My Money Goals for 2021
The Year I Become a Finance Woman-Boss…
The time has come for me to talk about something very important to me. My money goals for 2021. If there’s anything I’ve learnt over the past couple of years (especially last year), it’s that financial safety is hugely important. I’m proud that over the past couple of years, my husband and I have really got stuck into getting our finances in order and we’re ready to take them to the next level.
Talking about money isn’t easy. However, It’s something that is hugely important to talk about, especially as women. This year, I’m in the best financial position I’ve ever been in. My wage is the highest it’s ever been, I understand investing and for once, we have a clear idea of what we want to save for.
We have some clear saving goals in mind. Big ones and small ones. But we’re also interested in safety nets, those just in case buckets. Because you’ll never know when you might need it. Here are the three main money goals for 2021…
SAVING FOR A HOME.
The time has come. We are ready to buy a house. We love our rental and have some amazing memories in it. But I’m ready (cause let’s face it, it is me) for a fixer-upper. I want to sink my teeth into designing something that feels more like us, designing and renovating on a bigger level than we have been able to before. Also, we’re ready to be homeowners. We want something that is ours and to start the next stage of our lives.
Saving wise, we have a plan. Both of us signed up to the Help to Buy ISA (ended in November 2019), so we are going to use them up. By rough calculations, we will be in a position to buy within 18 months. We want to save but we don’t want to sacrifice having fun. This is something that a mortgage advisor told us to do, as living like hermits can look bad if you’ve not lived that way before. She also advised that if all we do is save, we’re going to resent the house buying process. So the plan is to find a happy middle. Good savings but also enjoying ourselves.
If all goes to plan, we will be able to buy a house within 2022. We’re doing this all on our own, no family help. Just us two. It’s going to be hard and a long journey, but we’re excited to start it.
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INVESTING OUR MONEY.
Something that I have become very interested in and I’ve played with on a small scale. Investing your money is important for growing your wealth. There are two types of investments, stocks and bonds. For the moment, we are going to invest in stocks. I’ve been using an app called Trading 212 and I would recommend it anyone wanting to dip their toe into investing. If you’re interested in a free share, you can click here on my referral link to get one. Investing is something you 100% need to research into, so please speak to experts before diving in if you are unsure in any way.
In terms of investing, we are starting with a small sum of £10 a month. I’m hoping to increase this into the hundreds once we’ve got our other saving areas up and running. The plan is to keep investing for the next 35 years and to head into retirement with a nice little nest egg. Stocks are for the long-term. Bonds are short term and as soon as we have more money to invest, this is something we’re going to look into.
STOP LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK.
We are finally heading into that stage of our lives where we don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck. This again is a slow goal, but the plan is to use my budgeting spreadsheet and act like we’ve spent £50 on it, taking it out of our available balance. The next month, we’ll move that over and add another £50.
Eventually, we’ll keep doing this and have a nice nest egg that will allow us to not feel like we’re spending our last tenner the week of Pay Day. This money will be for urgent small emergencies if we need to travel somewhere quickly or buy a small ticket item. Along with our larger emergency saving pot, we will be in a good position whatever that month throws at us.
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