I have a good idea where things will land this month.  

Pay cash for college ✔

$10K to Savings ❌

Final tally was $7,633. 

The plan was to use this money to pay cash for college.  At the end of 2024 we had roughly -$0- cash plus emergency funds.  So that's about how it sorted out.  That we had just enough to cash flow college.

We most definitely failed at this goal.  But I just copied the commentary from last year and it still held true.  So I am happy enough to squeak by (with what we need).  

(We did not fail enough to say no to anything that we said yes to.  As long as we had the cash, we were fine with falling short of our goal.)

$7,500 to Investments ❌

Final tally: $5,500

I am trying hard to make taxable investments more important.  But it's the second year in a row that we fell $2K short of our goal.  I probably could have made this a higher priority if I wasn't trying to manage income for a college grant.  On the plus side, this is the only tax year that we have to be careful about our income re: college grant money.

I will keep the $7,500 goal for next year.  Will keep trying.

$2,025 to mortgage ✔

I didn't have any cash available for this goal.  I ended up moving money over from DL(19)'s college rent fund.  I saw my blog title today and that sums it up pretty nicely.  Over prepared (re: college rent money we probably don't need), and now going with the flow.  

Mortgage goal is non-negotiable.  I will not have a mortgage for more than 30 years on this house (while healthy and well employed). 

9% Income to Work Retirement Plans ✔

MH and I both contribute the minimum for 401k match.  The 9% includes employer contributions.

$14,000 to IRAs 2024 ❌

We put $12,000 to 401Ks, instead.

We didn't make this goal but I am fine with it.  I had decided at some point that taxable investing needs to be a bigger priority.  & that I would let go of these arbitrary IRA max numbers.  The $14K max was too stressful. 

Then I wondered if we would put anything into our IRAs.  Most especially because my in-laws told us a week ago that they won't be doing big cash gifts any more.  We shouldn't need a big cash gift to make this goal.  But I am running through the math and it's maybe not realistic to fund college (x2) and also max out IRAs. 

In the end, I got a large work bonus.  I basically have to put to the entire bonus to my 401K.  So we got about 90% of the way there ($12K out of $14K extra to retirement). 

SUMMARY

MH and I were feeling like we need to rein things in a bit.  We were more loose with MH's income this year (after a lifetime of saving everything MH makes).  But we know we were a little too lax this year and were in 'rein it in' mode.  Then we got the in-law cash news which put us into further 'rein it in' mode.  Then I saw that our net worth was up $130K.  So...  Who cares if we spent more money this year.  Clearly we are doing just fine.  Then I got a bonus.  More of the same.  Then I realized I literally can't spend any of this bonus.  (I thought I could at least eke out a few hundred dollars.) 

I think we were mostly in 'relax and live a little' mode (going into 2025) until I remembered that our cash balance is literally $0 (in addition to emergency funds).  It's complicated because we have all this college cash and probably have more cash than we have ever had before.  I am not stressed about it.  But anyway, our personalities are screaming "CODE RED" at us about the cash situation.  We've been treading water since 2022 (big mortgage paydown) but I expected to make more forward progress this year.   Not stressed about it, but clearly something else has to give.

So yeah, I feel up, down, all over the place.  But that's just how everything is any more.  My bonus (an extra $5K) doesn't replace recent in-law cash gifts.  But it leaves me confident that we can keep aggressive savings goals.

I'd say that falling short of cash and investment goals was all about investing in MH's movie this year.  (It's almost done!)  & falling short of retirement goal was due to inflation, and unrealistic new IRA limits.  The increasing IRA limits are arbitrary and just aren't serving us.  I will probably set very similar goals in 2025.  Just because it would be the most efficient to max out IRAs and it's a good reminder if we have unexpected windfalls.  I am still going to set the goal. I swear that thinking it is always 90% of the battle.  Seriously, crazy crazy year and it all somehow worked out.  We will see how 'writing it down but not taking it too seriously' works out.  I think that's why it does work out well to even think it.  I don't know how I am going to come up with $14K IRA money (in 2025) re: income and college expenses.  But the goal will be a reminder if any unexpected money comes our way.  I can see the mechanics of why it works, as opposed to the alternative of not even trying.