2018 Goals

I’ve spent some time re-jigging our budget in the expectation of DH having his hours cut later in the year and setting some goals for 2018. I’m aiming high as I really just want to get this mortgage paid off asap and reach those retirement savings goals.

2018 Goals

Finances:
Home Mortgage- get balance under $100,000
Retirement Savings: Increase balance by $50,000
Redraw: balance: $0
Credit Card balance: $0
Extra Income: $10,000

Health:
weight < 70gs

To earn extra income I’ll be using the money I get from doing surveys, credit card and loyalty card discounts, cashrewards and selling stuff we no longer need as well as doing some extra work. We need to declutter a large four bedroom home down to fit into a four room unit, so there will plenty to get rid of and sell off.

I also want to reduce my food & grocery spending so I’m going to make a page to track that. We have three adults to feed and I have lots of food allergies which impacts on the bill combined with the others being fussy! I’d love to get it down to $100 /week but not sure how we’ll go. But I’ll give it my best shot.

What a difference a day makes…

I was feeling pretty down about DH’s work to get cut back in six months after we had spent quite some time working out the calculations for our retirement in five years time. But the following day I was asked to apply for some online contract work with a company I had recently registered with.

Today I spoke with them and if I get the work it would pay three times the rate of pay of I currently earn! I am gobsmacked at the pay rate, I’ve done similar work in the past but the rate was a third less, minus me paying for room rental and GST which reduced it down to the same as what I earn at work. I will have no overheads with this as I’ll work from home.

My plan is to take on some extra work and pay it all off the mortgage. 12 hours a week would double my current income, though I probably won’t do that much. But if working online can get me to retirement sooner I’m in! So tomorrow I have to redo my resume, set up my online profiles and get photos done then complete my application.

I’d love to be able to leave my job before five years  – who knows – this might be an option that allows me to do that.

A spanner in the works..

well, just as all our plans and calculations are looking good here, we just got thrown an unexpected curve ball today. hubby got called in to the office and told they want to reduce his job hours to part time. They want him to do more duties, but in less days – an impossible task!  Since this new management took over they have laid off four staff and one resigned two weeks ago.

Management doesn’t seem to understand the industry they work in (a non-profit) has different values, goals and regulations to corporate cut throat business world they come from. Anyway, we have a few months till they are going to cut his hours. Its a real bummer in terms of our budget. It could be a sign they are moving to lay him off and trying to making him quit first to save money. So I’m not sure whats going to happen but in the mean time we just need to stick to our plan and focus on cutting the budget.

I did the grocery shopping this morning. Spent $99.03
At the moment I’m making cottage pie for dinner to use up some leftover roast beef.