Overall, 2016 was an exciting year for our family. The good outweighed the bad for us, but I know many people rightfully had very different experiences of 2016. Each year in January I like to set a few goals and in December I like to review the year so here's a look back.
Here were my goals and expectations for 2016:
Personal
Read at least 4 books
I read 3, one of which was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. One was about a fruit (took me all year to finish—not exactly a riveting page turner but I wanted to finish it), and the other was an odd aforementioned field biologist memoir. As in 2015, I also read a lot of online news (print media to a lesser extent), but that doesn't offer the satisfaction of completing a book. I still have an ever-growing stack I want to read.
Make our backyard more playable.
Yes! We got it fenced and erected a makeshift play structure. Much improved!
Make peace with having one child.
Last year I wrote, "By the end of this year I'd like to confidently and happily say we're "one and done" if anyone asks." It took me most of the year, but I'm there. I might elaborate on this in a later post.
Career
Get another job offer.
I got four offers, including my first choice! It was hard to leave my great boss and interesting workplace, but this new position is a great opportunity for professional growth. It was also a raise!
Fix up my website
I hardly did anything beyond the bare minimum, and thankfully it wasn't necessary. But in 2017 I think it needs attention again in preparation for another career move.
Money
Get more life insurance
Didn't do this and didn't really investigate it. Probably should go on the list for 2017.
Move retirement investments & Jon's HSA to accounts with lower fees
We made progress on the Roth IRA investments but not the HSA. We moved all of my IRA out of Pax World and into a lower-fee socially responsible index fund with some in another low-fee index fund.
Refinance or at least change the repayment term on my student loans
Due to other things that happened this year (see below), it didn't make sense to work aggressively on paying down my loans yet but I think we will be able to in 2017.
What else did I think would happen in 2016?
-Adele is going to start preschool somewhere, hopefully at a Montessori school.
Yes! She is at a wonderful Montessori school that we love, and it is mercifully costing us less than her daycare.
-Jon has been working on some long-term projects that will hopefully start earning more money this year.
Yes! He's published now, but we're still waiting on the first royalty check and it's really more a labor of love than a money maker. Another project that took a lot of time and energy this year should be much smoother sailing next year and more profitable too.
-We're planning a fun trip this summer with my parents to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
We did this and it was wonderful. We explored a different part of the country and it worked well for the five of us to travel together.
-There's a chance I might get to travel somewhere exciting for work for a few days, which I would welcome.
Oh boy did I ever. I way underestimated this one. I went on TWO exciting trips before I left my old job and I've been on 3 trips to 3 different countries since I started in September. The recent travel has been a bit too much and I am looking forward to less travel in the immediate future, but I'm sure there will be at least 2 more work-related trips in the first half of 2017.
-If I do travel for more than a few days in a row this year, I think Adele will probably wean.
Even with all of my traveling, she hasn't weaned. I'm fine with that.
-I don't foresee other big events or changes in 2016 right now, but I know that life can throw you a curve ball at any time.
I knew there were decent odds that I might change jobs this past year, but when I wrote my goals we hadn't anticipated Jon make a big career change. We basically sent him back to school for a semester and took on debt to do it. Since we had excellent credit, we put the tuition on credit cards with 0% interest for 15-18 months. It was definitely a gamble, but the whole reason for sending him was so that he will be well-trained for jobs with much higher starting salaries. We put a couple of other big expenses on the 0% cards, including the aforementioned vacation with my parents. We unquestionably lived beyond our means this year, albeit in (mostly) calculated ways. 2017 should be the year of setting the balance straight (more on that in another post).
The last noteworthy thing to happen in 2016 was that my grandmother passed away on New Year's Eve. It was not unexpected and she had been mentally ready to go for a long time, but it is still a big change for my family, especially my parents.
I hope all of my readers are ready for a new chapter in your own lives in 2017. I am thinking about my goals and expectations and will post them soon. Cheers!
2 comments:
I'd like to hear more about your one-and-done mentality - we are there without the biological necessity and I am probably slightly more conflicted about it than my partner. But I do think it's the right decision for us.
Also weaning! I'm ready. This will be the year. :)
Sorry for missing this for MONTHS. My husband and I had always talked about having two kids, until we had one! The birth complications I had were frightening for him (thinking about the prospect of being a single parent) and made my recovery really tough. That first year was really hard for all sorts of compounding reasons. It was at about 6 months that he told me he was terrified of having another kid and I started trying to be ok with the idea of just one. I was really conflicted about it for a while, but then the older our daughter gets, the harder it gets to think about going back to square one with another child. We were in no place financially at the time to have 2 kids close together like I'd imagined. At this point, I travel a lot for work and I really enjoy the freedom of a preschooler. Trump's election sealed the deal for me because of his awful plans for undermining health care (among other things). It just doesn't seem like a good time for us to bring another life into the world, especially if I had similar complications again at delivery. I am still sometimes envious of some of my friends with two kids, but I know it's not rational and I try to work through it. I know there are so many benefits for us having just one and I think it's the right decision. What's the thinking for you & your partner?
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