You should never really rely on me for any cooking advice. Personal finance advice, yes – but recipes for a new chicken dish, probably not. I can do breakfast, I enjoy baking, and I make a mean ‘Mom lunch’. Dinners seem to take so much effort with the varied ingredients, lack of measured ingredients, and the timing of it all though. The few dishes that I do make, come out done all at once – either a lasagna, or something from the slow cooker.
Can we talk about the slow cooker for a minute? The slow cooker takes nearly all day to reach it’s end result, and if you count backwards and start it at the right time, it’ll be just before dinner. And I think that you’ll agree with me, anything you make in the slow cooker is going to far outweigh something that you’d eat out of the microwave.
Goals are that way too. Especially when it comes to a few lofty personal finance goals. While we sometimes…okay very often, wish they could be microwaved – they can’t. It’s a slow cooker kind of process for many of them. Can it be done? Absolutely – with the right ingredients, recipe, and time on your side – anything can be accomplished.
Resist the urge to toss your goals in the microwave. Give them the time and space they need to slow cook.
Sarah VanHoose, Journey to Influence
Our relationship with money goes WAY back folks. We watch and learn how our parents and family use money – we have memories related to it from an early age. Often, we had a bit of an abusive relationship with it in our twenties – then we want to get it fixed up to work harder for us as we get older. It took decades for us to be where we are, and it will take a bit of time to get us where we want to be, too. There is no microwave in this process.
How about our BIG ‘tiny house’ goal for 2020?
Ready for an update? We are more than half way through the year after all… (Insert reminder to check in on your own goal process at least a few times a year – quarterly, if not monthly.)
It’s been a helluva year so far, in large part due to the international health crisis that we’ve all experienced with COVID-19. That health crisis quickly turned into an economic crisis of epic proportions across our country. To top it off with racial injustice and upheaval. Prompting this blog post about Unemployment and this one about white privilege.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to share with you updates on our BIG ‘tiny’ financial goal each month. I outlined that original goal at the beginning of the year here. Our goal is to get to $70k in tiny home savings by the end of the year. We started out the year with $28k in savings for this big goal – so needing a total of $42k in 2020.
Our most recent update on our progress from June 2020.
There you have it. We’re at $40,800 towards our goal. Only $29,200 more to go, and 6 months to do it. The projections aren’t as high for the remaining months of the year, but I’m not losing hope.
Are we going to make it? I’m not sure if we’ll meet our timeline, honestly. Things haven’t gone quite as expected. James’ business took a hit with COVID, and kicking off a new business in the midst of COVID hasn’t been as smooth sailing as I originally anticipated. Toss in a bit of decreased rental income and a few weeks of furlough – and you’ve got your self real life. We tend to be pretty tenacious and will certainly keep the intensity up with our goal as the year continues on. We haven’t let up in tossing all of our extra towards our big goal.
However, we’ll also keep living our real life. We have had a big vacation planned this year (international travel willing), and more prep to do the campsite to prepare it for said tiny home. I’ve been taking the time to enjoy the progress that we’ve made and the journey. ? So many good family memories made so far! We’ve made a lot of progress on that site, and when I say “we”, I mostly mean my husband who has put in the effort.
Purchase Day 
Step 1. Cut up tree. 
Step 2. Firewood 
Battleship Strategy Sesh 
Campfire Making 
Campfire Games 
Beautiful Sunset 
Family Time 
Lake Merwin 
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Want to see where that tiny house is going to land? Take a peek at this quick video intro to our little campsite here.
Goals and plans don’t always go as expected, and that’s okay. The most important skill that I teach my clients is to flex. Learning to flex when it comes to your budget, and your goals – and allowing for real life to happen – is so important. It allows you to continue to chase your goal with grace, instead of ditching it altogether because it didn’t work out.
I’ll keep you posted on this big goal of ours. I’m leaning into the practice of going before you, and showing you how I accomplish big goals! It’s a great way to show you how I can help you chase your big goals too.
With that all that comes flexing, as I shared earlier. One of my demonstrations of flexing will be to commit more time to my personal finance clients and program offerings, and a little less time to the blog. Beginning in August I’ll be moving to an every other week blog post, versus weekly. Blogging may have been our first introduction to one another, and it will continue – just a little less often. If you want to stay close, Instagram is a great way to keep tabs on what I’ve been up to. Oh, and the email list….extra goodies headed that way for my email subscribers, so you can subscribe below if you choose to!
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P.S. Have you downloaded my free resource yet? 5 Step Plan to THRIVE with your Personal Finances. It’s packed full of my step by step approach to tackling money goals, big and small. DOWNLOAD NOW