Our goal as a family was to save and invest $93,100 in 2017. Looking back and tallying up all the numbers, the amount that we were able to save and invest was about $84,100.

We will fall short almost $9,000 of our goal but I’m still proud of what we were able to accomplish for the year.

Of the $84,100, 63% was in pre-tax retirement accounts and 37% of it was in post-tax retirement accounts, taxable investment accounts, and additional principal mortgage payments. 

My 401K Plan contributions

• Goal: $17,500   ($13,000 of my contributions + 4,500 company match)
• Actual: $17,500

Husband’s 403b & 457 Plan contributions

• Goal: $36,000 ($18,000 in each plan)
• Actual: $36,000

The 401K, 403B & 457 Plan contributions were Non-Negotiable goals in our budget. Non-Negotiable goals are targets we are unwilling to deviate from unless there is a job loss or cut in income. Since these contributions are pre-tax and automatic, it makes it really easy to just budget with what’s left of our take-home pay.

Backdoor Roth IRA

• Goal: $11,000  ($5,500 each)
• Actual: $11,000

We funded 2 backdoor ROTH IRA’s at the end of March earlier this year that counted towards the 2016 Tax Year. I typically earmark money from my bonus that I get in March towards this goal. This was another Non-Negotiable goal in our budget.  

Additional Mortgage Payments

• Goal: $9,600
• Actual: $8,000

We were paying an additional $800 a month towards the principal loan balance on our primary home. We stopped making those additional payments in October once our refinance from a 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage was finalized.

Our new 15-year mortgage payment is now $500 more than previous 30-year mortgage payment. Instead of continuing to pay down more principal on the mortgage, we are opting to save more of our money in cash and taxable investments for the year ahead. 

Index Investing

• Goal: $15,000
• Actual: $11,600

We initially set out to save and invest $15,000 in our Vanguard VTSAX fund. While we made some great progress towards completing this goal, we decided to pull back on this as we did have more expenses come up this year that we did not expect (you can read more about in the 2017 Mid-Year update blog post)

529 Account

• Goal: $4,000
• Status: $0

This year we planned to save $4,000 in our children’s 529 accounts but because this is not a major priority for us right now, we have put this goal on pause.

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Overall, we saved $84,100 in 2017 and although we did not reach our ultimate goal of $93,100, I feel very happy with what we were able to accomplish. In just these past two years of saving and investing aggressively, we have seen major growth in our net-worth and finances.

Next year we are totally changing up our saving and investing strategy to mostly saving in cash and accessible taxable investment accounts.

If you want to hear more about our 2017 Saving & Investing goals and how to set yourself up for financial success in the new year, check out Episode 24 of my podcast – 4 Things To Focus on For Major Financial Success in 2018 + A Year-End Update On Our Saving/Investing Goals