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Financial Goals and Increased Income – Many Changes

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 77 Comments

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Recently, I have been receiving many questions about how our financial goals have changed since we now are making more income than we used to make. Even Jordann made a post last week titled How to Spend Your Extra Income.  We definitely need to adjust our financial goals. This is mainly because of all of the side hustles that I am doing, especially since how last month I made nearly $8,000 in extra income.

The extra income that I have been making from my numerous side hustles is amazing. It allows us to do many things, while also paying down my student loans. Yes, I am busy most of the time, but I am much more comfortable and happy with life. And yes, I could be dedicating all of our leftover money and all of our extra income towards my student loans, but I am a believer of enjoying your money as well. I have a well-thought out plan that will enable us to pay off my student loans extremely early in life, so I should be able to have fun as well!

Below are all things that I want to start working on or finishing completely (in large part due to my extra income) within the next 12 to 13 months. Wish us luck!

Pay off my student loans – Read about my Student Loan Payoff Plan

Because of my side hustles, I am able to put a decent sized chunk towards my student loans every month. Without my extra income, I do think that it would be very, very hard for me to pay off my student loans so quickly. I plan on paying them off in May (as in next month). Yes, yes, I kept saying that this would be done this month, but after calculating how much left I owe, how much we would have left in our emergency fund and everything else, my payoff will be pushed to May. Hopefully my student loans are actually DONE for in the month of May.

 

Car loans – hmmm

We have two car loans now, but mainly took out the loans to take advantage of super low interest rates. I don’t think we will be paying the car loans off unless we have tons of extra cash around and don’t know what to do with it all. I don’t see the point in not taking advantage of extremely low interest rates where I can invest the cash and most likely receive a better return. I am going to guess that by the beginning of next year, that we will have most things paid off completely (or have the ability to pay things off completely). It will be a great feeling to be saving so much!

 

Invest more heavily

We invest now, but not by much. Nothing that I would be jumping for joy about. Once my student loans are gone though, I plan on changing that around and start investing more heavily and aggressively. There will most likely be a lot more posts dedicated to investing starting in the summer. How much money do you spend on investments every month? What percentage of your income goes towards investment/retirement, and what type of investments do you have?

 

Save for a down payment for our next house

Like I’ve said 100 times already, we want to buy a new house eventually. We love our current house, but want to buy a second house (and sell our current home) in order to find a place that we love and can grow into a little more easily. We’re unsure of what city in the area that we want to buy in, what kind of house we want, the style and so on, so there are plenty of reasons why we are waiting instead of rushing our second home purchase.

For the mean time though, the plan is to save, save, SAVE for a down payment. We want to put around 30% down on our next house, and any more than that will be awesome as well. We also want to start saving like crazy to furnish the new house with a lot of new things that we are holding back from buying right now.

 

Start having more fun

Yes, we are having fun now, but we also feel very cramped with time. As I said yesterday, we are in the process of hiring a landscaping company who will clean up our yard and also mow the lawn every week. This way we will have more time to do more fun things and not feel constantly rushed to do things around the house.

We also want to use the extra income towards traveling. We travel a decent amount, but I would love to increase this and buy some nice camping gear. This girl right here has never been camping… There are a lot of places on the west coast that we would like to visit and camp at as well.

I would also like to dedicate my extra income towards other fun things such as skydiving, getting my pilot’s license and so on. We even have been thinking about buying kayaks lately as well. Just looking for the perfect one! Without extra income, I don’t know if any of this would even be possible. I’m looking forward to spending more time outside. We also need to start thinking about life insurance!

What are you putting your side income towards? What are your financial goals?

What would you do differently than us?

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. The Norwegian Girl says

    I think your goals are really good, combining sensible goals with more fun ones. It`s amazing that you´re going to pay down your student loans for good in just a month!

    Reply

  2. myfijourney says

    All of my side income goes towards investing. If I had your level of weekly side income, I could probably hit financial independence in half the time. The only loans that I would be concerned with paying off rapidly would be those with high interest. Everything else gets regular payments as I focus on building passive income streams.

    Reply

  3. Holly@ClubThrifty says

    These sound like great goals, Michelle!
    We use our side income to prepay the house. My husband gets some commissions at work, and we usually use those for fun money or add them to our vacation fund. =)

    Reply

  6. Brian says

    I don't really have much "side" income that isn't coming in the form of dividends (cracked $10K last year for the first time!). That income goes right back into the market to generate more income. As far as my normal money 25% goes straight to retirement and the 10% goes towards my travel savings.

    Reply

  9. nicoleandmaggie says

    We're still trying to figure that out. http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/a… (that's the comment I left last time, but somehow it saved in the box and is still accurate!)

    DH is quitting his job next month, and my extra income is allowing that to happen without making us cut our expenses.

    In terms of how much we save, currently we're putting about 40% of our income into tax advantaged retirement accounts and 5% prepays the mortgage. That will drop to 12% of my income alone next year. My side income is making up the difference in DH's missing salary for 2 years, but he'll need to bring something in. Currently our "extra" money goes towards charitable donations to DC1's school. And generally living a frugal but upper-middle-class lifestyle.
    My recent post Never do the following out loud

    Reply

  11. Jenny@FrugalGuru says

    Paying off the house. I want to be completely debt-free, especially given that the fundamentals with government spending still look so very rocky.
    My recent post $1 Million Doesn’t Mean You’re “Rich”

    Reply

  12. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    Looks like you have some great goals! We put ours towards a few things, mainly towards investing and taking care of things we need done around the house and a bit towards the vacation fund.

    Reply

  13. @SavvyFinLatina says

    I think it's great progress! It will be so exciting when you don't have any more student loans 🙂

    Our greatest dream is to reach financial independence sooner rather than later. We realized we don't want to be tied to our jobs forever.

    My recent post Corporate Politics

    Reply

  14. louisianagirl16 says

    If we were going to live here long term, I would be all about throwing all my extra money toward my mortgage. However, since we're selling in 5-7 years (we're military) we make our regular payment plus a little principle each month. Even though it won't help us pay it off any sooner, we'll own more of the house when we go to sell.
    My recent post How to Bargain Shop Like a Boss

    Reply

  15. WilliamBitetheBullet says

    Good idea to pay off the debt first. That's a guaranteed return on your money right there! 🙂 That said… now is the time to learn about investing, not summertime, when you plan to begin doing something about it. Investing is not rocket science, but it's not mowing the lawn, either.

    Getting up to speed before you get serious with investing will ensure you are aware of more options and make better decisions (no self-interest plug there! LOL)

    My recent post Fear Of Investing: Whatcha Gonna Do?

    Reply

    • MakingSenseofCents says

      I know a decent amount about investing as I have a Finance MBA, so I'm ahead of the game 🙂 I also work in the financial industry in investment banking/valuations so I deal with investments ALL DAY LONG.

      Reply

  17. Budget & the Beach says

    Since I don't make nearly as much as you do, I just have to save it and fold it into my freelance income as if it's just another check from a client. Anything extra goes into my emergency fund for an emergency or if I have dry freelance months. Exciting stuff I know!
    My recent post Healing, Perspective, and Hope

    Reply

  18. Kyle@DebtFreeDiaries says

    Right now we're currently reinvesting our extra income from side hustles back into said hustles. The goal is to eventually take on our side projects full-time and leave our job(s). I'm thrilled for the day that I'm making 7-8 grand in extra income each month as well!
    My recent post Finding Our Bearings Part 2 – Creating a Budget

    Reply

  20. mycanuckbuck says

    So far, mine are just going to savings – haven't got enough to do much else! 🙂
    My recent post One way to stick to your finanical goals – tell everyone about them!

    Reply

  21. Lena says

    Oh, I'm so excited for you that you are going to pay off your student loans finally! Life will definitely be much easier for you once they are gone 🙂 Can't wait to learn more from you on investing. We don't invest at the moment because we know very little about it but it's definitely something we always think about.

    Reply

  22. Ashlee says

    I'm so excited about your investing posts. I've been thinking about that a lot lately and actually have been meaning to ask you if you follow any blogs that talk about investments? I'd love to read them!

    Those adventures sound awesome! Especially kayaking! I've always wanted to kayak on the Cumberland River!

    Reply

    • MakingSenseofCents says

      I'm excited to start the posts as well. And hmm I really follow too many investment blogs, just a lot of lifestyle and personal finance 🙂 I'll have to look into that though!

      Reply

  30. edwardra3 says

    My side income goes first towards covering the income shortfall I have during the winter when I'm not working. Once I've got that covered (approximately $1500), the rest goes towards extra debt payments. Fingers crossed, I will have my credit card debt paid off my the end of the year and possibly even my medical loan. Should be 5-7 years to be completely debt free while we are simultaneously saving up for a down payment to buy a home in the $150k-200k range about the same time. Then it will be time to start over!
    My recent post The Downside to Urgent Care

    Reply

  32. JW_Umbrella Treasury says

    I like the balanced approach you take towards your side income. I think it's important to build fun into the budget so that you don't start to feel constricted or deprived.

    We don't currently have much side income. Sometimes $100-$450/month for some freelance work that my husband does. So far, we've been saving it. Our plan is to use it to purchase some equipment that will help with his freelance work. It could end up generating more extra income for us, which would be awwwesome.
    My recent post Leave it to the Pros: Things I Learned from a CFP

    Reply

  36. Michelle says

    Camping is so fun! But, make sure you bring enough blankets 🙂 There is nothing like looking at the stars. Hiking throughout the park. It's awesome. You're almost done. Congratulations. Hard work+focus=results

    Reply

  37. Bill says

    Hey Mitch, personally my side income goes to helping my parents, buying them anything they want. I feel proud when iam spoling my lovely parents.
    My recent post 23 Worst Mistakes You Can Make When Trying to Earn More

    Reply

  38. AmericanDebtProject says

    When do you see yourself paying off the car loans? Even though they are low interest, that would be the only area I would want to pay besides the student loan. Sounds like you have some good things to think about!

    Reply

  39. IRA vs 401k Central says

    My opinion is to put the money towards investing. When you have money from side hustles and you didn't intend on spending it before, then it should just go to something sensible like a retirement account or investment.

    But beyond that, yes, have some fun! Earning money is lifeless without enjoying it even just a little bit. Of course don't blow it all. But its okay to live a little.
    My recent post Can I Borrow Against My 401k Plan? Not If You Can Help It

    Reply

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