Thriftism's New Year's Goals 2018

Happy 2018!! Another new year is here and with that comes a clean slate for setting goals once again. If you aren't familiar with our goal series, be sure to check out our posts:

New Year, New You: Swap Resolutions for Goals Part 1 - Importance of Goals
New Year, New You: Swap Resolutions for Goals Part 2 - How to Set Goals
New Year, New You: Swap Resolutions for Goals Part 3 - Achieving Your Goals

2017 was an amazing here and we did fairly well with our goals, but we are stepping up our game in 2018 with more detailed goals. With the more detailed goals comes more goals since we broke them down further. We also categorized our goals this year (see why at the bottom of the post). So without further ado- Happy New Year and here are our 2018 goals!

Financial Goals

• Gain employment (Race)
• Race was laid off early in December. While this put a few of our financial goals on hold for the time being, it also cemented our confidence in the Thriftism lifestyle. We didn't panic upon hearing the news and are still able to continue in a similar standard of living. Talk about motivation to continue along this path! There are already several leads, but he will hopefully be employed long before unemployment benefits run out (even though we didn't put those benefits in our budget).
• Save 50% of our income
• As stated previously, this goal will be on hold temporarily until we have two incomes again. Since we were able to prove that we can survive on one income, we are going to aim to save all of Race's income once he is employed. We are also going to say that "savings" includes both our FIRE fund and paying down the mortgage.
• Increase passive dividend income by 25%
• Right now our passive income is not enough to live on (or even close to my salary), not to mention at some point we may want to increase our standard of living. For this reason, we are trying to increase our passive income to give us more freedom. While this freedom may not mean retirement to us, it will mean freedom to choose fulfilling careers and freedom to take opportunities (such as travel) which may present themselves.
• Increase net worth by ~14%
• This goal goes hand in hand with the our savings goal. We are going to use the 2nd income to increase savings and pay down debts with a goal of increasing our net worth by 14%. We came up with 14% as the achievable goal based on our incomes.
• Earn $2,000 tutoring
• While not making a killing with tutoring, this would be able to cover our trip to Mexico and not dip into our savings or the 2nd income in our household. Tutoring has been an easier way to increase income as the hours are flexible and I am often able to work from home. For anyone else interested in a little side income, here is a list of where I get my students from:
• Varsity Tutors- Provides several opportunities daily. You must pass a short (~5min) qualification test in order to tutor preferred subjects. Pays less than finding students on your own, but there is no work on your end to gain students. If you use the link above to join, you will earn an extra $40 for signing up!
• Take Lessons - Allows you to post your profile. Students will contact you if they are interested. Much fewer opportunities than Varsity Tutors, however, you are able to set the amount your students will pay. You will get a higher percentage of that amount based on repeat customers.
• University Tutor - Allows you to post a profile. Interested students will contact you. While fewer opportunities than Varsity Tutors, the income potential is much higher here. You pay no fees to list and pay no third party, meaning you get to keep everything that you charge.
• Rolland Tutoring YouTube
• Rolland Tutoring Blog, Facebook, and Twitter
• Earn $100 on YouTube/Blogging
• We are going to have to push our more content and get many more views to increase our income here. Right now we are around $60 from adsense income. This might not seem like a very high goal, but any passive income is a step in the right direction for us. This is also a starter goal with hopes of increasing this in future years. This could also fall under a business goal.
• Sell $150 worth of Random Lily soaps
• We starting making and selling our own soaps a few years ago and even gave out handmade soap favors at our wedding. This has taken a backseat to our other ventures, but after recent inquiries, we are going to try to get the small side business up and running again. Also a business goal.
• Stay within the budget
• This seems like an obvious one since usually you make a budge to follow, but it can be harder than anticipated sometimes. To meet our savings and net worth goals, we need to stick to our planned budget. We will be sharing our monthly budgets with you to show that you can live a very fulfilling life on a tight budget without stress. The main point of this goal is to remind us that it's okay to suggest an alternative if our friends want to eat at a super fancy (expensive) restaurant or that we are not yet at the point in our lives where we can travel without any consideration to expense (we do still travel a lot, but try to plan ahead to get deals).

Business Goals

• Post 150+ videos to Thriftism YouTube channel
• We are aiming to be more consistent with publishing videos this year. This equates to about 3 videos per week. This will be a major increase over 2017, but we are also planning to post more unedited and unrehearsed videos for a more realistic view of our lifestyle.
• Post 52+ blog posts
• While this is a lower goal than last year, we hope this goal is much more achievable. By only posting around once a week, we will have more time to put together quality posts for our followers.
• Reach 200 YouTube subscribers
• 200 subscribers will still mean we are pretty small time as far as YouTube channels go, it will be double what we finished with in 2017. By posting more regularly, we hope to attract more followers.
• Grow Twitter to 1,000 followers
• Like the YouTube goal, our Twitter follower goals would double where we ended in 2017. By growing our followers, we will be able to reach and help more people become financial stable and able to do things that mean the most to them without finances holding them back.
• Write London Guide Book
• This goal is a carryover from 2017. I had the template and began writing. After I lost my flash drive last year, it ended up on a different hard drive and I never took the time to continue working on it. This year, I plan to add travel information, a sample itinerary from our trip, and our own pictures. This will be part of our Thrifty Traveler series. We plan to make it available on Amazon kindle later this year.
• Write Munich Guide Book
• Since we visited Germany last fall, it seemed fitting to also put together a guide book for one of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany. This again will feature our trip pictures, a sample itinerary, and tips for Thrifty Travels in Munich.
• Begin ThriftyFit Series on YouTube
• We already have playlists devoted to DIY, crafts, cooking, traveling, and gardening. We are missing a huge component of many people's lives. Getting fit can seem very expensive - gym memberships, equipment, classes. We plan to expand our channel to include health and exercise tips, free workouts and other ideas to get ThriftyFit.
• Create math practice workbook
• Since I have been tutoring more and more lately, I've noticed there are not a lot of options available for practice worksheets. I have also been creating plenty of practice problems for students. It also seems fitting for Rolland Tutoring to begin producing worksheets and workbooks.
• Post 52+ videos to Rolland Tutoring YouTube channel
• I plan to begin regularly publishing practice problem videos and instructional videos to help students this year in a wide array of subjects.
• Post 52+ videos to Reviews with the Rollands YouTube channel
• In 2017, we began reviewing places that we were staying, restaurants, and products we used. This is a newer YouTube channel that we plan to continue contributing too as we travel and try new things.

Fitness Goals

• Lose 10 pounds by May 1, 2018
• This was a goal for last year that was not accomplished. We are setting a shorter time frame in hopes of staying better focused. We will pair this with our other fitness goals to have better progress towards weight loss. 
• Lose an additional 5-10 pounds by December 1, 2018
• We will re-evaluate after the May 1 goal to determine what number seems fitting.
• Complete 1 - 30 day workout challenge
• We have often done a week or two of a 30 day challenge, but have struggled to follow through to completion. While we may still not be able to complete each day consequentially due to travel schedules and other engagements, we still aim to complete each day of the challenge. We are working on a yoga challenge now, but we may look at a different challenge later to accomplish this goal too.
• Workout 4x/week
• In order to meet our weight loss goals, we need to workout regularly. Workouts can include yoga and walking, but we will try to more strenuous workouts as well.

Mental Goals

• Read 6 self-improvement books
• Our reading goal is a bit different from last year where we specified 12 books in general. This year we decided that we should devote at least half of our reading to self improvement, whether that be investing, leadership or health books.
• Read 6 additional general books
• Our other 6 books can be just for fun books. Reading is still beneficial even if the books don't seem to serve a particular purpose.  
• Attend church 1/month
• We have struggled to make time for church in the past and rather than setting a goal of every week, which we'd be likely to fail at quite quickly, we decided once a month should be doable. We have been traveling many weekends to visit family making it more difficult to meet the weekly goal.
• Complete 2 Coursera courses
• Last year I completed six courses, but decided to reduce that quite a bit this year in order to leave time for the additional goals we have set. No classes have been determined yet, but there are plenty to choose from. Taking classes is a fun way for us to keep our minds sharp and force us to keep using critical thinking.
• Master Spanish on Duolingo (all gold bars) - Ashley
• I got somewhat close to this goal last year with only 20 skills remaining and 56% fluency. This year I want to finish off the skills and continue practicing regularly to be more comfortable using Spanish when we travel to Mexico or hopefully back to Spain one year.
• Complete Duolingo or book Spanish lesson 3x/week - Race
• Learning Spanish has been a goal for sometime, but I have made time for it previously. By setting a number of lessons each week, learning will seem less daunting. Learning Spanish will also help with our annual trips to Mexico and eventually a trip back to Spain.

Fun, Travel, Social, Relationship, House, Hobby Goals

• Host 2 game nights
• In order to stay on budget and promote a more social atmosphere, we will host two games nights this year. Hosting a game night allows us to chat more freely with friends than if we meet at a louder bar and also keeps drink costs down for everyone!
• Attend 1 monthly social outing
• While going out is more expensive, it is important to find balance in all things. In order to be more social this year, we plan to attend at least one social outing each month. This can be sporting events, dining with friends, or other social activities.
• Visit family 1 time each month
• We have quite a few different families on both sides to visit and while we won't be able to make it to each one everyone month, our goal is to visit a least one family member every month.
• Travel to Mexico
• This is an annual goal for us. We love traveling to Mexico and it happens to be very affordable making it easy to achieve each year. Barring an act of God, we will be going in two short weeks from now since we booked this one last fall.
• Complete one additional trip - Location TBD
• Our goal is to take two trips every year. This year, we can't plan too far ahead with the second trip as we are waiting on Race's job outlook. He may not have enough PTO to take a longer or more exotic vacation. If that is the case, we will plan a shorter trip within the states- maybe a long weekend to meet our goal.
• Create and purchase England trip photo book
• We took the England trip back in 2016 and uploaded all our photos to a website, but didn't make time last year to create and order the photo book. We will make one this year.
• Create and purchase Germany trip photo book
• To stay on top of trip documentation, we will also be making a Germany travel book this year as well. Lots of photos to share!
• Handmade Christmas - at least 75% of gifts given are hand made
• Every year we think it would be fun to make handmade gifts, but have never started early enough in the year. In 2018, we will plan ahead and make at least 75% of the gifts, leaving some wiggle room for the time constraints or hard to craft for.
• Make wax melts
• We already make soap and this year we will branch out to make wax melts as well. This may be something we can include in our handmade Christmas next year.
• Make candles from kit received for Christmas
• We got this kit last year and want to finally make time to create the candles.
• Can 40 quarts of green beans and 100 quarts of tomatoes
• Last year we canned quite a bit of vegetables.-slightly less than our goal for this year. This is a great way to keep the food budget low and enjoy fresh flavor all year round.
• Complete 1 house project (finish basement, reside the house, reshingle the roof)
• All three projects listed are fairly major. For this reason we will only aim to complete one of them this year.
• Install basement windows
• We already have the windows in the garage. We will need to install them this spring/summer.

Contribution Goals

• Volunteer 10 nights/ month max 
• I (Ashley) currently volunteer through multiple organizations and easily have 10 evenings a month that I am volunteering. While I thoroughly enjoy this, it has prevented me from focusing my energy on some of my goals in the past and can sometimes lead to stress overload. I will continue to volunteer, but will actually work to limit myself this year to lead a more well-rounded and balanced life.
• Race will continue to volunteer periodically at engineering events and will be open to volunteering as events arise, but will also ensure balance throughout each month.

This year we formatted our goals a bit differently. We modeled our goals after the project life mastery goals because hey, if he is earning over $2,000,000/year it is worth a try to model that lifestyle.

We would still love to hear any goals you have for this new year. If you would like to be held accountable for your actions or just want to share your thoughts for the year, feel free to share. You can update your progress with us every month too!