End of Year 2018 Goals Report

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Happy New Year! We missed last month, but we are back will the final update on our 2018 goals. Some have fallen short and some have surpassed expectations.  How did you do on your 2018 goals?





Financial Goals

  • Gain Employment (Race) ☑

    • Done - Race started working in February.

  • Save 50% of our income☑

    • We rocked this goal. It did bounce around quite a bit throughout the year, but we finished much higher than we planned with a total savings rate of 84% for the year! We focused the most on this goal to set us up financially to be better prepared for future years and to focus on our other goals as well. 

  • Increase passive dividend income by 25%

    • We didn't quite make this one. As of December 31, we increased our dividends by 23%. This wasn't quite where we wanted it to be, but still a substantial increase. The main culprit behind us missing this number was due to diverting investment savings contributions towards paying down the mortgage instead. In the long run, we felt having a paid for house would be more secure than having increased income in the near term. 



  • Increase net worth by 14%☑

    • We finished the year with a whopping 23.6% increase. We are very excited about how well we did on this goal as the stock market was not doing well at the close of the year. This shows how much those extra payments on the house added up. 

  • Earn $2,000 Tutoring ☑

    • DONE! I completed this goal in May and almost doubled it since. It has shown me that tutoring is a viable business ideal that I may pursue further in the future. 

  • Earn $15 on YouTube/Blogging ☑ -- Please Subscribe

    • This was switched from the higher $100 goal due YouTube changing monetization policies. So far this year we earn $15. 

  • Sell $150 of Random Lily Soap☑

    • We did this early in the year by supplying soaps to not one, but two bridal showers. For one we made the heart shaped soaps featured in the video below, but for the other we used our standard soaps. While we didn't pursue many further sales, this was a great way to quickly achieve this goal. 


Business Goals

  • Post 150+ videos to Thriftism Channel

    • We posted 98 videos in total on the Thriftism YouTube Channel. This definitely was lower than our goal. Thank you if you've had patience with the channel and I will continue trying to post on a more regular schedule -- having a post calendar may even be one of my 2019 goals. 😊 Here are a few of the last videos published that helped capture our Italy vacation. 





  • Post 52+ Blog Posts

    • We wrote 40 posts in 2018. Again, this was a big disappointment from our original goal. The blog definitely needs more energy and time devotion going forward. 


  • Remonetize YouTube

    • We are at almost 84% of subscribers needed and over 100% of watch time needed. Every month we are getting closer. If you haven't already, consider subscribing. We greatly appreciate your support! While we didn't remonetize last year, we will continue pushing for that goal in 2019. 


  • Grow Twitter to 1,000 Followers☑

    • As of December 31, we had 1,274 followers. 


  • Write London Guide Book 

    • No Progress

  • Write Munich Guide Book

    • No Progress

  • Begin ThriftyFit Series

    • No Progress

  • Create Math Practice Workbook

    • No Progress.


  • Post 52+ videos to Rolland Tutoring Channel

    • 0 posts this month.  Only 11 Posts in 2018. This goal has definitely fallen behind. I may try to increase video posts in the future, but have been focused primarily on growing our main YouTube channel and growing the Facebook page for Rolland Tutoring as a better way to gain clients. 

Fitness Goals

  • Lose 10 pounds by December 31, 2018

    • We didn't make our goal of losing any weight. We may actually have gained weight... 😓 Oh well, guess that means we get to have a fresh start in 2019 and try again. 

  • Complete 1 - 30 days challenge ☑


    • This was an amazing 30 day challenge and great for beginners. None of the workouts/practices are too long (typically 20-25 minutes). Even if you aren't looking to work out, this was a great stress reliever. It never felt like a workout, but definitely increased our strength and flexibility in the month we did this. We will be following her for another challenge either later this year or beginning of next year. 


  • Workout 4x/week ☑

    • We walked 10-15 miles every day while on vacation and now that we're home working out has become more regular. I've branched out into running, yoga, and trying out some magazine workouts in addition to the short workouts on my phone. 

Mental Goals

  • Read 6 self-improvement books

    • Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
    • Life & Debt - Leslie Tayne


  • Read 6 additional books

      • Didn't quite make it on this one. I was one book short.  Talk about disappointing. I did read a lot of magazines, but since that wasn't a goal, I can't really count that reading. 
    • The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve
    • How to Walk Away - Katherine Center
      • Check out our full book review here! 
    • Inferno - Dan Brown (75%)
    • The Dream Daughter - Diane Chamberlain
      • Check out our full book review here! 
    • Sundays at Tiffany's - James Patterson

  • Attend church 1/month

    • We only made it about half of the time or 6-7 months. That leaves plenty of room for improvement.

  • Complete 2 coursera courses

    • Finished  Financial Markets on Coursera. 
    • I didn't end up starting another course this year, but would like to continue learning and looking at courses in the future. 

  • Master Spanish in Duolingo (all gold bars)- Ashley ☑

    • I am working on earning crowns now in the new system they have developed, but haven't made too much progress yet. I have been starting to do lessons in Italian to be better prepared for our upcoming trip. 

  • Complete Duolingo or book Spanish lessons 3x/week - Race

    • No Progress.

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

  • Host 2 game nights

    • We hosted one game night in April, but never quite made it to having another one. 

  • Attend 1 monthly social outing☑

    • The last two months of the year stayed very hectic. We attended a wedding before heading to Italy for nearly three weeks. Once we got back, we got together with friends at a party and again for dinner before heading to visit various family for Christmas. 

  • Visit family 1 time each month ☑

    • We visited my Grandma before heading out on our trip and then visiting lots of both of our families for our Christmas marathon. We had a week long trek to try to see everyone along the way.

  • Travel to Mexico ☑



  • Complete one additional trip☑

    • We went to Italy for almost three weeks at the end of November and beginning of December, making stops in Pisa, San Miniato, Venice, Florence, Pompei, Sorrento, and Rome. Check out our YouTube channel for the daily vlogs from the trip and to see the sites. 



  • Create and purchase England trip photo book ☑

  • Create and purchase Germany trip photo book ☑

  • Handmade Christmas - at least 75% of gifts given are handmade.

    • I was able to make slippers for my niece. We also baked cookies for a few people,but didn't come anywhere close to the 75% goal. 

  • Make wax melts

    • Have started looking at what I need to order. I missed the 20% off sale and am waiting for the next big sale. That means I missed making these this year.

  • Make candles from kit received for Christmas

    • No Progress.

  • Can 40 quarts of green beans and 100 quarts of tomatoes

    • We canned 20 quarts of green beans and 50 quarts of tomatoes. Our goal may have been a bit high for what we will be able to accomplish this year. We have also started boiling down tomatoes for a more ready to use canned product versus canning whole tomatoes last year. Our frost came a month early this year so we didn't meet our goals, but still got a lot canned. We still have stocked up quite a bit for the coming winter. 

  • Complete one house project (finish basement, re-side house, re-shingle roof)

    • House has been sided! We weren't able to get to the landscaping this year, but the siding is up and painted. 

  • Install basement windows ☑

    • Completed in May!

Contribution Goals 

  • Volunteer 10 nights/month max

    • I cut back on volunteering this year, but still have averaged 3-4 nights per month. This will likely pick up going forward. I did make the decision not to be a uCodeGirl Mentor this year as last year was overly hectic for me. 

Final Thoughts...

We were gone most of the last two months of the year making it difficult to follow up on several of the goals. We were able to accomplish roughly half of our goals which was still great given how many goals we had, but we did fall short on quite a few as well. This gives us plenty of room to improve next year.

Share your goals with us! Comment below or message us to be held accountable to your goals. If you aren't familiar with our goal series, be sure to check out our posts:

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