2020 Goals Update – Are We Failing?

We are already halfway through 2020. Part of me feels like this is the longest year ever and the other part feels like we just went into quarantine 2 weeks ago. 

Every year I make goals for the year in 5 different categories: Financial, Relationship/Marriage, Travel, Health, and Business. Today I am doing a mid-year update on those goals. Click here to see what my 2020 goals are. 

Some of them I am doing well, and the rest well, you will see. 

Financial Goals:

The first step to achieving your goals is first setting them. Setting goals that are achievable is the key to success. 

Goal: 60% savings rate 

Our savings rate is not currently where we would like it to be. It is currently at 39.54%. The main reason we are not currently hitting this goal is my husband and I took a $20k pay cut due to the pandemic. We should be going back to 90% full pay in August which is huge but not getting the raises or bonuses we expected at the beginning of the year.  

Life is uncertain, our day jobs are not guaranteed. This is one of the main reasons why I believe so strongly in having multiple streams of income. If your main stream of income goes down or gets taken away completely then there are other income streams that can step up and keep you afloat. 

If you are experiencing a job loss or pay cut as well – check out the video where I share how we handled our $20,000 pay cut and tips if you are going through the same.

Goal: Max out our IRAs 

YES! I am happy to report that we have maxed out both of our IRAs for the past 4 years and are on track to max them out for 2020 as well.

For 2020, you can contribute a maximum of $6,000 to an IRA if you’re under age 50, or $7,000 if you’re older than 50. If you are looking to start an IRA, check out M1 Finance and their retirement accounts.

Goal: Saving for a rental property

This goal is not going as well as we planned. Mostly due to our pay cuts. We purchased our first home in August of 2019 and wanted to purchase our first rental property by the end of 2020 but that is not going to happen. Right now we have $2,163 saved. We will need to save for a down payment, closing costs as well as a repair fund before we purchase. We do have almost $50,000 in equity in our home but right now I am not wanting to pull that out. 

Buying real estate, especially rental properties is one of the ways that we plan to build our wealth. As the property value rises we will be having our tenants pay down the mortgage and build equity. Our goal is to eventually own multiple rental homes as well as duplexes and triplexes. I am going back and forth on managing them ourselves and hiring a property manager for our first rental. 

Goal: $10,000 in Tesla fund

On Black Friday 2018 we bought my dream car, a 2016 Jeep Cherokee in CASH. It was a dream come true and I still pinch myself when I realize that we paid $25k cash for a car! 

Jayme drives a 2012 Chevy Cruze and it has a few good years left in it but we are saving for his dream car… a Tesla! 

We will be buying that car in a few years still so our goal for the end of 2020 is to be at $10,000. Right now we have $6,250 saved. We started the year at $4700 so have only added $1550. We need to get our butt in gear (ha! See what I did there?) with this goal!

Goal: Giving $20,000 

Giving is really important to Jayme and me. Now that we are debt-free we have increased our annual giving this year to a minimum of $20,000. 

The main places that we give to are our local church, missionary family in Argentina, Leandro a boy that we sponsor in El Salvador, and cancer research. We also have a “spontaneous giving” sinking fund in our budget that we add about $100 a month to for whenever we feel led to give to someone or a charity. 

So far we have given $9,276 this year so we will hit that goal no problem!

Goal: Emergency Fund to $40,000

Emergency funds are a much-debated topic in the personal finance community. I personally believe everyone should have a minimum of one month’s worth of expenses saved as an emergency fund and get one month ahead on your bills. 

Some believe $1000 is sufficient but due to the economy and unexpected life, one month is my minimum. 

After you have a one-month emergency fund I recommend working on your other financial goals, such as paying off debt and investing while growing your emergency fund to a full year’s worth of expenses. 

This is not a one year salary but only expenses. We still have a ways to go to get there, but our goal is to end the year with $40,000 saved. We are currently at $23,389 so we still have a ways to go. 

Relationship Goals

My husband, Jayme and I have been married for almost 3 years. When we aren’t in quarantine he is traveling 80% of the time. There are some months where he is only home for 14 hours and then back out to a new city for 7-10 days. It is so easy to let your marriage get lukewarm, to avoid that we have goals to continue to “date” each other and keep our marriage growing strong.

Goal: Monthly date nights 

Dating your spouse is very important to a healthy marriage. Our goal is to have monthly date nights. 

Since quarantine, we obviously haven’t been able to go on the traditional dates like we typically would but its been fun to get creative and get take out and the drive up and down the ocean or make dinner together at home. 

I’m excited to say that we have successfully had at least one date night each month since the beginning of 2020!

Goal: Mentally start preparing for a baby 

I’m 31 and Jayme is 27 (yep… cougar over here), I am ready to start having kids… Jayme, not so much. But we have committed to start trying at the end of 2020. One of our goals is to start mentally preparing for having a baby. Jayme is excited to have kids… someday. I’m ready… yesterday. LOL 

Travel Goals

Traveling is something that Jayme and I both really enjoy. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, our traveling has come to a complete halt. 

Goal: Go to MA to visit family 

We bought tickets to go for Easter to visit my family, but we had to cancel. It was a hard decision to make but we knew that safety was more important. Living 1200 miles from my family and closest friends is hard, I used to visit 2-3 times a year, now I’m lucky if we go once a year, sometimes it’s even longer than that. 

As soon as it’s safe again we will be flying up to visit my family and hopefully get Jayme some good seafood. Here is a vlog of our last trip where we drove up to Maine and had a blast!

Goal: Trip to Waco, TX 

Last year I won airline tickets at work for 2 roundtrip tickets anywhere in the continental US. We decided to use them to go to Waco, TX with my in-laws. My mother in law and I are huge fans of Chip and Joanna. We were sooooo excited to go. Right now that doesn’t look like it will be happening either.

Goal: Trip to Japan

Before having kids we wanted to have one last BIG vacation. The plan was to go to Japan but due to Covid that has been canceled. Unfortunately, it’s just not safe for us to travel and we feel that we also wouldn’t get the full experience if we did go now because a lot of places are still closed. 

Health Goals

Goal: Get down to goal weight

I am currently 20 pounds above my goal weight. I was doing really well and only 7 pounds away but then quarantine hit and I started baking random desserts and eating all of the carbs. I have always struggled with emotional eating and these past few months have been no different. 

Low carb/keto eating has done well for me, I always feel my best when I cut out sugar and carbs so I am back on it. 

Goal: 10-minute mile

Now that my eating is back under control, I need to start getting the activity in. I want to start walk/jogging at least 1 mile every day and work it down to a 10-minute mile. I go on a couple of short walks around the block every day but they are a casual 16-minute mile pace. 

Business Goals

Goal: 50,000 Subscribers on YouTube

I started the year out with 30,000 subscribers. It took me almost 4 years to build up those subscribers so adding 20,000 was a big goal! I am currently at 36,000 subscribers so I am not growing as fast as I would like but I am still putting out solid quality content and staying consistent. 

Goal: 8-12 videos a month 

My goal for 2020 was to put out a consistent 8-12 videos a month which would equal out to 2-3 videos per week. I have shifted my goal to now put out 4-8 videos a month but doing a blog post with almost every video I put out (like the video with this blog post, click here to watch), as well as 3-4 additional blog posts on topics like my monthly income report or topics like investing vs paying off debt. 

The typical video takes 8-10 hours for me to produce from start to finish, which includes research on the topic, SEO strategies with Tubebuddy, scripting, filming, editing, uploading, tags, writing the description, writing the blog post and promotion. 

Goal: 15 interviews 

This may sound weird but it was a goal of mine to be featured in 15 different places, I want to work on getting my name out there! This would include, podcast interviews, youtube interviews, and media features. 

We are halfway through the year and I have already been in 10 features, I believe I will hit this goal no problem! Click here to check out all of my features, some of my favorites so far have been:

• CBS Evening News

• The Marriage Kids And Money podcast: How Living on 50% of Our Income Helped Us Reach Financial Freedom

• Money Under 30: “You Got This”: Female Entrepreneurs on How to Make it in Business

• Winning To Wealth: HOW BUDGETING HELPED THIS COUPLE SAVE HALF THEIR INCOME just to name a few!

Goal: Launch a course

This goal has been on my list for over 2 years now and I was so afraid to actually do it. After being in quarantine for a month I decided enough was enough and I set a deadline to launch July 1st and I did! 

I launched my first (of many) courses, How To Save Money On Groceries teaching simple ways to save a ton of money on your grocery bill. 

I’ve had over 10 students go through the course so far and on average they have each saved $100 off their grocery bill in ONE MONTH, that’s $1,200 of savings a year! 

Goal: New video hit 150k views 

I have never had a video go “viral” of any sort. I think it would be so cool to have one of my videos get picked up in the YouTube algorithm and hit 150,000 views. It hasn’t happened yet but I know it will one of these days! 

Goal: Weekly newsletter

Staying connected with you is so important to me, one of my favorite ways of doing that is a weekly newsletter. Each week I send out a newsletter with money tips, personal stories, deals I’ve found, and business updates. Click here to sign up! 

Goal: $50,000 in business income

Last year through Freedom In A Budget I brought in $15,000 in revenue. Over the past 4 years, I have doubled my income each year. I decided this year, I didn’t want to double it but I wanted to make a BIG goal of $50,000. 

We are halfway through the year and I have brought in $10,000 of income. It is not where it should be at this time of the year but the year is NOT over! 

Check out my video on how I made $10k online and you will get a full breakdown of my revenue. I am very transparent with how much I make on YouTube and in my business. 

For a deeper dive into all of these goals, check out my video on YouTube!