Ring In The New Goals

December 10th and I'm already thinking about my goals for 2018.

If you remember my list from last year, you'll see how much I hit and where I missed the mark, one in a good way.

A little over a year ago, in the Financial Basics Lesson 2, I wrote out some of my long term goals.

While some have been fulfilled, others haven't and some no longer exist.

I'm no longer worrying about how to take care of Mom, she is now with God.

I'm still working on getting good homes for her three remaining cats who are staying with me for the time being, however I would like to find them good, permanent homes.

I now have a bunch of stuff in storage that needs to be gone through, but I still have a house full of stuff in boxes from last year's craziness when I got hit with bed bugs (they are gone).

I've hit rock bottom emotionally, but I'm slowly working my way up.

1.  I'm having blinds put into the windows.  The cats have been destroying the curtains.

2.  The next on the list is to get the HVAC and hot water heater replaced.  I still need to make that call.

3.  I need to finish the last of the probate in calling the medical people Mom owed money to.  We'll see how that goes in the coming week.

4.  I need new flooring in my home, but this will need to be done slowly, room by room.  As one room is finished, that work will stop while I get furnishings put in there that will reduce the boxes currently in the house as well as the stuff in storage.

     a.  The Master Bedroom will be first, I have my bed frame and a large bookcase in storage that will need to be moved in.  This will allow for books that have been in boxes around the home to be given new homes.  I will need to purchased an all new mattress and box springs as those were bad and left for disposal at Mom's house.

     b.  The guest bedroom will be second.  Once the flooring is done there, I will be able to get some Ikea furniture purchased, delivered and assembled for that room, namely bookshelves and a window bench.  A bed frame and mattress will need to also be purchased and installed into the room.  More books will find new homes and more of the items in storage will be brought into that room.

     c.  The living room, dining room and kitchen will be third.  A new sectional sofa with storage will be purchased, delivered and assembled from Ikea.  Some of the furniture that exists in the room will be rearranged.

     d.  The office will be last.  This is the room that has the most clutter to it, however some of that clutter will either been gone through for donations, sales or scanned and shredded.  More Ikea shelving will be purchased, along with a desk system for the closet.

Will this all get done in 2018?  I have no idea.  Number one will get done in 2017, I'm hoping number 2 will also be done in 2017.  Number three has to be done in 2017, the deadline is December 29th to close out the probate.  Number four is going to be the big question, but it will be taken slowly.

The bathrooms are not on the list as they will be gutted for new fixtures, flooring, lighting, everything.

In the meantime, because of my change in family situation, as well as financial situation, I re-visited the Budget Binder video from the beginning of 2017 to see what works for me - and what I will need to tweak for my situation.  The forms available for purchase are wonderful, however I'm a Google Sheets nut and know how to create my own, so that is what I did, based upon how my mind works on this stuff.

Here is what I came up with:

Sinking Fund Balance Sheet

A few changes I made to the sheets used in the video below:  The Sinking Fund Balance sheet is more of a general ledger used in accounting, and I changed it to look more like that, including a starting balance for the sinking fund.  It resembles the ledgers used for checking account books.

I changed the checklists to include $$ amounts with the names of the bills/sinking funds.  I don 't know about you, but I don't have memorized how much I should expect to pay each month.  Plus, having these amounts written down will make the budgeting easier, rather than having to look it up every month when I write out the budget.  I hope that makes sense.  Also, as great as it is to have a checklist to remind myself to pay bills, I think it will be helpful for me to keep a checklist of paying my "sinking fund bills" as well.

When I filled out the Monthly bill checklist, I added in the blank space on the bottom of the printout for the annual payments for property taxes and life insurance policies.

I didn't include the Financial Goals list as the one I made is pretty much identical to the one available for purchase.  The only "tweak" I made is the reminder to make your goals SMART.

Also, there will be more details about the goals and the steps I need to do to accomplish those goals on my Daily Task Schedules.