Finances Goals 2024
- Apply to 365 usability studies
- Applied to ~421 usability studies!
- Make $2500 in side income including study gift cards and cash
- I made more than this from side income including studies, receipt gift cards, Amazon credits from slow shipping, Rakuten, credit card rewards, selling things around the house, book review gift cards, dog/cat sitting, and working a part-time job for 216 hours over 7 months
- Complete 4 mystery shops
- I only completed 1 mystery shop
- Spend less than I make
- Technically from a dollars in to dollars out metric I spent more than I earned by 104%; however, this doesn’t take into account my tax refund I’m expecting as well as the money I invested throughout the year in my HSA and my Roth IRA.
- Save for Japan trip 2025
- I started out saving in the beginning of the year and started purchasing for the trip after that. We’ve already bought the Celebration tickets, flights from Austin – Tokyo, Hotel 1 for Celebration, Hotel 2 for Tokyo, and Hotel 4 for Kanazawa (using airline miles) out of 5 hotels. I also converted some dollars to Yen for initial cash to start. I estimate a third of the trip is already paid for.
Financial Accomplishments of 2024:
- I completed 30 studies
- I earned just over $2,000 from studies last year paid out in gift cards, credits, checks, and cash
- I’ve saved $181.54 on Too Good To Go for the year with 15 bags (the app that lets you rescue unsold food at your favorite spots from an untimely fate and is typically 1/3 the cost of the retail value)
- I earned $82.21 from browser extension Rakuten and $56 from receipt uploading (as gift cards)
- I paid off 4 of the phones on my family plan
- I earned over $500 in interest for my savings in my high-yield interest account with Capital One
- I earned ~$900 in credit card rewards by utilizing my higher-earning card categories (I have a note on which cards are best for which spending categories) and with my newest Chase Sapphire Preferred card welcome bonus offer
- I fully funded both my Roth IRA and my HSA for the year
- My credit score, depending on where it is checked, ranged from 788 – 840
- I sold stuff we no longer loved before moving to earn ~$500 towards our moving costs
Finances Goals 2025
- Apply to 365 usability studies
- Make $2500 in side income including study gift cards and cash
- Complete 4 mystery shops
- Spend less than I make
I like to take the month of January (my birth month) to update my net worth and financial information
I use a retirement calculator to see where I am on my retirement needs journey and fill out the following for the year:
|
Desired Retirement Age |
|
Location |
|
Annual Income before taxes |
|
Social Security Age for Benefits |
|
Yearly savings |
|
Annual Retirement Expenses |
|
IRA value |
|
401k value |
|
Shares ‘value’ |
|
Real estate (sale price – loan) |
|
HSA investments |
|
Precious Metals/Physical Assets Value |
|
General Investing |
|
Emergency Fund + cash |
|
Credit Score |
I take a look at my assets (and net worth) and how they’ve changed over time:
| Asset | 2024 % of value | 2023 % of value | 2022 % of value | 2021 % of value | 2020 % of value | 2019 % of value |
| Stock Shares | 18% | 18% | 13% | 10% | 11% | 16% |
| Real Estate | 32% | 40% | 49% | 41% | 0% | 0% |
| Cash | 4% | 4% | 4% | 8% | 24% | 16% |
| General Stocks | 4% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 21% | 23% |
| Precious Metals | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 4% |
| 401k | 5% | 4% | 4% | 6% | 7% | 8% |
| Roth IRA | 30% | 23% | 20% | 25% | 31% | 32% |
| HSA | 5% | 5% | 5% | 4% | 3% | 0% |
| Total | 2.6% increase | 18.5% increase | 16% increase | 76% increase | 53% increase |
I like to check out where I am according to the government and possible future social security at SSA.gov
I look at how much I adhered to my monthly budgeting over the year and compare it to previous years’ spending:
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Education | na | 2% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | <1% |
| Other – Misc | 2% | 0% | 3% | 1% | 3% | 2% | <1% |
| Charity | na | 1% | 1% | 1% | 0% | 0% | <1% |
| Insurance | na | na | na | na | na | na | <1% |
| Health | 27% | 2% | 4% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Entertainment | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 1% |
| Gift | na | 2% | 4% | 3% | 0% | 1% | 2% |
| HSA contributions from paycheck | 5% | na | na | 4% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
| Fitness | 1% | 1% | 1% | 4% | 2% | 2% | 3% |
| Household and clothing | 3% | 1% | 4% | 2% | 10% | 4% | 3% |
| Groceries | 7% | 10% | 11% | 10% | 6% | 5% | 4% |
| Bills – other (Phone) | 3% | 1% | 4% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 4% |
| Eating Out | 4% | 8% | 3% | 5% | 4% | 3% | 5% |
| Bills – Transportation | 7% | 9% | 7% | 4% | 3% | 5% | 5% |
| Roth IRA contributions | 9% | 12% | 12% | 9% | 6% | 7% | 7% |
| Travel | 2% | 5% | 5% | 3% | 11% | 13% | 8% |
| Bills – Housing+Utilities | 9% | 17% | 17% | 14% | 16% | 15% | 17% |
| Taxes paid | 19% | 28% | 25% | 22% | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| Real Estate Investment | na | na | na | 12% | 13% | 18% | 24% |
Each year I also update my Legacy Binder to make sure the information is correct and accessible:
- Insurance
- Personal Insurance (Disability – short term/long term, Life)
- Renter’s/House Insurance
- Health Insurance
- Car Insurance and AAA if applicable
- Location of Documents/Items
- Lastpass login, iPhone login
- Precious metals
- credit cards/debit cards
- Medical History
- Birth Certificate
- Social Security Card
- Passport
- Last Tax Returns
- Last Will and Testament along with: Durable Power of Attorney for Finances, Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare, and Funeral Wishes
- Driver’s License
- Account Information
- Personal email and calendar
- All banks including HSA and investing brokerage accounts
- Business account and banking if applicable
- Phone plan and account access
- TSA Known Traveler
- P2P digital payment shortcuts
- Previous Addresses including the following information
- Dates lived there
- Landlord and contact information
- Reason for moving
- Rental price
- Emergency Contacts including
- Relationship
- Birthday
- Contact phone number
- Contact email
- Contact address
Rachel Author Barnard 