Q1 2018 Update: How Did I Do?

You may recall from a previous post I listed what my 2018 Financial Goals were.  Today I’m doing a Q1 update on my progress thus far!

Increase My Roth 401K Contributions By 2%
Grade: A+

I did this immediately after I got a raise in December.

Put Money Into My FSA
Grade: A+

I front-loaded my full deductible into an FSA at the beginning of the year as motivation to force myself to be better about my health and wellness in 2018. In addition to making it a goal to getting on a regular schedule with both my primary doctor and dentist, I’ve also had chronic back pain and spasms for years following a car accident and have desperately been needing to see a chiropractor about it.  I had another blogger tell me that this probably wasn’t the smartest idea because if I didn’t use the full amount, it would be lost money.  Her comment initially instilled some regret in me, but I kept my focus on my initial goal of improving my overall health.  As of April 1st, I’ve already used 55% of those funds on healthcare. That’s right – I’m on a health kick ya’ll!  This just goes to show that you don’t always need to take someone’s financial advice, even if it’s completely educated and practical.  We each have different goals and reasons to justify them.   

Plan Ahead For All Foreseeable Costs in 2018
Grade: B-

We came in way under budget for our spending in Japan but over budget for our spending on the kitchen renovation.  Womp womp.

Pay Off My School Loan
Grade: A+

I’ve been paying this off diligently and am on course to have this fully paid off by July, which is when it comes out of its grace period.  Say NO to paying interest!  

Devote 25% Of Each Paycheck To Savings
Grade: A

I’m looking to increase this amount as soon as the school loan is paid off.

Read
Grade: B-

I was ravenous with my reading in January and February but in March I took a literature break.  I brought 2 books with me to Japan and read a total of 10 pages on the flight there and back.  In my defense there were too many good movies to pass up on the plane ride!  I plan to go back to my routine of reading before bed and on the bus rides to and from work.   TMZ Breaking News Updates will not get the best of me anymore!  

Blog More About Finance
Grade: B

I’ve been hitting 5K monthly pageviews which is a huge milestone for me! This can definitely be attributed to the fact that I’ve refocused my blog on more Finance and Lifestyle related content.  Again, with March being a “Slump Month” and me taking a brief hiatus from this forum, I had to dock points for this goal.  I hope to become more consistent with posting going forward.

ADDITIONAL WINS

• For the first time ever, I fully funded a Roth IRA for myself! I hope to fund one for Tommy before year-end.
• We paid off Tommy’s car and now have ZERO car payments between the two of us!
• I used my reward points to surprise Tommy with a birthday trip to Oakland in January to watch the Warriors vs Timberwolves play at Oracle Arena!  This was an incredibly fun and spontaneous trip and was well worth the minor additional costs!
• Delta had an unadvertised flash sale and I scored RT flights to Cancun for my birthday in October for under 20K points (normally upward of 40K points)!
• We budgeted around $2,500 for our trip to Japan and only ended up spending about $1,000 between the two of us!

ADDITIONAL FAILS

• We dug into our savings a little bit to front the money for our kitchen remodel.  I honestly never worry much when our savings account goes low (I consider it low when it’s <$10K) because we are prodigious savers and I’m always confident in our ability to recoup what we spent.  I fully expect us to recover by 2Q18.
• My employer added a new healthcare plan that offers an HSA.  I declined it and opted to renew my old plan with the FSA because I didn’t know enough about HSAs at the time.  Now I’m kicking myself for not doing more research because it wouldn’t have taken much for me to realize that I missed out on some major benefits there!
• Our friends are getting married in Philadelphia this September and Tommy is in the wedding.  I didn’t want to use points for such a short flight so I planned to just pay for the tickets.  When I checked flights online they were only $180 RT so of course I procrastinated buying them for a month……and then the Eagles won the Superbowl.  The wedding is the first week of the NFL regular season so you can probably guess where this is going.  Flights tripled overnight!  Obviously September is a little ways away so there’s still a chance the Universe could hear my crying pleas and throw me a bone.  Time will tell. Regardless, I’m still happy to pay a premium to see my best friends walk down the aisle.  These Beyonce dance tutorials will not have been studied in vain.
• We spent WAYYY too much money eating out this last month. I’m talking like….an embarrassing amount on paper that looks like we were feeding a family of 7. We were truly limited with options because we were in full kitchen demo for the entire month of March.  We tried to do sandwiches and frozen dinners for awhile, but even that gets tricky with no plates, silverware, fridge, or sink.  Anyways let’s just chill out and not make me feel any more guilty than I already do okay?  I told Tommy we aren’t allowed to eat out for 6 months now that our kitchen is done.  Additionally, my friend Dr. Mcfrugal has inspired me to go on a no-spend month to assuage my spending woes.

Additional Goals for Q2 2018

• Make an extra mortgage payment
• Decrease spending and expenses by 10%
• Increase net savings to 35%
• Implement new workout regimen 4x a week

How  are you guys doing with your financial and personal goals for the year?