Back in January, I put up a post titled Money Moves I'm Making in 2021. This outlined the top financial goals + priorities I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I decided that I wanted to really hone-in and focus on improving my finances in 2021. I've always been financially responsible and "good with money," however I want to go beyond the basics and just saving money. I've been challenging myself to really be intentional with my spending and to create a purpose + plan for my dollars. Like with anything in life, our finances are an area that I think we can always continue to grow, adapt and improve upon!
It's hard to believe that we're almost halfway through the year now! I thought I'd share a little recap of how things have been going so far with my goals + finances. I'm excited to document this to reflect and look back on my progress, however I also hope this will help inspire you to take action with your own money and financial goals. I am by no means an expert or offering financial advice- just sharing what I'm doing as I figure it all out :)
To quickly recap, the top goals listed in my Money Moves post were: Max out ROTH IRA Contributions, Increase my Emergency Fund, Follow a Budget, Start Non-Retirement Investments + Open a High-Yield Savings Account. You can read more on those in this post!
2021 FINANCIAL GOAL PROGRESS
To keep things simple, I'm going to separate which goals I've accomplished (financial "hits") of 2021 and the areas that I think I need to expand or improve upon (aka "misses").
"FINANCIAL HITS" // ACCOMPLISHMENTS (SO FAR)
- 2020 ROTH IRA contributions
- Monthly emergency fund savings
- Opened an individual brokerage account
- Opened a high-yield savings account
- Tracking my spending daily + creating monthly budgets
- Switched to a cash back credit card
So far, I feel like I've been making great progress towards my yearly goals. I feel the most accomplished for maxing out my 2020 ROTH IRA contributions!! Right now I have low expenses so I'm able to take advantage of this. I'm trying to ride the wave + max it out for as long as I'm able to! Being prepared for the future is important to me so I do my best to prioritize + plan for this.
I also took care of a lot of the "administrative" things on my list. For months I've been telling myself I need to start investing outside of retirement, open a high-yield savings account, etc. I finally decided to take the first step by getting all of these set up. I also finally opened a cash back credit card for everyday spending. I've been thinking about doing this for about a year now! It's easy for me to keep pushing these things off as "I need to's" or "I want to's." They were all super easy to do + took me less than five minutes. If you keep putting off something super simple, just do it now!
"FINANCIAL MISSES" // AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
- 2021 ROTH IRA contributions
- Funding + investing individual brokerage account
- Finding a place/purpose for every dollar
- Exploring cryptocurrencies
These are the areas I want to tackle + improve upon. Of course, starting my 2021 ROTH IRA contributions is first on the list! I tend to be pretty sporadic on when I make contributions so I'm going to try to start doing them on a more consistent, monthly basis.
Coming up with a place for every dollar is something that I also need to challenge myself on. I'm really good at saving, however I don't save everything with a purpose in mind. I have certain things like my ROTH and my emergency fund that I plan for, however anything else that is leftover usually just gets left sitting or lost in the shuffle. I probably need to establish some sinking funds or start investing the rest!
I keep seeing a ton of information out there on cryptocurrencies. I'm intrigued by them, however they are also very unknown and volatile at times. I don't know too much about them so I can definitely do some research here.
That's a quick overview of how some of my financial goals are coming along for the year! I hope you all enjoy these types of posts- I love talking about the topic of money & finance. I get a lot of inspiration and insight from others so I'm just hoping to pass some of that along to you :) As always, feel free to share your thoughts + catch up with my on IG (@TheKristenDiary).
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