2017 Financial Priorities


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2017 Financial Priorities

It’s 2017! And even crazier, we’re already a week and a half into January. It’s that time of year for new goals, new plans, new beginnings, and yup — new budgets. There’s no better time to prioritize (or reprioritize) your finances than now. Johnny and I have a few things we’d like to reprioritize this year, the first of which is OFB. We’re just as passionate and nerdy over personal finance as ever, but we haven’t had the time to write about it very much these past few months. 2016 was our first full year of self-employment, and running a small business was a round-the-clock job. Truth be told, it’s still a round-the-clock job. But we’re trying to put processes in place so that 2017 is a year of working smarter, not harder, so we can spend more time on some of our other passion projects, like OFB. But before we dive headfirst into our 2017 editorial calendar, here are the deets on a few of our 2017 New Year’s financial resolutions:

Stop renting, start buying: We’re hoping 2017 will be the year we become homeowners (fingers crossed!). We’ve been waiting a long time to pull the trigger on home buying, but since we’ve set up shop with our business in SLC, we feel like we can finally put down roots somewhere. We understand that house hunting is a process, and we’re in no rush to make a decision. If we can’t find a house that fits our needs, we’re planning to rent another year. Part of me wants to just keep renting because the idea of buying stresses me out!

Grow our business: We’re hoping 2017 will be another year of growth for our business. Growth means spending more money upfront, but we’re hoping it will also mean we’re able to save more money down the road. In a lot of ways, being self-employed is more stressful, and it’s definitely 100x more complicated. But there’s also more opportunity for growth. We have goals and plans, and only time will tell how it all pans out.

Invest: Johnny is hoping to spend more time this year making sure our money is invested appropriately. He geeks out over that stuff, so I just let him run with it. He spent hours one day over Christmas break switching my old 403b to an IRA. He’s also been trying to consolidate some of our banking accounts so we can track our spending as easily as possible. Having a business has really complicated our finances, so we’re doing whatever we can to keep our personal finances as simple and separate from our business as possible.

Save, save, save: As always, we’re hoping to save as much as possible. It’s harder to project our savings since our income isn’t as cut-and-dry anymore, but we’re hoping to spend as little as possible (aside from maybe buying a house!), save as much as possible, and focus on growing our business.

What are some of your financial resolutions for 2017, and how are you planning to make them happen? And what would you like to see on OFB this year?

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10 Comments

  • Reply Rebecca Williams January 10, 2017 at 8:56 am

    Well this year is a big change for my family- we will be switching to just one income and becoming parents! Like I said big changes.

    We are going to pay some stuff off before I stop working, but since our recent military move took us someplace with limited job opportunities my current job just doesn’t pay enough to go back to after LR joins us this Spring.

    Any suggestions on figuring out switching from two incomes to one income?

  • Reply Shawn L. January 10, 2017 at 9:47 am

    Long time no commenting, hope you all are well!

    I think our family goals are very similar to yours – I think we’re behind the curve in comparison to your state, but I think these are the goals we’ve outlined:

    1. Find an Effective Budget Methodology – when we were DINKs or even SINKs it is easy and even fun to budget. But once you throw a human larvae into the mix, the budgeting went out the window. It’s a lot of budgeting on the fly which is not easy nor fun.

    2. Save for a House – We’d love to continue renting a house but with our little donut hole getting bigger, we don’t want to get stuck in the endless cycle of rent increasing and then having to find a cheaper place. We want some stability for him.

    3. Save for Retirement – In addition to the 401K, would love to contribute to my Roth, which has been stagnant as of late.

  • Reply Amanda S January 11, 2017 at 6:16 am

    Can’t wait to hear more from you guys this year!

    For us our goals are:
    1. Lots of savings.
    2.Keep our grocery budget low.
    3. Try and pay for most of our wedding in cash!

    Let’s see how we do!

  • Reply Centsai January 11, 2017 at 10:20 pm

    These were all great goals for 2017! I hope that all of them come true! A goal I have is to travel more but on an affordable budget!

  • Reply Lisa January 13, 2017 at 1:01 pm

    These sound like great goals! Buying a home is such a long and stressful process, so taking your time with the decision is a great idea. For us, our big goal this year was to move out of our hometwon house and into an apartment closer to our jobs and we’re in the process of moving right now!

  • Reply Stephen January 14, 2017 at 3:03 pm

    Good luck on the home ownership goal! It’s a big step!

  • Reply Mike January 17, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    We’re trying to save for a major purchase as well as just general savings. We also want to cut it grocery spending significantly.

  • Reply Melanie January 26, 2017 at 12:01 pm

    Well, 2017 should be a big year for me and my fiance.
    We are in the home search now and hoping to buy a house this Spring/Summer/when we find the right house and hopefully win a bid, haha (apparently it’s quite competitive out there!)
    As if that’s not enough, our wedding is in October, so our goal there is to pay 100% cash for wedding and honeymoon. Everything looks on track for that.
    My fiance is simultaneously working on becoming debt-free before the wedding so we can begin our marriage debt free.
    I think those are quite enough goals for one year. 🙂

  • Reply MomJonz February 7, 2017 at 12:13 am

    Save, save, save. We just moved to Hawaii this year. We will enjoy and love the island life, but cutting out the waste in our grocery bill for sure.

  • Reply McGuire Property management April 1, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    Great content here! I love savings and will do anything to step up my game. Thanks for the refreshing information to help me maintain a strong 2017.

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