I just looked back on my goals I set at the beginning of this thread. Wow...that seems like another time altogether. So much changed since I made those goals, making them moot.
Husband didn't retire from the military after all, but got another 3 year active duty extension.
The whole pandemic quarantine happened, causing us to overuse our elliptical, which then broke, prompting the purchase of a new one.
I decided not to pay off my husband's car, because, well...I really don't know why. The payment isn't causing any strain on our finances, so I guess I'd rather just see our savings grow.
I OBVIOUSLY didn't end up needing my
Disneyland AP renewal fund.
We got that nice stimulus payment back in May, so that was unexpected.
I did pay off my $8000 balance transfer. I did cash flow the $5000 elliptical purchase. I haven't run up the credit cards with any new debt.
We are finishing the year with a savings account balance right around $20,000. I'm happy with that. $12000 of that is designated to our military retirement emergency savings (end goal is $72,000 on that one, which is $2000/month until June 2023). Our vacation fund has $7000 and our emergency savings is around $1400. If we get another stimulus check, I'll split it between vacations and emergency savings. I had a goal to save up at least $2000/month this year, and I mostly met it, but had to withdraw the chunk for the elliptical in September, so ending off around $20,000 is a success! I splurged on a lot of little luxury purchases this year, but don't feel at all bad about it.
Looking forward to next year and hopefully upping my game on the monthly savings. I want to try and do at least $3000/month.