Goals – January 2020

Goals - January 2020 | RISING*SHINING
I love the way we started 2020: I went to bed at 8:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and slept for eight hours (yes!), I went to a morning Orange Theory class, and then we spent the day at home organizing my office and the garage while the boys biked around with friends. I love starting the year with the habits I want to continue. I also potted new succulents for my office since I have a loose tradition of planting something new on New Year’s Day.

This is going to be a big year and I’m excited to get it started.

Big things happening in January:

+ Third trimester begins!

+ The boys return to school. I love the holidays but I also really love our school routine and the quiet work hours I get during the day.

+ Trip to Austin with Cedric. I’ve taken Dash with me on a trip to Austin for the past two years and I wanted to make sure to fit in a trip for Cedric before our baby girl arrives.

+ Chris takes a weekend trip.

January goals:

+ Start an allowance system for the boys. The boys are really interested in money but so far their/our management of it is not systematic. I really like the principles outlined in The Opposite of Spoiled which includes a regular allowance not tied to chores/responsibilities and using three different jars for save, spend, give. To make this easy for us I want to get several weeks worth of allowance from the bank so we aren’t scrambling for cash every week. I also ordered these three-part piggy banks (save, spend, give) for the boys.

+ No added sugar challenge. I’ve mentioned that I loved my month of no added sugar last February as part of my 12 monthly health challenges. Chris and I decided to start the year off by repeating this challenge. I reviewed my post on what I ate during a month of no added sugar to prepare and am already enjoying it.

+ Get the boys’ new room and nursery painted.

+ Make mega list of everything we need/need to do before baby and start getting stuff done. Twelve weeks until the due date – it’s go time!

+ Start working on our 2019 family photo book.

Recurring monthly goals:

+ Track spending in Mint.

+ Have a budget meeting with Chris.

+ Put phone away at 5 p.m.

 

Happy January!

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8 responses to “Goals – January 2020”

  1. Quynh Tram Nguyen Avatar
    Quynh Tram Nguyen

    any chance we can get an update of your Matrimoney podcast – would love to hear your reflection on 2019, and how you’re approaching 2020 financially!

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      We’ve put the podcast on hold for now, I’m sorry! We just weren’t prioritizing it so we’ve let it go for now. But I’ll consider doing a financial post, thank you for asking!

      Reply
    2. Amy Avatar
      Amy

      I would love to know if you paid off your house or put your “big pot of money” to another good use.

      Reply
    3. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Hi Amy! In 2018 we used a big chunk ($32,000) of our non-retirement savings to buy a piece of investment property, about 1/3 of an acre of vacant land in a neighborhood in San Antonio. My dad is realtor in Austin and the opportunity came up through him so that’s why we purchased so far from us. We also used some to install solar panels on the house in 2018. Since we have a very low interest rate (2.875% I think) on our mortgage and a 15 year mortgage (maturing in 2031) we will probably not focus on paying off the house early in the next few years. But that could shift as we are hopefully able to save more in coming years. Thanks for asking!

      Reply
  2. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    Hi Kelsey, as an expectant first-time mother to be, I would love any insight/tools/tips into how you organize baby stuff! 🙂 I’m finding it very overwhelming!

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Hi Kate! Oh that’s so exciting – congratulations!! I think my main tip for organizing baby stuff is not to acquire too much to begin with. And to be ready to donate/let things go if you find you aren’t using them. I would also say to think about functional use, group things together, and then designate places for them to “live.” Otherwise things will end up everywhere and it will be hard to tidy up So for example for feeding things you will probably need to clear out a cabinet shelf or two. Have a basket for toys in the family room where they can all return to. And for clothes I would highly recommend drawer organizer boxes to help keep clothes tidy. Clothes accumulate so fast so be mindful of when a drawer is too full and be ready to let some clothes go or have a system ready for packing things away for the next baby if you’ll be saving items. I think a little planning and intention can go a long way and it’s great you are thinking about it already!

      Reply
  3. Bonnie Avatar
    Bonnie

    Hi Kelsey! I’d love more details on your phone use and what you mean by putting your phone away at 5 pm – do you mean you don’t check it again for the night?

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      I usually play music on my phone while I make dinner and while we eat some phone will be out but after 5 I will turn on airplane mode + wifi + do not disturb so I can play music but not get any notifications or calls. And after dinner I put my phone away in my closet or often turn it all the way off and put it in my closet. That is the ideal situation and I do it often. Sometimes I do end up looking at my phone or scrolling after 5 pm but it never makes me feel better so I continue to strive for no phone use after 5 pm. When I go to turn it off after dinner I’ll usually glance to see if I have any kind of ASAP text message (very rare) but leave any other text messages to be answered the next day. I hope that helps!

      Reply

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