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.
Do you set goals (or intentions or resolutions) for a year? If so, how did you do for 2025?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
