Financial Goals for 2019

Well, I'm back and this is my first year really focusing on becoming financially independent so I don't have to work until I'm 65. I don't mind working but I'd much rather have the choice to work than being forced to because I wasn't responsible enough in my 30s.

• Use Mint to keep track of all income, spending and investments. As well as set budgets for myself as I tend to spend more than what I should especially when it comes to transportation since I love to drive and probably make many unnecessary trips.

• Increase my total dividends for all accounts to $150. I don't have all my Consolidated 1099's so I don't know what my total was for 2018 yet but I will post that here when I get them.

• Increase my income. If I'm going to do this whole become financially independent thing, I'm going to have to increase the amount of money I make because a wage from my W-2 job as a staff accountant isn't going to cut it. How? I'm not exactly sure but hey my parents always said I was good at figuring stuff out so I guess I have that going for me. 

• Increase my 401k Contributions. Already done. I guess I can chop this line item off the list right? Wrong.  Increased from 106.66 to 146.66, not nearly enough. That's only $3,519.84 a year. Honestly, I wish I could max it out but on my salary, there's no way unless I find another income source. 

•  De-clutter. I currently own  a 1999 F-150 with 217,000 miles. It's seen better days and will most likely see the scrap yard sometime this year unless I can find someone to sell it to. I also own a 1994 Pontiac Firebird Formula with a blown motor, I need to either get the ball rolling on fixing it or just junk it.

•  Increase my emergency fund and pay down debt. I have some credit card debt from some of my younger, stupid, more irresponsible days. Around $5,000 with one student loan at $2,800. I'm  hoping to have this paid off by summer, $2,668 of that $5,000 is 0%, so I'm not in too much of a hurry to pay that one down. My emergency fund has $2,000, I'd feel better with around $5,000. This blog for me to share my journey into FI but to also hold me accountable. 

Those are my goals for 2019 thus far and I'm sure I will add new ones as the year progresses. I'm going to try and post at least twice a week. There's so much content out there already on FI and the different avenues people took to get there, but until we meet again.