2015 Goals

Each year I like to set myself goals that I hope to achieve by the end of the year; to keep me on track and to challenge myself throughout the year. I also feel like it makes me more accountable over the year; 12 months is a long time and focus can drift at times, so knowing I have yearly goals to reach as well as monthly ones make me more focused. Again, like with the monthly ones, I do a financial section and a personal section.

 

My Financial Goals for 2015 are:

– Put £8,000 into savings

– Overpay our mortgage by £3,400

– Have 220 NSDs throughout the year

– Open a S&S ISA

– Earn £1,000 in side income.

 

The savings goal is self-explanatory; we’re hoping to get a “new to us” car in 2015 and some of this will go towards that. Our car is beginning to cost us quite a bit in repairs, so now is the time to look at exchanging it for a slightly newer one. We want to try and avoid using finance wherever possible, so this will help us with that. I’m hoping that continuing to simplify our lives will make this goal more than achievable – on paper it should be!

 

The overpayment target is a rough estimate of the interest that will be added to our mortgage over the year, and so this what we will overpay. This may change slightly throughout the year, but as long as our mortgage is going in the right direction, that is good enough for us for now.

 

I have posted a couple of times about investing, and opening a S&S ISA was on my 2014 goals list. For various reasons, I did not accomplish this goal, but I do want to in 2015. I am continuing to do some research and will talk to an IFA at some stage about which investments would best suit our needs before starting on our investment journey. 2015 is definitely the year for this!

 

A new goal but one that I’m excited about is the start of the my journey with side income. I have toyed with the idea for a while, and I think I am ready to make my start! £1,000 over a year works out at £84 a month, which immediately sounds much more do-able. I need to look at how I register as a self-employed person and how that will impact on my day job/earnings, but this is my plan for 2015! Of course, I shall need to save for taxes, but even if I only earn half of this throughout the year, it’ll be a good start.

 

My Personal goals for 2015 are:

– Get back to baking and actually enjoy it!

– Make sure my husband and I have date nights and time away

– Decorate our living room and spare bedroom

– Be more kind to myself

– Stop worrying about things I can’t change and focus on the ones I can.

 

I seem to have lost my way in terms of baking and I want to get back into it again – I find it relaxing and really do enjoy it, so I need to find time for me to do this. I have so many saved recipes that I want to try out, so I need to make this a priority in 2015!

 

When work and life gets in the way, other things can fall by the wayside. I need to make sure our relationship stays as fantastic as it is, and make sure we have time for each other. I’d also like us to go on more weekends away – we’ve not got a holiday booked in 2015 – and create more memories and experiences to share. I already have some ideas as to where I’d like to go and stay, so I just need to make sure I do this, and not worry about money so much in this aspect.

 

2014 saw us getting a new bathroom and decorating our kitchen, so 2015 will hopefully see more house changes, including our living room and spare bedroom. Both are alright, but not done to our tastes at all – we bought this house in 2012 and are slowly changing it to what we want, rather than what was left behind. Of course, these will have to be done on a budget, but what’s life without a little challenge?

 

The last two are the same as last year, as I am still working on not being so self critical and more accepting of myself. This was working well last year, and I want to continue.

 

So here’s to 2015 – I have a feeling it’s going to be great!