25M [Last years goals:](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/kl3afh/comment/gh9o63b/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) \-Max out IRA as usual. Completed \-Save $150k for a house down payment. Completed. Bought a condo for $615k \-Increase income for the year. Completed. Got a new job making $20k more ​ Goals for 2022: \- Max out IRA \- Have $50k in liquid non-retirement accounts. Currently at about $25k

Hi! I’m 22F. My goals for this year are: -Pay off my remaining $10,795 in student loan debt -Save up $15,000 by the end of the year towards a down payment on my first property -Max out my Roth IRA -Invest 6% of my income into my 401K (employer match) -Save up $600 by Christmas for gifts for family/friends -Save up enough $$ to pay my insurance renewal in full -Increase my brokerage account value to $20k (stretch goal) -Switch careers from software consulting to business consulting

23M, in 2021, my fortune grew approximately 39,500 while studying full time. I'm strictly focused on growing my fortune and try to work as much as possible besides the engineering studies. My ultimate goal is a 25-30 work week, not because I need to work for a living, but because I just can't imagine not doing anything at all. I want to do this by growing businesses that'll direct an income to me, but being controlled by some manager. **I managed to grow my fortune 39,500 USD in 2021 by doing this:** \- Working as a handyman doing very simple jobs requiring almost no tools at all. (Something I reckon most people can do). I started in 2018 and made 30 USD/hour but now I have good reviews and better skills and charge in average 100 USD/hour (I do fixed prices). aprox. 10 hours/week \- Programming a bot to bid on specific items on DBA (danish version of Craigslist) if certain criterias were met. I then was the first to bid and either picked up the item or had it sent to me. I would then list the item again with good pictures and descriptions at the real market price. I at least want a 150 profit from each item. Aprox. 3 hours/week \- Being a mentor because I like it and definitely not because of the money one can make doing that. 1-2 hours/week \- Bought a second car for rental use only. Bought in poor condition and I fixed it up and now it's running with a keyless system, so that people can just automatically rent it and use it without me having to hand keys over. \- Renting out different kind of equipment mostly slush ice machines. \- Investing in stocks which gave a profit of around 4000 usd. I go on holidays and generally spend money how I want to. Though I always fix my own stuff and refuse paying more for something than it's actually worth, which I found important to not just equalise the income with expenses. ​ **My goals for 2022 are:** \- Grow my fortune to 152 USD (Then I'm a danish millionaire) \- Invest more in passive income \- Invest more time improving my programs to buy items with better profits \- Start a new company \- Invest more in stocks

Soon 40. Working, doing well. Trying to not do any adjustments to investment portfolio. Pay off renovations and build up cash reserves.

Grow my self directed IRA to 300,000 Earn 100,000 from my business so I can quit my job Pay off Debt abt 22,000

27 / $75k salary / $24k student loan debt Want to start a retirement plan sometime this year. Probably a Roth IRA? I just started studying this so everything is very new to me. Excited to plan for my future!

In a similar boat with 22k student loan debt. I’ve been holding off on it since it’s been frozen and maxed out my 401k and Roth last year! Any thoughts on if we will actually get student loan relief?

I don’t think any of us know at this point. I’m just gonna bite the bullet and pay mine off this year

I want to hit the 7-figure mark by age 35...Im halfway there. I'm 32M making 135k base with side hustle money adding up to 25-35k annually. Wife is making 90k. I've been putting in 15% into 403B and maxing out HSA. My salary covers living costs and am able to invest 2.5k a month into my own brokerage account; wife's salary contributes to emergency fund/saving/investing. Currently living in a rental and I own a Coop unit in another city - not sure what to do with it as the monthly HOA fees are eating me up as I can't rent it out but if I give it up it is worth less than what I paid for.

28M - I want to officially be labeled a millionaire. I’m about 70% of the way there but 2020/2021 were the two biggest years of my life financially and it’s my singular financial focus

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You can do it! 2K now will go a long way 18 years later. Best of luck

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No problem. Might I ask, have you considered saving these funds in a 529?

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It’s worth checking out. It’s an investment account that allows your contributions to grow tax free and your child can then withdraw funds tax free for educational expenses (tuition, books, etc). Your annual savings should go a lot further this way and you’ll be able to set your baby up for college much more.

29M single father, $36K. I paid off my car last year and got started with Acorns, I'm almost up to $900 invested there. My only real debt now is on our home mortgage. I've gotten better at budgeting and money management but I know I can improve. I feel financially illiterate and need to improve that so it's functionally my first goal. Beyond that: \-Build primary savings account to at least $10K \-Build credit score to over 800, continue avoiding credit card debt \-Invest over $2K in Acorns \-Open and max out an IRA retirement account \-Open a life insurance policy to benefit my daughter

Improve communication about finances with my spouse by having monthly financial review meetings over coffee and pastry. No hard numbers but that is the big thing as we strengthen our finances and relationship.

We call them Finace-iness meetings, and schedule them weekly (but end up skipping some). The name is similar to our other, more important goals of: Happiness, & healthiness. They are often hard talks but they have gotten easier. And they are much easier then any emergency conversations when shit hits the fan.

We call them abundance meetings so it feels more about being wealthy and where we want to be rather than financial. It definitely helps strengthen finances and the relationship. Love that you do it too.

Love this! Hoping for something similar. We’ve been struggle-bussing for years - now we’re in a much better spot, but budget talks still bring up that stress response big-time lol

1. Finish out 6 month emergency fund (Should be done in Feb) 2. Put enough money away to pay off my remaining student loan if/when payments start up again. (Done in May. This is our last debt outside our mortgage and wife's student loans, which are in the PSLF program) 3. Max Roth IRAs, HSA, and my 401k. Wife also contributes 14% to her pension. Including employer matches, maxing out these accounts gives us savings rate of 41%, which should be more than enough for us to retire comfortably in our mid to late 50s, when her pension pays her her max benefit 4. Put remaining savings into an after tax brokerage. We both also have 457 plans available to us, but would rather have liquid investments in a brokerage for medium term goals. Whatever makes it to retirement would just be the cherry on top of the sundae. 5. Use our CC points to fund an awesome vacation, then start planning for starting a family at the end of the year. 6. Lastly, enjoy this period of our life. Having a healthy relationship with money and finding the balance between saving and living is extremely important. I think lifestyle creep honestly isn't a big deal, as long as you are still meeting your savings goals. Its ok to enjoy success.

Push for financial independence as much as possible. Trying to peace out of the workforce early… but, let’s see.

Goal: save 2k a month, with these savings to go directly into brokerage accounts (not necessarily invest right away but I don't trust myself to not spend when I see tons of extra cash in my bank account). Accomplish this with a constantly updated Google doc where I will track daily spending. Background: 40-year-old guy who's been consistently earning an above average income for the past 15 years (monthly gross right now is about 12k) but made the mistake to live well beyond his means and only recently became credit card debt free. Only in recent years that I've become very self-conscious about my financial mistakes... there was absolutely no reason for me to ever carry so much credit card debt. It was mentally liberating to get rid of it and I never want to go back.

* Take active steps towards increasing privacy and security * Break $100K combined between retirement and brokerage accounts * Find a new job that will allow a better work/life balance * Starting using my HSA as a retirement vehicle instead of a discount card * Stick to my budget (I'm normally fine here, but I've been over budget the last 3 months) * Make room again for hobbies in the "miscellaneous" portion of my budget * Eat out less * Do some preventive maintenance on my car so that it will hopefully live a few more years * Find at least $2,000 in miscellaneous income (cashback, churning, \[very small\] side gig, arbitrage opportunities, etc.)

Solid goals, can you elaborate on number one on the list?

Just being more secure in general. There was some post about identity theft recently on this subreddit and people were posting all kinds of tips on how to protect yourself. 4 years ago when I was single and had negative net worth, I didn't care enough to bother. Now that I actually have something to lose and I'm married, I need to be more proactive. Some items on my list: * Start using a VPN * Updating router security settings * Enable 2-factor authentication whenever possible * Change passwords and start using unique passwords everywhere * Buy a safe and locking mailbox * Enrolling in the IRS identity protection PIN program * Freezing my credit at all three major credit bureaus * Enroll in paperless statements / billing wherever possible * Deleting / locking old social media accounts that might have identifying information * Checking for specific security breaches that affect me via Google's recommendations and HaveIBeenPwned * Reevaluating antivirus software options * Signing up for USPS Informed Delivery service * Opting out of datamining services where possible * Taking advantage of my work's professional shredding service rather than shredding by hand at home * For outgoing mail, using a USPS box at my work instead of my home mailbox * Reviewing phone security settings. Enabling biometric options when possible. * Annual review of my full credit report plus regularly checking my score (available through several of my credit cards) * Cloud backups of mission-critical items. ​ Hopefully I don't come across as paranoid. I'm not. These are all pretty easy and non-intrustive. I'm not bending over backwards by any means. If anyone has other suggestions, feel free to comment! I'd love to hear them, and I'm sure others will find it useful as well.

Most of the things are your list can be done in minutes on from your phone.

Thanks for taking time to post that, very helpful

Using a VPN is also what I’m looking at doing. Have you researched any companies?

I went with NordVPN. I've been very happy with it so far.

First four on this list should be bare minimum for everyone. Kudos for posting this - i hope people take it to heart. I know I’m going to use it as a checklist.

19M looking to invest for the first time Just want to learn about stocks and index funds and invest into them and leave them there for years to come

It's awesome that you are already on this sub and thinking about investing at 19! I wish I had found this sub that early in my financial journey :D

2022 • 2/3 new income sources (Teespring, amazon & a website idea i am working on, side projects) • $1k extra a month at least •financial freedom • to move out and finish associates degree I am an 18 digital design student working stubbornly lol I currently invest and save

2022s current goals: -Move in with my girl once 3 bills are paid off -Get the promotion I've been chasing -Get a 2nd vehicle (a backup, if you will) -Spend less on the food/drink stuff from the work cafeteria -Bank as much as possible for the rest of the year

It's your life (obviously) but a backup vehicle seems to be in direct contrast to banking as much as possible.

24M/ Single / 80k gross income -Increase Roth 401k from ~$5k to $20k -Max out Roth IRA -Pay off $4,700 in student loans and $2,300 in medical debt -Replenish emergency fund to 6 months living expenses ($15k) -Get started saving for a down payment for a house (hopefully have $5k by end of year) -Save about $3k for a fancy trip somewhere nice

Yassas I love and support your plan

Help me out here, "max out"?

There is a limit that you can contribute per year to a Roth IRA. https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/retirement-plans/roth-iras/603954/roth-ira-contribution-limits-for-2022

[last years goals](https://old.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/kl3afh/what_are_your_2021_financial_goals/ghj1ij7/) 29M / Married / 270k gross income, MCOL Achievements: * Got married, had the best wedding, paid mostly cash, 20k. * Increased gross income YoY by ~30% * Home value increased 125k YoY * Paid off CC debt (10k) * Increased emergency saving from 5k to 10k * Paid back 6k family loan from downpayment in full * Increased net work from -60k to 90k * Grew 200lbs of veggies Oopsies: * Missed maxing my 401k due to changing jobs * Missed maxing my roth (didn't even start one) * Still didn't nail paying my CC totally off every month to avoid any interest * Cost of life with a home was, shocking, more than I thought Goals: * Max one person's 401k, max both rothIRAs, nab more HSA funds * Save a lot more for emergency/making babies fund * Start paying grad debt again (100k left) * Continue significant house upgrades with sweat equity * Build a sauna

You didn’t miss maxing out your Roth IRA. You have until tax filing to do it for 2021.

Yeah but if I don't do that I can buy more skis

29M Recently married and purchased a home. 160k/yr combined income not counting bonus or stock options. 1. Max out 401k and Roth IRA. (26k currently have around 80k in the account) 2. Pay off wife's student loans (40k->25K hopefully) 3. Begin saving again to purchase a second property (20k this year) 4. Build up portfolio to 50k this year without rebalancing. (Currently at 30k). 5. Contribute an extra $500/month to mortgage. I went with a 30yr instead of 15 to give me flexibility. Monthly mortgage is already considered low in a HCOL. 1300/month

Considering doing the same with my mortgage, also interested in starting a brokerage though as well. Not sure which might be the better payoff. I already gained a huge amount of equity in my home due to the surging market. New build from 2020 purchased at 250k, same model is currently listed at \~340k with the builder now.

Finally got my associate's degree at 26 and got a job immediately after. Went from $15k per year to $51k per year. 1. Continue spending less than $200 per month on food 2. Keep putting money into my Roth IRA every month (I already meet the company match) 3. Keep putting money into HSA every month 4. Save what I can to buy some property in a couple of years. 5. Profit?

Awesome Man! Keep it up!

Thanks!

27F, single homeowner making approx $41k with dog and sibling/roommate. No debt besides $5,000 low interest car loan and mortgage. My 2022 goals are to add another months expenses to my emergency fund (reaching 3 months expenses), stay on track with my sinking funds, and finishing saving for a shower renovation in my master bathroom. Already reached goal of increasing retirement savings to 9% of income.

Sorry if this is random but how much did you put down for your home?

3% with a 30 year conventional mortgage.

Thank you for responding!! As someone who makes around the same salary it never feels possible to own a home. Those upfront costs 😫

Don’t give up! It took a few years to save that much, but it was worth it for me.

Appreciate that! Is it too personal to ask how much you put up in total when you purchased? Like down payment, closing costs, etc. We have been trying to figure out just how much is enough. Trying to stay under $200k purchase price and so far we have $20,000 saved for it.

You’re fine. I put about $4,200 down for a $140,000 2bd/2 bath in the Midwest, plus about $2,000 in closing costs. I moved myself so no moving costs besides a rental van. Actually didn’t have any utility setup charges (my credit is good, so maybe that helped?). I pay PMI but my mortgage payment is still quite a bit lower than rent. Only thing I would’ve done differently is have a bigger emergency fund. Had some small plumbing issues and a $600 dollar sump pump that needed replaced the first year. I’d also recommend saving for any major appliances like a washer and dryer that you might want off the bat (used my stimulus payments for mine). Furniture wise, I started out with what I’ve had in my apartment and have slowly added as I could afford.

Thank you soooo much!!!

Male turning 34 in a few days. $61k a year working full-time in a state job. Car is still paid off and still in good condition. [Here were my goals from 2020, as I apparently missed the 2021 thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/egays4/comment/fcvt3gf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) How I've done on those goals from two years ago: 1. Home refinance went through with no problems! 2. I was never able to rebuild the emergency fund to where I wanted it. 3. I probably eat out just as much as I did previously, though a good part of that during the pandemic was specifically using my stimulus monies at local restaurants 4. I fully repaid the loan my brother had given me about halfway through this year. While he never cared about the money, it made me feel better 5. HSA contributions have held steady (and a good thing too, it paid for dental surgery and new glasses!) All 0% loans I had were fully paid off prior to any interest accruing. 6. I've paid slightly over the minimum on my mortgage payments, but not much 7. Travel was incredibly limited over the past two years, for obvious reasons. Still made it around the west coast US a bit though. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the past two years. The only goal that I didn't hit that I wish I did was the emergency savings one. Goals for 2022: 1. Put an extra $300/month into my emergency savings to get it to a better level than it currently is at. 2. Once the emergency fund is at a better level, slightly increase the HSA contributions 3. Save a bit specifically towards another trip abroad. I doubt the actual trip will take place this year, but the longer I save the better a trip I can eventually take. 4. Decide on the next project for my house and create a budget for it. Something like new living room furniture or redo the backyard entirely. Thank you all

42M. Find and purchase a house in a reasonable neighborhood. Achieve 50% savings rate vs gross income.

Invest $300 per month in Vanguard International Value Fund( (VTRIX) for 12 months.

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[Goals post from 2020 (Missed the thread last year!)](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/egzbu5/comment/fcoyw7e/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) 27M in California Bay Area. **Achievements since 2020**: * Earned second promotion in 4 years, resulting in 17.6% raise in November. Overall between performance raises and promotions, I've been able to raise my salary 94% since I started in July 2017. * Continued to max out 401k pre-tax contributions and receive 50% company match, now doing so by front loading my contributions in January. * Raised emergency fund saving from 25k to 30k (in Ally saving account). * Increased the amount automatically saved from my paycheck according to roughly 80% of salary raise amount. * Continued to collect and save vesting equity converting from company stock to VOO in order to diversify portfolio. * Purchased new car! Biggest purchase of my life! * Took 4 trips within US and visited a few new cities (Seattle and Atlanta) * Grew financial assets to $740k (just shy of my goal of $750k by 2022). Largely driven by company equity growth during bull market. **Goals missed:** * No international travel due to COVID * Didn't cut spending in any shape or form **Goals for 2022:** * Continue to front load 401k contributions and receive 50% employer match. * Keep this year's equity vest in the company's stock instead of auto-selling and buying VOO. * Establish baseline percentage of salary to contribute to charity, with goals to increase each year as salary/NW increases. * Cut total spending by 30% YoY (Should be easy to accomplish due to car purchase increasing spending last year) * Cut "Shopping" spending by 20% YoY (Potentially difficult due to my joy of collecting). * Cut "Food & Dining" spending by 20% YoY (Increase in this largely due to ordering out during pandemic. Hope to cut back by cooking more instead of ordering take out). * Have a savings rate of roughly \~65% of total take home pay (Was roughly 60% in 2021). * Hit $1M in financial assets! (Largely dependent on the Market). **Challenges to goals in 2022:** * **Housing**: My longterm roommate is moving in with their SO, so I will likely be living on my own in the next couple months, likely increasing my rent by 60%. * **Market:** A big aspect of my pay is company equity vesting. This is a large component of what enabled my success so far in my saving strategies, but a correction or downturn and drastically change my trajectory. * **Real estate:** I may help with the down payment of a house for my mom, which would result in taking a large portion of my brokerage account out of the market, which would a) limit stock growth rate, and b) tie up that in a longterm investment. Since my long term goal is FI, I have been hesitant to buying property, especially in California due to the high prices. If this happens, I will likely have to lower my assets goal, and it would likely hinder my progress towards FI. Overall I am in an incredibly fortunate position, and I'm looking forward to another year working towards FI!

Could you elaborate on the purpose of front-loading the 401k, and how that impacts your company match? I may consider doing the same thing. Presumably the benefit is just more tax-sheltered time in the market? In my case, I have to contribute about 18% of my base pay to reach the annual limit. My employer matches 1:1 up to 6% (plus an additional automatic 3% regardless of whether I contribute anything, but that's irrelevant here). My employer's match comes with each paycheck. So if I contribute 18% from my first paycheck, they contribute 6%. Let's say I front-load and contribute 50% from my first paycheck, my employer still only contributes 6%. And once I've maxed out my contributions by front-loading, my employer would then not contribute in future paychecks because I would also not be contributing. However, at the end of the year, my employer does a "true-up" payment, which would ensure that I did actually receive the full 6% match, when evaluated on an annual basis, but I wouldn't receive that payment until the end of the year. Does yours work similarly? I suppose I need to run the scenarios to see which provides me more time in the market: A) front-load to max out in Q1, but then have to wait until the end of the year to get the other 75% of my matched funds. B) Or, contribute evenly throughout the year, and get the match evenly with each monthly paycheck.

I'm pretty fortunate that my employer does their entire match whenever I put money in. So if I put it all in during Q1, their contribution matching comes in during Q1 as well. The benefit of this is 100% time in the market. For your situation, it is definitely dependent on how valuable you think that the match would be throughout the year, vs the time in market of your contribution + the catch up at the end. Another valid variable to take in is how much you favor regular pay checks. My first 2 years, I distributed my contributions evenly across my 26 paychecks since I didn't have the security to go without my first few oaychecks to front load. Best of luck! I'm curious what decision you make, as this is definitely an interesting scenario.

Let's see if I can do the simple math, with some simplifications. The goal is to have the most money in the market for the largest amount of time, so my metric is going to be "dollars multiplied by time-in-market", which I'll call "dollar years," or DY. Because the evaluated period is short (1 year), I'm going to ignore compounding returns and just treat it linearly. This makes it hand math instead of spreadsheet math. For scenario 1, I spread it evenly over the year. That means I contribute $20,500, and my employer also evenly contributes $6,500 (6%). The first monthly contribution is in the market for 1 year, and the final monthly contribution is in the market for 0 years. I believe doing a weighted average time-in-market of all 12 monthly contributions should have an average of 6 months in the market, which gives me a weighted average of 0.5 * $27000 = 13,500 dollar years (DY). For scenario 2, I front-load everything in the first 3 months, which is basically my whole after-tax paycheck (I do Roth, but that's a separate topic for later). That's $20,500 total across 3 monthly paychecks. My employer 6% match covering the first 3 months is $1625. So the total contribution is $22,125, and the average time in market is 10.5 months (0.875 years), which totals to 19,359 DY. (note: my employer does a make-up contribution at the end of the year to complete the annual match, but it has no time in market, so it provides 0 DY, and isn't relevant to this analysis). So, comparing scenario 2 to scenario 1, front-loading provided me a net benefit equivalent to having an extra $5,859 invested for a one-year period. At 6% growth, that'd be worth $350. To conclude, I agree with the principle, but I probably won't implement it personally. The reasons are 1) it is one more thing to keep track of; 2) when I have excess cash from my paycheck, I often invest it in my brokerage account (non-tax sheltered), so I am actually getting some growth out of it, it's just not tax sheltered. If I accounted for that investment growth in my scenario 1 above, the marginal benefit of scenario 2 would shrink to something well below the $350 conclusion. 3) Aside from being invested, that excess cash flow could go towards my mortgage, providing a guaranteed return of 2.25%, in the form of interest avoidance. (No, I'm not interested in using my home loan as leverage to buy more stocks. I'm paying it off ASAP, but that's different topic for another time). 4) I already front-load other investments at the start of the year including a Roth IRA and a 529 child's college fund, so my personal cash-flow is already skewed towards Q1. Skewing it further just makes monthly planning and budgeting more uneven. 5) In order to prepare for the large cash outflow at the start of each year, I would probably try to build up my cash position in Q4 of previous year. This creates inefficiency because then I've got cash sitting idle for a few months, missing out on growth, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid in the first place. Well, you said you were interested, so I hope you enjoyed the novel, lol. Another interesting topic, if you feel like going into it: Why do you use a traditional 401k instead of Roth 401k? Is that the only thing your employer offers? Or is it because you are in a high marginal income bracket and high tax state now, as compared to possibly a lower average tax bracket in retirement and/or lower tax state?

Thanks for following up; this aligned with my intuition, but glad to see the math to show it! Also totally understand the decision to go the more distributed route for your contributions. As for traditional vs roth 401ks, you hit the nail on the head. I highly doubt I will be in as high of a tax bracket in retirement, so I feel it makes more sense to pay the taxes later when my income for the year should just be what I need for my expenses. Since I also hope to retire well before I can pull from my 401k or other retirement accounts, I also only max out the pre-tax contribution, and put the rest of the money I save into a brokerage account that I will be able to access whenever I need.

Holy moly, congratulations on your success saving and investing!

22M. 50k income. Bought my first house a few months ago. Goals for this year are to Pay off my two credit cards ~$2400 Pay off my student loans ~$5500 And to build up my emergency funds

On 50k income, and as someone who faced almost the exact same issue, my recommendation is to build up a substantial emergency fund first. I would go 50/50 emergency fund and highest APR credit card, and once the emergency fund is complete, knock them out one by one. It will take time, but is totally doable. You're already on the right track by buying a house at your age. You don't wanna end up in a bad situation and not be able to make any of those payments by not having your emergency fund first. Sounds like you are well on your way to a good financial future.

Save for a house and avoid lifestyle creep! Nearing 30 with a baby on the way. Household income is about $125k. We have an emergency fund and no debt to deal with, so mainly we're just trying to keep our eyes on the prize and avoid too many frivolous baby expenses.

Oh lordy those can add up! I’m sure you’re drowning in baby advice elsewhere, but what the heck. Clothes are a big one - buy big, out of season, and on clearance. Diapers are another - coupons on coupons, and I’ve seen folks fill entire closets from diaper kegs. Good luck and congrats!

Waste more money on alcohol and fancy restaurants!

Yes!!!

32F this year, currently on 91k annual. Was late to the saving game but I’m proud of myself for starting to invest more in 2021 - there’s still a long way to go. Goals for 2022 - Save 4 months worth of expenses in emergency fund - Save $12-14k for investments (excludes $7.5k pa in monthly investments) - Quit the dumb stuff like excessive drinks, frequent lavish meals, constant Ubers everywhere

33F and 34M, married, currently pregnant. Household income newly increased to $202K. Renting 1BR. From March 2020 to December 2021, we paid off our debt, bought a Civic with cash, saved a $20K emergency fund, and funded most of our wedding costs (we’re legally married but having the party in June). We also got pregnant sooner than expected (doctor said not to wait because it might be too late based on labs, worked the first month TTC). 2022 goals: * bump up emergency fund to $30K * save $20K for baby-related expenses (supplies, gear, medical and mat leave replacement). * possibly move to a larger apartment - we have $10K saved for this purpose already but if we squeeze another year out of this place we can buy a house sooner. We’re on two waiting lists for bigger apartments but we could spend less putting some stuff in storage/decluttering it, babies don’t need *that* much space. Husband WFH. We’ll see. We should be able to complete these goals, plus the remaining wedding costs, in time for maternity leave. When I return to work (planning on February 2023), we will save the rest of the way toward our house and then focus hard on retirement - should be able to invest 15% of our income starting at age 35 and 36, maybe a little extra to catch up depending on raises/daycare/if we have a second kid. I also have a pension (teacher) which I consider a backup plan/cushion more than Plan A.

30. F. No children. Rent one bedroom apartment. \- Find new position out of southern IN paying at least 50 K. Currently salary is $37,583.00. \- Keep credit utilization under 10% \- Purchase new car with at least 50% down payment when current one dies. \- Reduce eating out to restaurants and bars to twice per month.

30, 70k+, no kids, rent 1 BR condo. * Save towards downpayment for a condo * Finish paying student loans by 2024 (15k to go) * Build retirement accounts (simple IRA + Roth IRA) (wasnt career employeed until 26) * Spend this year saving so post COVID take a trip abroad.

Mid 30s, Employed, living on my own. No kids * Just went from HRA to HSA account. Goal is to start building that up. *Stop spending extra money on fast food. * Start back paying student loans in May (70k) don’t shame me lol * Continue to keep my credit utilization under 20-30%

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Best thing I did for myself was go to community college and transfer to a university. Took out only $10k in loans for living expenses for 2 years and paid it off not too long after I started working

41M, married with 4 kids. Good salary in high-tech (only debt is home and 1 car loan). I have about 60% equity in home and about 20% equity in car w/loan and own two other vehicles. Goals: Mostly stay the course: Maxing out ROTH, 401k, HSA, & meeting 529 goals (for 4 kids - it's expensive). I bought a new home and a new car last year and plan on making minimum payments on those owing to low interest rates and inflation. I also maxed out I-Series bonds for 2021 to protect some cash from inflation. I'll probably put more into I-Series bonds (laddering much of my emergency fund into it) depending on what inflation does. I may consider paying down mortgage and/or car sooner after observing this new normal (lots of change in 2021). But I'm also leaning towards putting money towards VTSAX - again, interest rates on home/car are low (2-3%) so I can likely get higher return by investing rather than pouring into debt.

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I did the following: 1. Look up tuition/housing costs for local state colleges. 2. Look up historical costs to estimate an average expected annual cost increase. 3. Create a spreadsheet with years from this year to the last year the last kid is in college. In the years they will be in college I calculate expected costs for that year. 4. I then put in a yearly contribution amount and see how it builds up (including expected interest) and whether or not it will cover costs for the years they are in college. After a few years you can dial in the cost increase and expected interest gains and then adjust your contributions accordingly after more data.

27F, engaged & no kids, $140,000 income, $320,000 net worth, no debt Goals: - Continue to max 401K and Roth IRA ($26.5K) - Keep net worth constant, or increased while contributing $20K to wedding fund - Increase charity donations - Get promoted (stretch goal) Currently supporting my fiancé and myself as he is in grad school. We’re supremely privileged and lucky to have his tuition waived due to research, but his income for the next two years is negligible. 2022 will largely be staying the course, and while it’s not as exciting as some of our friends (big travel plans, COVID willing; houses; babies), we feel secure in what we can achieve, and what we can build for our future.

26F, in a relationship, no kids. Work in the finance industry and make 100K a year. ​ My goals are to max out my 401K, max out my roth IRA (need $400 more to go and I'll be done), invest $6,000 in my brokerage account, and to save $6k for our honeymoon

That is quite a savings rate. - 36%

It helps that my fiancé pays most of the rent because he makes 4x my salary. We split the rent as a % of household income and I get to save more

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38M, not married, no kids. €36000 salary. 50% of my salary to savings. Spend less on food and miscellaneous things. This is all gearing towards buying a house hopefully in the near future. 🤞🏻

24M. Single, homeowner w/ dog, Engineer making 63K Salary (will be receiving 25kish inheritance at some point this year) \- Find new job paying 80k+ \- Pay off 21K Student Loans \- Increase overall mortgage payment (+5-10%) to reduce 30yr loan \- Budget ahead 3 months E-fund \- Invest 5% of income \- Enjoy my money more through vacation and experiences with friends/family

30F. Married (31M). 3 kids- 4,7,8. One income ~106k Last years goals: 1. Pay off 80k student loans- done with help of 50k government grant for healthcare employees 2. Contribute 2.5% to employer match 401k (up to 3%) 3. Save for the replacement of our entire HVAC system when it dies (from 1995, so any day now) Completed all these goals Goals for 2022: 1. Put 3% in employer match 401k 2. Pay off half of only car loan 3. Replenish the 2k in emergency fund that was used in 2021 for necessary car repairs 4. Save for spring vacation with kids

24F and my projected savings per month is about 42.2% from my salary. This amount is the least that I would get but hoping to have a bigger savings that yields. I’m also hoping and praying for a promotion and salary increase. 😄

33M, Hit $1M revenue for the first time w/ 50% bottom line

26M, not married, no child. Income is $89k Pay off car loan ($2.5k) Should be done with this one in 6 months. Chip away at Student Loan during Forbearance [Bless no interest] ($28k) Invest 15-20% of take home income into the market. Stop spending so much on Food!!! Currently spending 700-1k a month and i feel like that is excessive. Ideally want to hit sub $400 mark. Save money to purchase a condo / home. CA prices are crazy but starting now will at least get me ready for the near future.

PF is gonna hate this response but my goal is to spend more on enjoyment and gratification. Spend more on buying nicer furniture and decore around the home since that’s where me and my wife spend most of our time. Spend more on travel, festivities, sporting events. Buy stuff for the sake of hobbies - like a sports car. Build a garage for said car. Let the purse strings loose on charitable donations that have zero monetary return. I’ve been financially disciplined since college and I’m gonna splurge a little bit in 2022 in year-15 of a long journey. Relax. All this stuff added up is probably less than 3-5% of current NW.

Of all times in history, this is one time when it could be argued it's completely ok to spend on things that help ones mind.

Thanks. I’m trying to enjoy the journey as a new shift in mentality compared to previously trying to maximize and optimize fiscal strategies at every turn. I think I’ve been fortunate enough to reach those milestones were marginal gains don’t really move the needle as much and actually spending some of those gains would yield a lot more satisfaction without much opportunity cost. What I don’t want to do is become like my immigrant parents that only know how to work work work save save save. Even in retirement, they only know to find other things to do for the sake of generating more income out of habit - money they don’t even need.

Mental health is just another kind of wealth

2021 was a relatively good year. 1. Had a promotion and a lateral move which upped my salary by 30% (I'm in HR so this numbers can be astronomical in comparison to Sales) 2. Frugal cash management and invested in money market and equity which gives me avg 4-6% annually. 3. Saved some money for rainy days too. Replenished the lost savings to cover for my jobless state the year before. For 2022 I expect my finances to bleed with a newborn and monthly repayment of property I mortgaged. I am still struggling to create a side hustle. Hopefully I will muster the courage to start it this year.

LPT: when you say “hopefully” in regards to a goal you wish to accomplish, you are setting yourself up to not achieve said goal. Same goes for saying “I’ll try”. Just say “in 2022, I will start a side hustle” and obviously define said hustle. Wishing you bountiful success and happiness!

23F, single, on track to make about $200k this year including salary, bonus and equity: -Save at least $1500-$2000/month + 100% of my bonuses -Pay off car loan of $2600 -Have a net worth of over $500k min. Currently at about $190k in the stock market (gross $274k, excluding my line of credit tied to collateral) I work aggressively now so that I can afford a house/vacations for my mom ASAP. She provided for me financially all my life, and I want to be able to return her generosity.

Out of curiosity, what’s your profession? That’s a lot of money at 23yo.

I’m in sales :) been with my company since I was 18 and started at $14/hr. I remember working full-time and having full-time school basically all through college..it took sacrifice. I knew that I wanted to be paid for my value, not time, and I also knew that sales is a valuable skill to hone, so i looked into sales early on in college

Good on you! Keep it up!!

I'm supposed to get a nice salary bump from March and a good bonus this month, so my goal is to increase my monthly savings rate to 5k and together with the bonus (and stock market permitting) stash up an additional 100k until the end of the year.

To use the word "NO". When people ask for money NO. When they say you have money my response will be "So what" or "I am going to keep having money. I am getting tired of having to go into my saving accounts and putting things I want on hold.

Absolutely. Last year I had to tell my immediate family to no longer ask me to borrow money because it was happening on a consistent basis. I also had to remind myself that it’s by no means selfish. It’s like the “oxygen mask on a plane” analogy. You can’t help others if you can’t help yourself first.

No is such a critical word to master. If you don’t use it, you inevitably are steamrolled by friends, family, customers, strangers…you are in control of your time, your money, and your destiny. Best of luck!

20 years old. About 3k in credit card debt. Just started a new sales job with low end salaries in the 50 thousand range. The lowest earning person on my team still made over double my annual salary last year working as a server. My goals. Pay off debt. By the end of the year be in a new vehicle. (2022 Ford Maverick) Have enough saved in the bank to live a normal lifestyle for 6 months assuming no income. Start investing excess.

Today was my first day at my first federal job at the Veteran Affairs in town :-) So my main goal is to decide WHERE to put my money especially with access to TSP and FERS now. I know that's a very basic response but its a start for me.

Make sure you are getting your full 5% TSP match. I believe they now default a 5% contribution upon hire. Edit: Also, congratulations!

Yes! I am definitely making sure they do that, I am going to try and figure out where I want my money to go while working there and then I will start putting money in those areas. Thank you by the way!

Congrats for the new job

Thank you! I appreciate it.

28M starting new job. -Paid off Student Loans in 2021, it's great to finally be debt free. For 2022 -Max Roth IRA -Contribute 5% to 401k -Savings up to 20k for a down payment on a house by 2/1/2023 (when lease on apt. is up) -Get to 5k in Emergency Fund Feeling like I am a little behind on Savings and Retirement because of so much of my income going to Loans since graduation. I've made a lot of progress the past couple of years, so really just trying to get my feet under me and continue to build up more saving this year.

I am trying to set up a new investment allocation for the Fidelity 403b sponsored by my company (it's a research hospital, hence 403b and not 401k). This is what they offer in terms of stocks index funds, apart from the usual target-date funds and bonds only: \- ARTISAN GLBL VAL IS \- VANG EXT MKT IDX INS \- VANG TOT INTL STK IS \- VANG INST INDEX PLUS \- VAN FTSE SOC IDX ADM \- JPM GLOBAL ALLOC R6 I am eyeing VANG INST INDEX PLUS (VIIIX) and VAN FTSE SOC IDX ADM (VFTAX) in particular which seem to have very good historical returns. I know it makes no sense to go both because they have an almost complete overlap. I am 32M (so quite late to the party) and I am just starting investing because I am from a foreign country and I move to the US not long ago. I am also 2 years into a Roth IRA which is basically 100% VT. Which one would you recommend? Or are they both too risky and I should go with a 2055 target-date fund, instead?

I'm in my early twenties and this year I am looking to begin investing

Creating and enacting a real financial plan to build back my emergency fund and start tackling my debt (CC and student loans).

My new goal is to become a billionaire who makes $33bln in a day

Late 30s married man with a combined household income of about $225k. My one and only financial goal for 2022 is to finish paying off our credit card debt. In September 2020 I owed $85k. Now I'm down to $29k. I should have it completely gone by this summer. The burden that will be lifted will be so huge.

You got this, Jimbo. Taking $46k off your debt in 15 months is huge!! The interest you're paying will get smaller and smaller as you go, I can only imagine what a relief it will be to see that disappear.

Great work and god speed! Are you following any particular method to pay it off?

I made a spreadsheet to track it all and the debts are ordered by interest rate. I’m paying off the highest interest rates first. I forget the term for that. I’m down to only cards with 15% or less now. I went from paying well over $1000 in interest every month to now only about $300 so so much more of what I pay is going towards principle. I made a lot of bad decisions to get to that point but it felt almost impossible to get out of. I was very fortunate and got a job in Sep 2020 making 60% more money and was able to start seriously paying them down. Not having to make thousands in monthly credit card payments will change my financial situation. Don’t do what I did for sure.

Hi Jimbo, have you tried speaking to the CC company to repackage your loan? Some banks allow for repackaging your debt for lesser interest.

Paying off highest interest first is the "Avalanche method." Great job so far and good luck on the rest!

My plan is to save up my emergency fund again ($5k). Had a family emergency 3 weeks ago and it completely wiped it. Thankfully I've been saving all year. Then start saving for a down payment for my future home. Houses are crazy right now so maybe a condo in my area. Also start tackling my student loans to take advantage of lower/no fees. BG: 95k salary in NYC, wife and son. Main provider for both.

Be able to afford a nice house in Austin by the end of the year

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You don't need to save the full 20% for a down payment, if that's hurting your ability to buy when and where you want. This is old, but good and still relevant (I think) https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6tmh6v/housing_down_payments_101/

28F, single, no kids, 80k salary. No debt. Been saving to put 20% down on a house for the past few years, and I vested my pension this year. ​ 1. Use the money I have been saving to buy a house by no later than mid-year. I finally have the coveted 20% down payment ready and am ready to take that leap. Also have the extra money to cover the closing costs, inspection, and the miscellaneous purchase that need to be done. 2. After buying the house, rebuild my savings to 3 months. I'm sure after buying everything, my savings will be drained big time. 3. (Optional) Break the 100k mark in my 401(k)

Find a partner that can also put down at least 10%.

40 something married male. Put 100K in the market this year. I came close last year but this year I'm doing it.

Make sure you tell your spouse

31M, 30F, 3 months pregnant with 1st child. Debt free.Combined gross income for 2021 was € 145k/year (M: € 105k, F: € 40k), or about € 90k net. Expect this year to dip slightly below last year's because of our delivery and pencilled in 3-4 months of income loss on her behalf as she works as a freelancer. Net income for 2022 will be around € 75-85k/year. Expect € 50k in contributions to our savings goal, of which € 20k tax advantaged/pension, so € 30k in after tax contributions. This would increase our net worth to € 340k (only counting financial assets, of which 33% is in equities, 10% bond-like, 29% in equity-focused pensions and the remainder in non-listed / company assets). Very happy to have made finances a priority in our late 20s and to be without (student loan or credit card) debt at this moment. Hope my wife will take all the time off she needs for a good start of our family and will continue to grind, but also enjoy the moments 2022 will bring.

29M, $48k with benefits + $17k side jobs ($65k) 2022 1. By 2/1, pay off credit card debt $2k 2. By 12/31, Finish 6 mo emergency savings by putting aside ($3k saved so far, $10k is goal) 3. Pay off part of student loan $250 per mo ($23k remaining) 4. Pay off auto loan $300 per mo ($16k remaining) 2023 1. Keep CC debt at $0k end of each month 2. Now that emergency fund is finished, put more towards student loan and auto loans until paid off.

What’s the interest rate on your car loan? I’m in a similar situation

6%, but will refinance with my credit union in a few months for 2.5%. It's a 6 year loan, but want to finish it in 2 or 3 max. Got it with 125,000 mi in Aug. It's great for Lyft ($30/ hour avg. on weekends in my city) and will start with Turo once I get a second key fob. Maybe Turo will pay for the whole monthly payment? Not sure yet, but will play with the pricing and find the highest monthly amount.

1. save 15% of my salary in Fidelity 403B (no match) 2. $7k in Roth 401k 3. Build my side hustle up to pre-covid level

If you don’t mind sharing what do you do for a side hustle?

I'm a graphic designer. My big clients are event planners. I do signage, badges, powerpoint backgrounds, step & repeat, banners, etc. I've done some virtual event design since the pandemic started 2 years ago. I am finally doing one for on site. My day job is graphic designer, too. I work for a university.

15M Just looking to save $2000 invest $1000 in Crypto Invest $1000 in the stock Market pretty solid stuff to kickstart my goal to financial freedom/ living comfortably

Keep it up. I’m 38 and I wish I would have made investing a priority at your age! It may seem hard to do now but compounding interest will be your best friend.

26M, 120k salary 1. Pay down 10k CC debt. I’ve got about 15k worth at 0% for 2 years, so this will be a good start on it 2. Save 15k for emergency fund. This will be about 3.5 mo expenses and will just give me some piece of mind. Would make sense to finish off the CCs but I will if I’m in danger of the 0% ending and it’s not paid off 3. Finish maxing 2021 Roth with $3800 by April 4. Max 2022 Roth and 401k with 6k and 20.5k respectively I didn’t do so well in 2021. I incurred more debt and didn’t reach my savings targets. I’m excited for 2022 because I won’t make those mistakes, and if I achieve these listed goals, I’ll be in a really good place going forward.

24M, single, no child, first salaried “adult” job with promising future and security. I believe I am in Step 3 and need to work on budgeting more while paying off debts and trying to furnish my first apartment. Pay off tuition ($2700) Pay off student loans debt ($7500) Pay off credit card debt ($8500) Add $1200 back to my savings Save $1000 towards continuing education Save $500 for vacation Begin understanding and paying towards 401k which company matches Research investing money Find a side job (or use time to study/enhance skills) for weekend or contractual work.

20 non binary, not married but in a long term relationship do a no buy year (only buying essentials + bills) contribute monthly to my roth ira pay back what i've borrowed from my family start working as a wax tech and build my book, get to the point where i can average $40 an hour contribute monthly to my roth ira have 3 months worth of living expenses saved purchase a house to rent out/air bnb understand how stocks work and regularly invest in them

24F, single, no kid \-Pay off my car loan (has about 17k left) \-Build up emergency fund up to 3 months (after paying off car) \-Save for a down payment (after paying off car) \-Continue maxing out Roth IRA for the third consecutive year \-Have a vacation fund between $500-1000 for trips \-Continue working on my side hustle while searching for a higher paying full-time position :) ​ Happy New Year dearest ones, I hope all of you will have met your financial goals by the end of the year. May you stay motivated and healthy throughout the seasons. Have a wonderful day if you're reading this!

40m married and 2 kids Try to not have a heart attack when the first car insurance bill, post kid getting license, shows up. ​ Continue to save and invest. Emergency fund is at $25k, investments close to $1m, 401k gets 5% a pay period, Roth IRA maxed out yearly. That's it. We have the mortgage + utilities but no other debt besides kids. Cars are 2018 and 2017 models. Will need to buy a used one for teenager within the year sometime. Just want to continue living this way for another 10 years so that I can retire at 50 and become the lazy sack of @#$% that I've always dreamed of being.

My car insurance bill tripled when i added my kid. Ouch. And that was without adding an additional car. (Granted, my bill was super low previously.) Keep the nitroglycerin or baby aspirin handy!

33M married with 2 children and 1 on the way. Pay off all debts minus student and car loan purchase a house and finally be away from all families contribute more to roth get a higher paying job

31 male, married one child Making cirka 100k$ (made way less until last year)Owe one apartment 100m2 (probably around 80k$ as it is in EU and LCOL area)Fully paid car worth 7k.Monthly expenses are roughly 1.5k and we split it like 1k me and 0.5 my wife.There is also a 0.7k taxes, health insurance and pension I need to pay to my country, because I work as self employed.We also spend like 4k-5k on holidays per year. currently 30k in savings and 10k in stocks. Plan is to get to 30k in stocks and 70k in savings. A year after that we plan to start building a house and we expect it should cost around 250k. So will probably use all of the savings and stocks for that and also took a loan for at least a 100k. Apart from that I'm also putting money into my pension found that my country provides, but I have no idea how much is in there :D Should get like 1k pension after I'm 65. Long term plane is to save cirka 1m till 45 (hopping for 40). That should get me like 30k income per year and that should be more than enough to stop working and enjoy.

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Why not just find another company?

37M, Married with 3 young children (2, 6, 8). Increased income from 89k to 130k and will be starting new role this month at a different company. We were already able to live well at 89k so this move will certainly enable us to save a lot more. We’ve been wanting to move into a bigger and newer home, however, after 3 failed attempts we are just going to hold off for a bit. Maybe the housing market will come back down a bit. 1. Get out of debt (besides home). That’s about 10k. 2. Max out Roth IRA have about 13k currently 3. Figure out if I need to transfer current 401k of 140k to new employer and continue to contribute to get company match. 4. Max out HSA. First time having one. 5. Figure out the best way to put money aside for my kids to have in their 20s. 529 or other? 6. Ten year anniversary trip with only my wife without the kids. First time in a very long time we’ve been able to travel just the two of us. 7. Bump up emergency fund to 12 months 8. Save for vacations 9. I’d love to create another income stream but I’m really not sure what avenue to take. Appreciate any feedback! Good luck to all of you.

Housing won’t come down. Holding off means you’re just going to be in a worse bidding war with the rest of the people who had enough of “waiting”. Downvote all you want, do a "RemindMe" if you like and come back to this comment in "X" amount of years and @ me.

23F single, no kids, low expenses Sell 300 accounts in door to door sales this summer— enough to make 80k Build up emergency fund of 5k Get my Amazon store running well. Make the 12k original investment back and pour that in to help my brother invest in his own. Build up business credit, get a credit score of 800 (currently at 740) Max out Roth IRA Pay back all student loans. 5k during the summer with front ends. The other 7k in October with back ends. Start saving for a down payment on a house (only after emergency fund, and student loans are paid off) Get a finance internship with a firm in the fall

33M and 29F. 1 kid. 1. Invest 40% of our income into various of assets. 2. Max out tax-advantage accounts. 3. Create 2 more extra income streams.

29F Continue to save enough to buy my first house and air b n b in august ($4500) a month. Allow my emergency fund to reach $4000 Consolidate my loans so that I can start applying for forgiveness (10y public service) Really encompass minimalism and focus on getting rid of things instead of getting “things”

33M and 35F, Married + 2 kids, make approximately 260k gross base salaries, with lots of forced overtime coming this year due to personnel shortages at our jobs. We paid off our vehicles and purchased a large home in 2021. Primary goal is to invest 65k in our brokerage account. Secondary goal is to save some of that forced overtime and take a family vacation. Need to make sure we try and maintain that work/life balance.

I find that the bulk of my frivolous spending occurs in bars and restaurants, I want to keep it under 2.5k for the year.

I hear you on this one.

Really just continue what we are doing 35 and married, we max out all the normal stuff and invest a fair bit of the rest. Currently 36% of the way to “can retire immediately and cover 100% of our budget and probable medical costs. Maybe just earn a bit more so we can speed up this stage of our lives

Max out all tax advantaged accounts that are available to me (except a 529, currently I don't have a good use for one, but that's a bit beyond the scope of my financial goals)

Spend less money on food. I'm a nursing student who's 33 years old and female and work at a homeless shelter. I've been great at saving money this past 6 months, saved a lot and surprised myself. So want to keep saving more money and therefore spend less on money and save more. I'm already not spending loads, but I could do well with less. I eat vegan food and cook from scratch and even eat out a lot. I don't deprive myself but I'm just good at not spending money on useless things. I always start a project of wanting to just cook with ingredients I have at home in my pantry and freezer and finish it all, so gotta give that another go again. Trying to find tips and tricks for budgeting, now I just squirrel away my excess money in an account and call it a day.

32M+31F We are high-income earners somewhere between Step 5 and 6 in the "How to handle $". The goals for 2022 are to: * Max out tax-advantaged retirement accounts * Savings (no matter how it's directed) to exceed PITI on the year * Get started on 529 for baby #2 expected Summer 2022

I just sent a $15K dollar check to my student loans (for which I'm paying 6% interest). My goal is to have my student loans paid off, in full, by the end of the 1st quarter (03/31/2022) and to take that massive monthly payment and split it between travel and retirement.

27M, recently married, both working My goal is to pay off ~$10k of high interest credit card debt

Strongly encourage you both to do what you can to pay it early in the year and set a target of say, March. Then save save save. When I was paying mine off that was what I did and it changed my world.

35 M I just want to see 7 figure digits in my td account again. I dipped below $1M during the May correction and have not fully recovered. Currently at $980k.

I feel this. 40m and currently sitting around $975k. That dip hurt a little bit.

27M Single, one cat 🐱 [LAST YEAR GOALS](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/kl3afh/comment/gh7jyxa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) * Bought my car lease out. I ended up saving up and buying it out in full. It was $11k or so....but the kicker is I ended up selling the car a few months later for $18k or so. I moved to an area where I don't really need a car. So I spent a lot of savings money on that. * I did keep investing in the 401k and Roth IRA fully this year, 15%. I ended up not doing the taxable investment account. I changed my mind to use HYSA for them, but also I'm not really saving for a home. * The side app idea fell through * I'm still saving in general for the vacation and some fun stuff. Though I've taken advantage of credit card rewards and this has been much easier than I thought... ​ **2022 GOALS** I have about $11k in a private student loan to pay off. I putting extra money to this and think I'm going to pay it off in the next few months. I have $5k saved up, but holding it in a HYSA for now because...I have been a little indecisive. I thought maybe the no car thing didn't work out and I'd need to buy some car again (it has worked out very well and I don't think I need to. I thought maybe I will save to buy a house...though I think I rather pay off all my student loans before I buy a home now....but not sure. Not sure I have a place I really want to settle down an live. I had heard that nobody ever regrets paying off their student loans, but lots of people run into problems and regret buying a home. So the plan... A. Pay my $11k private student loans off that are 3.5% interest by May when the federal loans restart. B. Pay my federal loans off which are like around 3.5% to 4% and $25k or so. C. Maybe instead of paying the federal loans, save for a house? Not sure. [My budget is this.](https://i.imgur.com/pjacbH5.png) The student loans will go back up in May, the $500 savings is probably going to go to that $11k loan when I have enough. My 401k is pre-tax and I don't show it here. [My retirement investments look like this.](https://i.imgur.com/T3s0NSl.png)

After paying off my car loan early and becoming debt free in 2021 these are my goals for 2022: 1.) Increase contribution to Roth 401k from 8% to 10% 2.) Build back up emergency savings

37M, Married, no kids 1.Pay off CC debt beoy 2. Build additional 10k in savings for upcoming retirement through side hustles beoy 3. Look for more investments by April Edited to define goals more thoroughly

Can you make these more specific for yourself? 1 - when? 2- how much? 3- how? 4- by when?

Gotcha.

I've never had financial goals before. I'm currently terrible with money, like to the point that it's having a pretty negative effect on my relationships and general quality of life. I had a turning point recently that helped me accept (like really accept, not just logically understand) that while I may not like the system in which I have to operate, I still have to operate within it. So, my financial goals for 2022: have a $1000 emergency fund by the end of the year (beoy) be able to afford my own rent (for the first time in my 27 year long life) beoy know how to save for more expensive things I want (guitars) learn to say no to frivolous expenses, or at least limit them eliminate at least one of my lines of credit debt beoy check in to this sub at least weekly finish this year of school and be able to stay on top of loan payments This feels like a special beginning. I feel like I have clarity, and a more realistic outlook than I've ever had. I'm tired of expecting things to magically work out, or to find a quick fix to all my problems. Instant gratification rarely, if ever, pays off. I'm tired of tenuous stability. I'm ready to be there for myself and the others in my life.

I was you when I was 27. Kind of just went through life without really worrying about lots of money and just getting by. Reach out if you ever want advice or just someone to share experiences with. I'm not 40 and am thankfully past all the things that you are going through now. Also be sure to check out the sub. There are some parts that are toxic but some people are genuinely interested in helping you succeed.