Largest Goals of 2015
I had planned to start my M.Ed. this month by completing the classes necessary for my ESOL Endorsement. However, I've had huge issues with the school I was planning to attend, such as being charged Out-of-State Tuition despite qualifying for In-State, not being enrolled in the courses I was granted overrides for, and a host of other things. With the cost of one semester (and only 2 classes) totaling nearly $7,200, I decided not to go through with beginning classes here. However, I am working on getting accepted and enrolling for Master's classes beginning this summer! Check! I didn't get my Master's started as early as we had originally planned, but I did get it started. I finished my first semester in November. I am now a quarter of the way through my Master's degree with quarter #2 starting in just a couple weeks. I am taking my classes in person through a cohort arranged by the county I work for and this is working so much better for me than online classes. Plus, I get my degree finished faster and it was cheaper!
Since Brad and I moved back to Georgia in February 2014, we've been looking at buying a home. We thought we would already be living in one after putting down a contract on a new build immediately after we moved here. However, after that fell through, we've been on the hunt for a resale since probably June. We are so ready to find our forever home, especially before our apartment lease runs out this summer. Hooray! This was one of our first goals that we accomplished during 2015. We bought our first house in February and have had so much fun making it a home together. I think we are finally almost ready for some home tours starting in 2016.
Buy My First Car
This is a goal I'll only be going through with if we decide we can swing things financially. I don't actually need a new car. The one I'm currently driving works great. However, since I'm still driving my very first car ever (a 1998 Toyota Camry) I'd really love the opportunity to trade my car for a new one! Or at the very least, a relatively new, used car that isn't turning 17 this year. We decided to put this off for now. My husband's car which we bought in 2014 is almost paid off and we would really like to avoid having two car payments at one time. Brad's car should be paid off next year and we are hoping my little clunker can make it until my birthday in July.
Make a Baby
I debated whether I would share this goal or not, but clearly I decided to go through with it. Our plan has always been to have children two years into our marriage. In order to make that happen, we would need to start trying for a baby almost immediately following our 1 year anniversary in September. I am adamantly against raising children in an apartment so one of the largest determining factors in this goal would be whether or not we have been able to buy a house. So, I'll be praying constantly that both these dreams come true. Looking back now, it's funny that I thought those factors would be the only thing influencing our decision to have children. About mid-year we decided to push this goal back until 2016 so that our baby would be born after I finished my Master's degree. Now, this goal is indefinitely on the back burner until I meet with my neurosurgeon and have my brain surgery. If only buying our house would have been our only worry! I'm trying to take comfort in the fact that God's plan is bigger than mine and all good things come in time.
Slightly Smaller Goals of 2015
Off to the Races
My New Year's Resolution for 2014 was to run 12 races in 12 months. Unfortunately I didn't finish my goal. I only made it through 8 races last year. I really want to finish this goal this year! I'm signing up for a January race already and am making it my goal to sign up for the Disney Food & Wine Half-Marathon in November. I started the year with full intentions of completing this goal. I ran 5 races but had to stop after my May race. I didn't realize it at the time but I was beginning to experience symptoms of my brain condition that would prevent me from running for a while (hopefully not forever). I think one of my goals for 2016 will be to significantly change my eating habits since exercise is a no-no for me currently.
Honeymoon Trip
I mentioned a few times that Brad and I postponed our honeymoon but never gave the reason why. Originally, we decided to postpone because we were building a house and wanted to be able to put as much money towards that as possible. After our home fell through and I ended up getting my teaching job, we discovered that our wedding was the weekend before Conference Week at school. I would never be allowed to miss a thing like that so I was only able to take off work 3 days for our wedding. We've discussed a honeymoon over Spring Break this year but don't have anything planned as of yet. Due to this, I'm assuming there will be no honeymoon in the cards for us anytime soon. However, I'd really like to plan some sort of trip on our own, even if it ends up being a 1st Year Anniversary trip instead of a "honeymoon". Also didn't happen... Buying and furnishing a house became more important than a honeymoon trip and Brad was on a business trip on our actual one year anniversary. Although I was really upset in the beginning of our marriage about not going on a honeymoon, now I have come to realize that we have been more blessed than we could have imagined in our first year of marriage (working on our second currently!) and we didn't need to take a honeymoon for that to happen. We are trying to save up enough extra money that we can take a honeymoon type trip near Brad's 30th birthday, which also happens to fall right around the time that we will be celebrating our 10 years together (dating wise). 2018 here we come!
We are really fortunate to be financially stable. Brad has a wonderful job and has made awesome investments with his money. Due to this, my salary as a teacher essentially gets to go into our savings account or Roth IRA (until it's maxed out for the year) each month. I know that we are so blessed to be able to do this and want to make it a priority each month to continue saving as much as we are able. Eventually we'll be using that money towards a new home, a car, traveling, and accounts for our future children. Kudos to us! We kicked butt at saving this year. We have been able to begin replenishing our Roth IRA account that we had emptied as first time home buyers. Brad increased his payouts to his work retirement account which come out of his paychecks. I started paying our savings account like it's a monthly bill and we began tracking our spending to curb useless buying. As someone that has undergraduate student loans, I could not be happier to report that we have been able to pay for my graduate degree completely out of pocket due to the saving habits we've created. We may have had to sacrifice in some places but we are hoping it will pay off eventually.
So. I only really accomplished three goals this year. But who can complain about buying a home, pursuing a Master's degree, and creating savings habits that will benefit not only us, but our future children? I think 2015 was a great year and I can't wait to see what 2016 has in store!
For a complete look at my goals, check out my 101 in 1001 list.
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