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The year in review (and what a year!)

December 22nd, 2014 at 03:36 am

Since everyone is reviewing 2014 and planning 2015, I thought I'd take a look back. Even though we completely threw out our initial plan for the year and went for a daring overreach to buy our dream home. Wink

Here were the goals set for 2014 last December:

- pay off student loans ($12,196)
- cashflow NT's remaining tuition ($6,470)
- renovate US condo bathroom ($5,000)
- renovate UK condo (cashflowing $5400)
- slowly build moving fund (maybe only $50)
- start to rebuild EF after I use it for rest of UK renos (hopefully $4375 [$3475 UK rental + $900 US savings]) and medical EF (probably nothing in 2014)

What we achieved:
- Paid off only about $2000 of student loans; decided to stop paying extra so we could save faster for a home
- Cashflowed about $2000 of NT's tuition; the rest is sitting on a student loan. We have the cash to pay it off but will probably use that cash to get out of the condo and/or pay off part of the duplex seller loan
- renovated not only the bathroom but the rest of the condo, and paid for it all
- the UK reno got put off because our tenant renewed their lease; that's going to happen next year instead
- rather than building a moving fund, we used every scrap of US money we had to buy and move into the duplex
- we still have a decent EF (over $18K) but only because the UK renos haven't happened. They'll wipe out the EF and we'll need to rebuild in 2015

So, a real mixed bag. But, one goal that we weren't meant to achieve until next year or the year after was to buy a new home, so even though it knocked us for a loop, it's still a huge step forward for us.

I checked net worth at the end of 2013 compared with now, and we're at $12,904 higher. Not very much for a year's progress, unless you figure that I valued the duplex $27K less than we paid for it in our net worth, and also devalued the condo by $5K. So our other debt and retirement progress was good, even though I slowed our retirement contributions for the second half of 2014. 2015 should be much, much better in terms of net worth.

I'll only be able to post very general goals for 2015, initially. Once a few things get cleared up I should be able to refine and clarify them. But I'll try to post something before the end of the year.

4 Responses to “The year in review (and what a year!)”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1419220468

    Sometimes no matter how many plans and goals we set for ourselves, life throws us curveballs which set us in a whole new direction. I think you all did pretty well handling the change in plans!

  2. starfishy Says:
    1419250390

    you all achieved a lot of cool things this year - congratulations! NT and AS must be so grateful for your diligence in managing the family's money. i know i greatly admire your skills! Smile

  3. Another Reader Says:
    1419253340

    You bought a house and NT finished his degree. AS took the daring step of leaving her job and becoming a successful contractor. All of that and you are $13k higher in net worth. That's a lot accomplished in a year!

  4. rob62521 Says:
    1419263631

    A lot accomplished! Well done!

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