Embarking on a new year, my husband and I have always found solace and direction in carefully charting our family's course with goals that touch every aspect of our lives. As we open the doors to our tradition, we invite you along to explore setting personal benchmarks within the realms of faith, family, fitness, and finances.
We believe that by sharing our process, we might inspire you to craft your own compass for the year, whether you're navigating these waters alone or with your crew. In this episode, we're not just talking theory; we're giving you a candid glimpse into how these goals manifest in our lives.
We weave the thread of physical health through the tapestry of our family life, embracing chores as a means to teach our children the value of contributing to our household. And as we cast our gaze toward the horizon of retirement, we share insights on nurturing investments that promise a future of passive growth.
Remember, your insights fuel our journey, so as you tune in, we're eager to hear your stories and successes, all in the spirit of fostering a thriving and supportive community.
To Check out the Inner Circle: Click Here
You Might Like:
Embarking on a new year, my husband and I have always found solace and direction in carefully charting our family's course with goals that touch every aspect of our lives. As we open the doors to our tradition, we invite you along to explore setting personal benchmarks within the realms of faith, family, fitness, and finances.
We believe that by sharing our process, we might inspire you to craft your own compass for the year, whether you're navigating these waters alone or with your crew. In this episode, we're not just talking theory; we're giving you a candid glimpse into how these goals manifest in our lives.
We weave the thread of physical health through the tapestry of our family life, embracing chores as a means to teach our children the value of contributing to our household. And as we cast our gaze toward the horizon of retirement, we share insights on nurturing investments that promise a future of passive growth.
Remember, your insights fuel our journey, so as you tune in, we're eager to hear your stories and successes, all in the spirit of fostering a thriving and supportive community.
To Check out the Inner Circle: Click Here
You Might Like:
we decided to set goals in four different areas. Those four areas include faith, family, fitness and finances the four Fs, if you will. Now, before I dive into what each of these look like for us and really kind of how we reflect on them, I want you to know take what you like and leave the rest. This is what's so wonderful about this is you can take this and you can change it and just adapt it to fit your needs. Hey, this is Alison, and welcome to the Inspire Budget Podcast, where we talk all things budgeting, debt and saving money. Welcome to 2024.
Speaker 0:This is officially my first episode of the new year and it's probably one of my favorites, because this is when I get to tell you exactly, step by step, how my husband and I have been setting goals not just money goals, but other goals together as a family for oh my goodness, maybe the past five, six, seven years. So that's exactly what this episode is all about. I'm gonna walk you through, step by step, how really how this tradition or routine came about, how it works for us, the types of goals we set, and I'm even gonna give you a sneak peek at some of my 2024 goals in each category that my husband and I set goals, so let's dive into it. I really wanna start by chatting about the benefits of setting yearly goals. Now, obviously, this is always a really big thing in January and it's really easy for you to just kind of forget about these goals come February and I'm not gonna lie, sometimes that's exactly what I do. But I love having these intentions and I will say that, especially when it comes to our financial goals, I really do go back and look at them throughout the year and really try to hit them. So these goal-setting sessions really act as a roadmap throughout our year, especially the goals that we set for our money, and it really helps us stay on track and remember what we want and our intentions.
Speaker 0:Whenever life tempts us to spend money on something else, it's really easy for us to set goals, decide what we want and then go about our days and months and things start tempting us. Other things look good. We have these shiny objects that are pulling at our attention, and it's always great to have our intentions set at the beginning of the year so we can look at those shiny objects, go back to our goals and say is this in line with the thing that I had said I wanted? And if not, is there a way for me to still partake in this shiny object? Or should I just say no completely? So that's exactly what we do Now. I wanna give you a step by step, because, you know me, I'm big on taking action, and this is gonna be a short but jam-packed episode, so let's dive in.
Speaker 0:Every year, my husband and I set goals in December, usually around Christmas time. Actually, it started years ago when we lived about five, five and a half hours away from family and we would do this entire process on our drive down to see family or back up for the holidays. Now I'm gonna throw my husband under the bus here a little bit. He doesn't really enjoy this process at least he didn't at the very beginning and so it was really hard for me to get him to sit down and wanna talk about it, because he didn't really like it. He's not a big goal setter type of person. He's more of a day-by-day person. So the way we were able to do this was we would be trapped in a car together for five hours and he couldn't get out of it right. He had to sit there and talk to me and I would be on my phone, in my notes app, taking notes on different goals that we would decide to gather, and separately, and it kind of just gave us this specific time that we would sit down together once a year for a period of time and just talk about our reflections from the past year and then what we wanted for the upcoming year. Now I once tried to do this with him before that road trip and he was like no, I've prepared myself to do it on the road trip. So now we moved back closer to my family and closer to family back in 2019. So since then we just have these goal setting sessions sometime in December. He no longer fights them. I think he's on board. I don't know, we'll have to get an update from him for this but he sits down and goes through with it and actually sets goals. So it's really wonderful. I make this really easy for myself. I just keep it in the notes app on my phone. So this allows me to just type in the year and I can go back and very quickly look at and read our goals from several years and be able to set goals moving forward. So I just keep it really simple On the Notes app in my phone for us to just make it really easy to access and easy to edit if anything changes. Now.
Speaker 0:When we started this a long time ago, we decided to set goals in four different areas. Those four areas include faith, family, fitness and finances the four Fs, if you will. Now, before I dive into what each of these look like for us and really kind of how we reflect on them, I want you to know take what you like and leave the rest. This is what's so wonderful about this is you can take this and you can change it and just adapt it to fit your needs. You do not have to do this with a spouse by any means. You can do this 100% alone. So don't think that you can't do this just because I do it with my husband. And you can also involve your children. We've started involving our children this year, which has been wonderful.
Speaker 0:The first thing we set a goal for is our faith, and we ask ourselves what can we do to improve our faith and connection with God? And sometimes this looks like being more intentional about praying together as a family. Sometimes it looks more personal, like in the past, my husband and I have each completed the Bible recap where you read the Bible in a year and you listen to a really short podcast episode every day reflecting over the reading. Sometimes it just looks like being more intentional about going to church every single Sunday. So we always choose just one to two things that we want to accomplish when it comes to our faith and, like I said at the end of the episode, I'm gonna give you a sneak peek into a lot of the goals that actually I set for this year.
Speaker 0:The second thing we look at is family and we set goals for our family and our marriage. We try to be really intentional about something we wanna achieve either individually, as a family, or as a couple, in this family goal. So for us, that in the past has looked like when our children were younger having one of them potty trained that year or identifying sight words, and for us as a couple it has been specific about date nights or even having dedicated time alone, where we put our phones away after the kids go to bed for 30 minutes and just, even if it's just watching a TV show together, just doing something together. So we ask ourselves, what do we want to really work on and prioritize for our family and our marriage. Then the third section is fitness. I call it fitness because it starts with an F and I like a good, I want them all to start with the same letter. But this really just encompasses our overall health, right? Not necessarily just fitness, but health wise. What do we individually want for our health? So in the past, for my husband, he really likes to work out from home. We have a whole gym setup for him, and so his has been to go through certain programs, however many times each year at home his at home workout programs. For me it might be to feel good in my body or get down to a certain clothing size where I know that I feel great in, or even just be very intentional about my eating or cooking so many healthy meals at home and being intentional about that. So fitness for us really encompasses our overall health.
Speaker 0:And then our last one, and my favorite arguably, is finances, and these are money goals that we have for our family. So in the past these would be related to paying off debt or saving money. Now we are very intentional about investing goals. I also set different financial goals for my business, so I'm not gonna dive into my business goals, but I do something very similar for my business and my business finances and spending income, revenue, all those things, but it really does tie into our financial goals as well. Now I do want you to know that we set these individually and for our family. So in my notes app I have a section that says Allison, and there I have it say Faith, family, fitness and Finances, and then I have another section for my husband, matt, and his says the same Faith, family, fitness and Finances. Now our family goals usually match, but the rest of them and our financial goals usually match. Sometimes mine are different just because I have my own business goals that I'll sometimes throw in there, but the rest of them are really individualized for what each person wants. One thing that happened this year was my husband and I were working on these goals and we were in my office and my oldest son walked in and it was so cool because he was able to hear some of the goals that we were setting for our family. He even made some suggestions for our own goals and we were asking him about his goals as well. So it was just a really wonderful way to have this kind of natural conversation just around being intentional about the upcoming year.
Speaker 0:Before I share my goals some of my goals I do want to give you three tips when it comes to setting these goals. First, I do recommend checking in on your goals every quarter. That's just four times a year, and I mean the first time you set them. That's one down, if you will. So I do recommend checking in on them. You can add this to your calendar to just have a 10 or 15 minute slot in your calendar four times a year, that just says goals, so you can go back and remind yourself of them. I'm not talking this thorough check-in process where we track data. If that's your thing, do it. That's definitely not my thing, but for me it allows me to say, okay, have I been following up on this or have I completely forgotten about it? And so having that kind of check-in time allows you to reevaluate, maybe tweak a goal, maybe say, hey, this is actually completely unrealistic. Let me reset a goal or edit this to where it's something that is actually achievable in the year.
Speaker 0:The second thing that I recommend doing, especially for financial goals, is to break down your goal into monthly chunks. This makes it easier and more realistic to achieve because you have these smaller goals. So instead of saying I wanna pay off $12,000 of debt this year, you could say I wanna send $1,000 a month to this debt. That takes that bigger goal that can feel impossible and it breaks it down into these smaller, achievable goals that you can track and really feel good about when you're reaching them.
Speaker 0:Tip number three and I've already mentioned this, but I think it should be said again is to remember that this goal-setting thing that you're doing, even though you might want to do this with your partner or your family, you don't have to have them on board to set goals. You don't have to even have a partner to set goals. So I want you to still set goals, and that means, yes, still set family goals, still set financial goals If you're, even if your partner is not on board, that's okay. Just because they might not be into goal-setting does not mean that it can't be a wonderful tool for you to just really guide you throughout the year and be intentional about really every aspect of your life this year. Now, if one of your money goals or your financial goals is to write a budget that works, a budget that allows you to still spend money on what you love, like going out to eat or getting a nice latte here and there, or spending money on home decor while paying off debt or saving money, making progress financially.
Speaker 0:If that's one of your goals this year is to pay off debt, save money and write a budget that allows you to live a life you love without cutting out all the fun, then I wanna invite you to join the Inspire Budget Inner Circle. This is an online membership that guides you through the specifics of creating and sticking to a budget enabling you to pay off debt, save money and invest for your future. It's a journey you won't have to embark on alone, as you'll be part of a community of hundreds of women all striving towards financial freedom. I started this membership back in 2019 and it has helped thousands of women pay off debt, save money and just have a better relationship with their finances. When you join, you receive access to core lessons for a strong start, a step-by-step guidance, expert interviews, budget reviews and actionable plans. Plus, you get access to an exclusive Facebook group, which offers a supportive environment for sharing successes and challenges, along with a monthly live Q&A session with me and savings challenges that we complete as a community. And yes, there are prizes.
Speaker 0:This membership isn't just about managing your money. It's about transforming your financial perspective and reaching your money dreams with practical, proven strategies. If you're interested, the doors are open until Sunday night, so they do close on January 7th at 11 pm Eastern Standard Time. If you wanna get in, now is the time to join us and really just make 2024 the year that you take back control of your money. Because I'm telling you, when you are willing to spend a season working on your finances and lay that strong foundation, you can spend the rest of your life living in abundance and have peace of mind and less stress when it comes to your money. If you're interested in joining us, then you can click the link in my show notes or go to inspirebudgetcom. Slash inner circle.
Speaker 0:Okay, now it's time for me to pull back the curtain and share some of my goals for 2024. Now, I'm not gonna share all of them, just because some of them are personal, but I will share one or two goals from each section. So, in terms of faith, one thing that I used to do and I really got out of in 2023 was I had this kind of quiet morning time. I would take my kids to school, I would come home and I would drink my coffee, do my journaling, maybe read a devotional, and it was really a great way to start off my work day, my work week, just really. I did this Monday through Friday, unfortunately in 2023, or really just the end of 2023. I got out of the habit of this, just as our schedules have changed and, as a mom, my schedule has changed with taking kids and dropping them off and helping in the morning. So I want to get back into that. I can't let a schedule change get in the way. So my goal in terms of faith is to really carve out just 15 minutes every morning to read a page in a devotional. I'm going to start with the Jesus Calling devotional I already have it and spend a little bit of time journaling. I have a pink chair in my office that I love. I'm going to sit there with my coffee, maybe have some light music going on, and I really want that to ground my day. So that is my goal, or one of my goals for faith.
Speaker 0:For fitness, my one of my goals is to strengthen my legs muscles. I know this is not sounds so weird. This is probably TMI, so my knees won't hurt. I have some really bad knee pain. I've gone to an orthopedist, I've done some physical therapy and I know what I need to do to make it to where my knees don't hurt and it has nothing to do with my knees, it has everything to do with my legs. So I really want to be good about doing my physical therapy exercises at home so that way when I do workout and I'm going on long walks or hiking, I don't have a lot of knee pain in my right knee. Sorry if that was too much information, but see how, like these goals, these fitness goals, don't necessarily do with weight. They don't necessarily do with eating. Like, I really want to be healthy. I don't want to be in pain when I'm going on hikes with my family, so I know what I need to do to get there and do that.
Speaker 0:My second fitness goal that I'm willing to share with you is to attend 150 burn boot camp sessions. I started back in August going to burn boot camp and I really really like it. It is expensive but I'm willing to pay for it because it means that I'm actually working out. I'm more willing to show up. I'm actually going to a session this afternoon. I'm very excited about it. So my goal in 2024 is to complete 150 classes. Let's do the math to see how many that comes out to on average each week. Okay, that comes out to 2.8 classes a week. So really I try to aim for three to four classes a week, but of course there are some weeks whenever I'm traveling or work is really crazy and maybe I don't go. So my goal for 2024 is to complete 150 boot camp sessions. Those are my two fitness goals. So I have my physical therapy, working on my physical therapy stretches and exercises at least five days a week and then also completing 150 burn boot camp sessions, which you better believe I'm going to break that down into a monthly goal because I don't want to wait till the end to try to reach that For our family goal.
Speaker 0:We really are trying to focus on helping our children just contribute more around the house. One of the things that we're going to be really good about doing is making them do their own laundry on the weekends. Here's the deal. I started doing my own laundry when I was in fifth grade, and this is when I feel like it was a little more complicated, because for our kids, they just have to throw two Costco laundry pods in the washing machine and we didn't use laundry pods, we used the liquid or the powder growing up. So we do want them to start doing their own laundry and obviously we're going to help them with that. And then we also want them to load the dishwasher every night. I even printed off a planner page for each of my kids that we hang on the fridge, and this was whenever I pretty much hit a point this past year of feeling like our kids were not contributing enough.
Speaker 0:I'm sure every mom has reached that point where you say this is it, we are doing something different. And I did it. I got their input. We put different things that they need to do every single day. Okay, here's an example. So on Monday I have literally every day of the week and it just says backpack and shoes away. Like when you get home, put your backpack in the closet under the stairs, that's where it goes, don't leave it out and put your shoes in a shoe cabinet. We have homework. So not every day they have homework, but if they do, they need to complete it. Pick up downstairs. So at the end of the night before we go upstairs and get them ready for bed, and they get ready for bed. I just want them to pick up downstairs. If they got to blink it out, don't leave it out on the ground. If you have your stuff out, put it away and then put your dirty clothes in the hamper, like, don't leave them on the bathroom floor. So those are some examples of just their planner. And then two days a week, one of my children has to go outside and pick up dog poop in the backyard, and two days a week the other child has to help clean out the litter box. I really don't think it's asking a lot, to be honest, but this is where we stand right now with what we're doing for our kids. So I just want them to be actively checking off their planner page during the week so that way we actually are holding them accountable to sharing some of the household chores and expectations in this house, and it doesn't just fall on the two of us.
Speaker 0:Okay, for finance, I'm really excited about this Right now. My husband and I, we don't have any debt other than our mortgage. So we do have our mortgage that we are paying on and we send a little bit extra to principal every single month, but we're not focusing on paying that off really fast because we do have an crazy good interest rate. It's 2.5% on a 15 year mortgage and I think we only have like 12 years left. So we are set when it comes to that.
Speaker 0:Our goals instead are really focused, when it comes to finances, on investing. I have this big goal of getting to the point where, in about six years, I want to have enough invested that we can stop investing and just let our money grow and reach our goal by the time we are retired. So as long as we continue to do what we're doing now, we should be able to do that. So our goal is, for me personally, to max out my solo 401k for 2024. My business is also investing into my retirement, which is awesome. My goal is to basically max that out on both sides. This year I was able to do it for 2023 and it was wonderful. That was the first year I did it like completely maxed out and I'm like let's keep doing this, I love it.
Speaker 0:Then the other thing that my husband and I do have a goal of is to max out some Roth IRAs. So we have to do backdoor Roth IRAs because we are above the income limit because of my business. So we do want to max out two backdoor Roth IRAs, which comes out to $7,000 per person. My husband does have a pension, so other than him investing in that backdoor Roth IRA, he really doesn't invest. Well, I guess we do have an HSA, so we are also maxing out an HSA for our family. So we have a lot of really big investment goals and I will tell you that one of the things that has helped us reach these goals year end and year out is that we are very, very careful when it comes to lifestyle inflation, meaning, as our income has increased, we have made sure to not have our cost of living rise the same amount as my income has increased. So we have really, really tried to not increase and inflate our lifestyle. And because we have done that, it has allowed us to really earmark a lot of money into investing and a lot of that money comes out of our paychecks, so we don't even see it. It's pre-tax money, which means that we just get our paycheck and we say this is what we have to live off of, and it's really allowed us to be very mindful of that lifestyle inflation. So I will say that that has been a game changer for us.
Speaker 0:Okay, I am gonna share two other personal goals. I set One thing I wanna do in 2024 is read 50 books. I read 37 books in 2023. My goal was 23 books. I signed up for Libby. I got rid of Audible. I signed up for Libby. I listened to pretty much 90% of the books that I read. It has been a game changer. I love it, and this year I am upping my game and my goal is to read 50 books in 2024. Let's see if I can do it. It feels a little scary. It feels a little unachievable. Is that a word? Unachievable? I don't know. Okay, I feel like this is getting really long. I wanna share one more personal goal I have, and that is to send 10 embroidery gifts to friends. I have started hand embroidery just for fun, as a hobby, and I realized that I don't really wanna have all of these little embroidery hoops sitting around, so I am gifting them to friends who have asked for them. Essentially, I went out on my personal Facebook page I said hey, who wants something in the mail from me? Like no strings attached, I'm not making you pay for it, I just wanna share my hobby with people, and so my goal is to gift 10 of these throughout the year.
Speaker 0:I hope you found this episode inspiring and helpful in that you're ready to set some goals in your own life. As we wrap up, I wanna leave you with this thought Setting goals isn't about making resolutions Okay, it's not about that. It's about creating a roadmap for your future, a roadmap that can lead to financial freedom and personal growth. These goal-setting sessions have been a game changer for my family, and I believe they can be for yours too. So now it's your turn. Take what you've learned today and apply it to your own life. Whether you're setting goals with a partner or doing it solo, you can set your own goals and make them happen. Just don't forget to check in on your goals often, break them down into manageable chunks and, most importantly, remember that you have the power to create the life you desire.
Speaker 0:Before we say goodbye, I do have a quick request. If you've enjoyed this episode and found it valuable, please take a moment to rate and review the Inspire Budget podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners like you, and if you know someone who could benefit from this discussion on setting yearly goals, please share this episode with them. Your support means the world to me. Thank you for being part of this community and I can't wait to join you again next week. Same time, same place. See you then.