happen.

4. Spruce up the house. The things that we want to do to our house are beyond the realm of what is feasible in a single year. If we had gobs of money we would start by replacing the windows and blinds, landscaping the front and back yards and building a water feature/goldfish pond in the backyard, getting a hot tub, and buying nice furniture for every room in the house, specifically the dining room and the guest room. There are many other things on the list as well, but those are the staples. Obviously we are not going to spend that kind of money this year, and certainly not just on the house (see Resolution #1 re: competing priorities), but I would at least like to make progress in this arena. Like, say, obtain more than four dining room chairs so we can actually host more than two guests for dinner.

5. Be more deliberate about our food. We both try to eat relatively healthily. We focus on lean protein, healthy fats, and whole grains, and try to avoid high amounts of cholesterol, high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, and sodium. But we aren't super extreme about it and do certainly eat processed foods as well. And honestly, we're OK with that. But what is not OK is how we don't plan our meals. When I was on Weight Watchers I was really good about picking out recipes for the week, figuring out what groceries we needed to purchase, and buying only those things. However, in the past few months we've devolved into more of a day-by-day habit, always needing to go out and get something, and often that something is pre-made which means it is both more expensive and less healthy than cooking for ourselves.

We just bought a chest freezer, and made good use of our Costco membership filling it with healthy foods. We tried to be realistic about our lifestyle, and not buy only ingredients but also some reasonably healthy frozen or refrigerated dishes that can be thrown together quickly on nights when we are too tired and busy to cook. We need to plan in advance what we're going to cook, and shop deliberately just for the ingredients we need. This can also allow us to clip coupons and pay better attention to sales. We have really slacked off in this department, which goes back to resolution number 1, as well. I think with careful planning and more time devoted to cooking, we can reduce our grocery bill by at least a third.

19 comments:

  1. I like your list, Jess. I think of it as less to do with new year's resolutions and more to do with prioritizing what's important for the two of you this year.

    Sweets and I overlap on a number of your items, especially the first.

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  2. This is a good list! I need to work on my own. I am bad with resolutions and wasn't particularly successful with last years goals!

    Have you thought about a CSA for your fruits and veggies? I know there are some around here, and I would imagine there as well. It seems like a really good option, and I am considering it for next year!

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  3. Great resolutions, I like the way you structured them, and that one of them is to help Torsten advance in his career. Good reminder about marriage - add that to my list of things to do this year for B!

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  4. These are all great goals. I am definitely focused on the money management goal this year as well. I have been supporting the household on my salary for six months and we will need to reorganize our saving and spending once Mike finishes school.

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  5. I have a similar finances goal for this year! I feel like once I sit down and figure it all out once, lay the groundwork, etc, that it'll be easier to maintain.

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  6. I didn't really think about this until we had kids and no TIME to go shopping every day, but doing the menu planning/shopping once a week thing is a HUGE positive effect on finances! Our grocery budget is pretty much the only one we're able to stick to, mostly because I make a menu for the week and buy nothing else.

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  7. One of these years I should really resolve to clip coupons. I mean, not THIS year. Obv.

    Happy New Year! I love resolutions. So hopeful.

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  8. I saw your comment about EAP and financial planning, and it's certainly worth looking into. My parent's neighbor is a financial planner, and for a wedding present she gave us a year for free ($600 usually). It was hugely helpful. My advice is to "shop around" for a planner that fits your needs (much like you would do with a realtor). I love that our planner's motto is "sometimes the thing that makes the most financial sense doesn't always make the most emotional sense, and it's okay to go with emotions sometimes." For us that meant buying a house without 20% down because we got such a great deal (and she 100% agreed with us).

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  9. This is a great list! I like that you're being realistic in planning food goals - there are so many times that I get overly ambitious when I shop and then don't feel like putting together anything complicated by the time I get to the end of the day.

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  10. Fun resolutions, especially the second one!

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  11. ah, resolutions. i enjoy reading other peoples' even though i did not actually make any of my own :-)

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  12. Those are great, realistic resolutions. I have several of the same on my list.

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  13. This is a lot like my own list(minus the baby obtaining). The best part about this, in my opinion, is that these are all very obtainable goals. I'm sure you'll do fantastic!

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  14. These all sound like great, reasonable goals to me!

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  15. I really like your list a lot. I aspire to have one of my own very similar to this in the next couple of years. Especially numbers 1 & 2!

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  16. Great goals! I think 2010 is going to be a great year for you guys.

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  17. Love #5 on your list Jess. Meal planning always helps me feel like there is less stress at dinner time after a (usually) long, hectic day at work. Even though I don't meal plan every week I do it regularly enough to have a fridge and pantry stocked with easy options. Good luck on all of your resolutions!

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  18. These are really excellent goals, Jess. I love that one of them is to be the best support you can be to Torsten.

    I'm sure when you look back there will be a lot of check marks beside these goals!

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