Post your 2021 Year in Review and 2022 Plans

[CordMcNally]

I first read your statement and wondered why you are wishing someone to go broke , before reading the quoted words! 😀

I only wish nothing but the best for people.

[artemis]

It's blasphemy to have an outdoor kitchen in SD and not make use of it

I don't know, I think I could happily do without an outdoor kitchen in South Dakota (especially in January and February).

[NumberWhizMD]

We love our backyard, but not huge cooking outdoors people as dislike the bugs that come with it so rarely commit cooking beyond firing up the gas grill through on steaks/tritip and turn off.

To that, we elected NOT to put in an outdoor kitchen at our new home and two landscapers thought wrong way to go (other two were fine without it). So how many people here really use their outdoor kitchen routinely? We use the grill a bit (2-3/month may-oct) but not anything else - frig/green egg/oven/sink. We redirected those funds to the pool money pit

The pool was on next year's agenda. With a newborn on the way, we've decided to delay it for now. Mostly because of the safety concerns with a newborn and a pool. Maybe we just delay the kitchen and put more into the pool fund, as summers here can be pretty hot!

[JBME]

Alright, I've done the update. Numbers could be different by Dec 31 depending on the market and also one more paycheck to come in this year that will add at least $2500 to the 401ks with the contribution and match.

Age: 40

Quarter End	Retirement Balance	Change from Previous Qtr
Q4 2020	$1,013,000
Q1 2021	$1,124,000	8.6%
Q2 2021	$1,232,000	8.7%
Q3 2021	$1,247,000	1.2%
Q4 2021	$1,332,000	6.4%

Not as volatile as 2020. NW increased by $425k, to $1.375m. Gross taxable income was $307k and made $304k in retirement accounts, so next year if it's a "normal" market year, we'll exceed our salaries. I know the math is a bit off...due to rounding and gross taxable is different than gross and I don't have gross on me at the moment.

Milestones:
1) refinanced house earlier than I expected due to rate drops and locked in jumbo 2.5% on the primary home. Even with that rate, we're going for an aggressive paydown. Pretty easy math as my oldest will be in college in 10 years and the mortgage is just around $500k so we'll be paying down ~$50k per year for the next 10 years b/c I want that gone by the time college starts. I realize the math is more complicated due to amortization.
2) Wife put in notice to cut back from 1 FTE to .9 FTE. Will be effective in Jan/Feb 2022.
3) I dabbled in what I hope will be a second career from 40/41 into retirement. Will bring joy but lower salary. Made $1000 doing it this year (woohoo?).

Goals next year:
1) We're actually going to cut back a little on the saving. We've been saving around 30% gross to retirement these last 5 years years. I think we'll contribute more like 22-24% in 2022. We're cutting back the saving so that my wife's take home pay doesn't decrease even though she'll have a ~10% pay cut due to FTE cutback. Will max a governmental 457 and one 401k but will not max the other 401k and will only contribute up to the match. I know some will say we're cutting back the savings too early. I'll note that if the rule is 20% to retirement, we're still following the rule with this cut back. One big reward of saving early and often is you can cut back the savings early and often, as long as you have a plan.
2) Get the mortgage balance to $450k.
3) Will attempt part of a career transition. Hoping to stay 1/2 time at my current gig and go 1/2 time to the new gig/career to retirement. Not sure how successful I'll be because the right opportunity has to arise and I need my current supervisor to agree to it (already checked and HR said it's kosher). That will also mean a less dramatic salary decrease for me.
4) First international trip in 9 years with my wife, very excited.
5) 2-3 national trips with the kids instead of the normal 1-2 (bumping up the spending to create memories)
6) Get net worth to $1.75m as a stretch goal, at least $1.5m in retirement accounts.

[xraygoggles]

expenses would be more ( if we find a house )
have 200K sitting in bank for a year for downpayment, max budget 900 K
Current home equity : roughly 400 K
shall I just keep money for 10 percent downpayment and DCA rest ( I don’t have courage for lump sum)

I had a similar dilemma, re: large cash bucket and possible RE purchase next year. What I'm doing: keeping all of the cash in VTEB rn, including the excess. Then slowly sell some from there and add to equity allocation monthly. Basically slowly DCA, to avoid dreaded lump sum and immediate dip possibility.

[ObgynMD]

2021: started actually tracking our NW and realized this year we made more from our investments than what we put into the market. Decided to decrease working hours a little bit.

2022: going to save less (30% instead of 40%) and hopefully get to go on a few vacations, but it will depend on vaccine availability for our 2-5yo kiddos. Going to try to worry less and practice more gratitude.