Blogging Away Debt

Ok, I’ve officially said Goodbye to 2025 and it feels so good. Although there were so, so many good things last year, the heavy is not something I want to ever revisit. Therefore, I am 100% fully focused on this year.

And for the first, or what I consider the real first time…I really am looking at this year as a New Year, New Me kind of era. My personal goals for this year fall neatly into two main categories. (This does not include my debt free journey which is a given at this point.)

Healthwise

First, my health. In October/November, my diabetes really took over my life. I started a new medication upon my return from Georgia (prescribed by my dr) and my numbers went completely wacko. We are still not sure what happened. It took several weeks of very intentional monitoring and eating to get things back under control. It was not a pleasant experience.

For my birthday, I gifted myself a 3 month subscription to Pilates. I attended a free trial class and determined, it was not only an exercise program I can do being as out of shape as I am, but the schedule of classes is perfect for my life of caretaking and working. So for the next 3 months, I will be attending a workout class 2x week at 6am.

At the same time, one of my mom’s hospice aids is helping me create a workout plan I can do at my parents neighborhood gym. So my commitment for Q1 is 4 times a week, I work out. Hopefully, this starts a precedent that carries on through the year.

Work

Work has been very steady since last spring. I’m grateful for that. But I’ve been drawn to another type of business for the past 5 months. And in November, I decided to bite the bullet and launch a brand new business.

No, I’m not shutting down my now 20 year old business. This is a brand new endeavor. Still digital, maximizing the skills I’ve developed helping people set up and grow their businesses, but this time, doing it for me.

The last two months, I’ve spent countless hours actually developing the products. And had a plan to launch the last week of December. But time got away from me and I just didn’t get it done.

It will launch this month though. And I’m feeling super confident and excited that it will do well. I’ve done the research, created products that solve a need, and created a solid launch plan. Now I just need to complete the digital footprint and launch.

That’s all I will say for now. But that is what is keeping me super busy these days.

What are your 2026 goals?

Ashley’s 2025 Financial Goals – Status Update

by Ashley

Happy New Year everyone!

Before I get into 2026, I want to take a look back. I wrote about my 2025 Financial Goals back at the end of 2024, and then did a pulse check mid-year.

Now that the year is over, let’s take stock of how I’ve done:

Image credit: Pixabay/Mohamed_hassan

Travel Less: B

During my mid-year pulse check I’d given myself a C- because I still did quite a bit of traveling during the first half of the year. After our Hawaii trip, however, we’ve stayed close to home! My Mom and StepDad came to visit us for Thanksgiving (which was a really special treat!), and we haven’t gone anywhere or done any traveling since June. So ultimately, I’ve increased my score to a solid “B.”

Investments: A

My goal was to increase and diversify my investments this year. I’d mentioned the possibility of dipping our toes into the rental market. That’s still a possibility for down the road, but I feel like we’re sitting at the edge of a housing bubble right now and I’m in no hurry to buy until prices and/or interest rates (or both) come down a bit. I’m still thinking lots about diversification (see my most recent blog post), but I’m not perfect. ChatGPT thinks our portfolio is over-represented in cash and high yield savings accounts and underrepresented in taxable brokerage accounts. I’ll continue to keep an eye on our assets and work to continue diversifying across time but I think we’re in the solid “A” range for investments overall.

Open an LLC: A+

Excuse me to dust my shoulders off, but I think we’ve hit this out of the park. We opened an LLC and hired a CPA to help us manage certain aspects (like sending 1099s to our employees, our two children). It has truly been a joy to be able to teach my kids certain aspects of bookkeeping and accounting, and they’ve been able to help me with various aspects of social media content creation to take some of those tasks off my plate. I’m very excited about the future of our little business and hope to see it grow in 2026.

Interview (& hire?) a Financial Planner: A+

We’d met this goal by mid-year and wrote all about it in our pulse check-up. Long story short, we interviewed SEVERAL financial planners but decided not to go that route. Instead, we hired a good, well-recommended CPA and feel really good about that decision. We’re managing our money ourselves, with the CPA’s tax advice.

“Invest” in what matters: B-/C+

Here, I was thinking about the health and wellness space. Switching to cleaner products for cleaning, skin/makeup, personal hygiene, purchasing higher quality nutrient-rich foods and supporting local and sustainable brands. At mid-year, I’d given myself a higher score (B). I’ve lowered it slightly for end-of-year because I don’t think I made any real progress since that mid-year check-up. I feel we’ve done pretty good with purchasing high quality meats and produce, but we could certainly do better with cleaning products, face products, some cooking products, etc. We didn’t do terribly, but there’s room for improvement.

I’m still working on my 2026 Financial Goals, but hope to have my next post follow-up with more future-looking goals.

Blogging Away Debt Our Journeys to a Debt-Free Life

Lots of New Things this Year