2022 Resolutions – Year In Review

I don’t know about you but 2022 was a CRAZY year for me. Much like every new year, 2022 started off well. But somehow, the year got progressively worse. So, I am glad that it’s now coming to a close. Although I will be posting my resolutions for 2023 soon, it’s good to take a look at whether I was able to meet any of my goals for 2022. It’s amazing how one’s life can change in the span of a year. 2022 was a defining year in my life and it has caused me to drastically alter my future plans. The famous saying that “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans” certainly applied to me in 2022. It’s all good. While there are many reasons for me to feel sad about my situation, I am thankful that I am alive to see another day. So, without further adieu, let’s look at the 2022 year in review.

2022 Resolutions

As indicated in my 2022 Resolutions post, I had several resolutions for 2022. They included the following:

• Get out of credit card debt
• Establish a one-month emergency fund for each property
• Establish a maintenance fund for each property
• Resume paying off first rental property
• Max out Roth 401K and Roth IRA
• Increase contributions to Dividend Portfolio to $1000
• Start saving in sinking funds

That’s a long list. Let’s see how I did.

A. Get Out Of Credit Card Debt – FAIL

In 2022, I started the year with credit card debt. At the time, my credit card balance was $6300. My goal was to get out of credit card debt by pursuing only a cash budget and taking the credit card out of my wallet.

Well, sufficed to say this was a dismal failure. At the time of this writing, my credit card balance is $7758.74. OMG. Not only did I not get out of credit card debt, but I’ve increased my debt over the year.

While some of this debt was for good reason, A LOT of it wasn’t. I recently admitted to the fact that I have a spending problem. If I am to be honest, I don’t expect that I will totally solve my sending problem in 2023. However, I do hope to make small improvements along the way to get my spending under control. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will my efforts to control my spending. But every little bit helps.

B. Establish A One-Month Emergency Fund For Each Property – FAIL

There’s an old proverb that says that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I had every intention of establishing a one-month emergency fund for each property, but alas, I’ve failed. Before, I was relying on my credit card to act as an emergency fund. That of course is a bad idea – hence the resolution.

But, as I said in the beginning, life is what happens you make plans. So in 2022, because of life, this resolution went out the window. I don’t have a one-month emergency fund for ANY of my properties.

If an emergency were to happen, I do believe I could find the funds to take care of it. But, best practice is to know for sure, rather than relying on belief.

I will try my best to work on this goal for 2023. This would have to wait until the latter half of 2023 however, because I am really trying to decide whether to buy or not to buy real estate by March 2023.

Wish me luck.

C. Establish A Maintenance Fund For Each Property – FAIL

Much like my previous goal of establishing an emergency fund for each property, this resolution also was a failure. The reasons are the same so I won’t rehash them here. Establishing both an emergency fund and a maintenance fund for each property is just good accounting practice.

In fact, if I am doing it right, I should have an account that is just for expenses, such as maintenance, vacancies, etc. I suspect that I should be able to do this after I buy my next real estate property (assuming I can qualify for a mortgage). At that point, I will be out of money and my finances will be a lot more straight-forward.

If and when I am able to make my next purchase, I will then be focused solely on preserving my lifestyle, rather than trying to grow and accumulate wealth. So, I aim to simply my life a lot in 2023. Again, this will likely happen during the latter part of the year, but we shall see.

D. Resume Paying Off First Rental Property – SUCCESS

Finally, I can report a success with one of my 2022 resolutions. When I bought my beach condo in 2021, a lot of my financial goals were put on pause. Prior to my condo purchase, I was paying extra towards paying off my mortgage.

Well, I am happy to report that I was able to resume paying off my first rental in 2022. Even though I will put several of my investments on pause again, to make another real estate purchase in 2023, I don’t believe I need to pause paying off my first rental property early. I like the discipline that comes along with paying off my mortgage early, and I want to keep as many good habits as I can.

Although I recognize that life is what happens when you make plans, I feel confident that that this resolution will continue in 2023.

E. Max Out Roth and Roth IRA – SUCCESS

The trend continues. One of my resolutions for 2022 was to max out BOTH my Roth IRA and my Roth 401K. I am happy to report that I was able to do both!

Granted, given the state of the market, my 401K feels more like a 201K. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t bother me because I am invested for the long-term. But, because my life has drastically changed in 2022, so too are my plans. I have mentally decided to cash out both my 401K and my Roth IRA so that I can afford the down payment (and closing costs) for my next real estate purchase. On the surface, this is a bad idea. Not only will I be subjected to paying taxes on the withdrawal, but I would also likely incur a 10% penalty. So, I am just assuming that I will be able to obtain 70% of the value of both accounts.

If you’ve followed this blog, it should be painfully obvious as to the reason why I am making this decision. Life is very uncertain for me right now and I want to enjoy it as much as I can. While there are many benefits to compounding, it takes time to get the benefits of that growth. Unfortunately for me, I no longer feel I will have that time. So, my focus will be on using leverage to buy real estate and getting the immediate benefit of the cash flow (if all goes well).

Personal finance is personal after all. I doubt I will have this goal in 2023, but as of right now, everything is on the table. For now, I will take comfort in the fact that I was able to meet this resolution in 2022.

F. Increase Contributions To Dividend Portfolio To $1000 – FAIL

Not only did I plan on increasing my contributions to my dividend portfolio, but I had a specific method as to how I was going to be able to do that. Specifically, after I paid off my credit card debt, I was going to rely on my Driving for Dividends project to help me achieve my goal.

Well, as indicated above, life is what happens when you are busy making plans. My health took a turn for the worse in 2022 and that derailed ALOT of my plans – including this one. Driving for dividends became less of a priority. Instead, I focused my efforts on getting treatment for my diagnosis. Although I had a good reason for the failure of this 2022 resolution, a failure is a failure nonetheless. But all I can do is make the best decision I can with the information that is available to me at the time.

When I created this resolution, in my mind I was healthy. When my health took a turn for the worse, I had to adjust to life. I am still adjusting and will continue to adjust. In the words of the Archangel Michael from Hercules, The Legendary Journey, Season 5, Episode 22, entitled Revelations, “Such is the way of things.”

But all I can do is make the best decision I can with the information that is available to me at the time.

G. Start Saving In Sinking Funds – PARTIAL SUCCESS

My final 2022 resolution was to start saving again using sinking funds. In order to do that, my goal was to utilize the Qapital app, which had been on the backburner. The specific categories that I wanted to save in were my Starbucks fund, Christmas fund, and a Cruise fund.

I am happy to report that I was able to save money in my Starbucks fund and my Christmas fund. The beautiful thing about the Qapital app is that I can set my rules for saving and then forget about it – which is what I did. Of course, when I go to Starbucks or otherwise trigger a rule, money gets saved automatically into my sinking funds. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Although I was able to save money in my Starbucks and my Christmas funds, I didn’t establish a rule for my Cruise fund. I initially wanted to take a cruise to the Bahamas, and I still do. But right now, it’s very difficult to take a trip anywhere given my treatment schedule.

Finally, despite the fact that I saved money in both my Starbucks and Christmas funds, I still haven’t used any of those money saved – which of course defeats the purpose. In fact, I already bought all my Christmas gifts using my credit card. I did spend less than the amount of money I saved for Christmas, and I suppose I could just reimburse myself by paying back the credit card with those funds, but we will see. It’s a massive behavioral change for me to use the money in sinking funds for the purpose for which they were created. I’m working on it.

Final Thoughts On My 2022 Resolutions

Of the seven resolutions I set for myself for 2022, I failed 4 of them outright, and succeeded in completing 2 of them. I partially completed one of my resolutions, so that was more of a split result. Although I failed more resolutions than I successfully completed, I am still proud of the outcome. Afterall, I was lucky to be in a position to max out both my Roth IRA and Roth 401K in 2022. As I work on my goals for 2023, I know for sure that I won’t be contributing any money to my Roth 401K and whether I contribute to my Roth IRA is still up in the air.

Of course, I had a very good reason for failing most of my resolutions. As you can imagine, 2022 has changed my perspective of life, and also my financial priorities. Regardless of my goals for 2023, I fully realize that life is what happens when you are busy making plans. But, it’s important to plan for the future. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “a failure to plan is a plan to fail.” So, I will continue to plan and will continue to make the best decision I can with the information that is available to me.

How was 2022 for you? Did you meet any of your goals? What did you think of this post?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.