Hello everyone!
Welcome back to my blog. Since we are halfway through the year I wanted to update you guys on the progress that I have been making so far.
Let’s go back to the goals that I had set for myself in 2021:
- Payoff my student loan debt
- Save €520 each month (€6.240 in total)
- Create sinking funds.
Student loan debt
My main goal for 2021 was to pay off my student loan debt. As some of you already know, I became debt-free on March 23rd. I did not expect to pay off my debt in the first quarter of the year. It feels so good to be debt-free. This goal is successfully completed.
Savings
Another goal was to save €6.240 in 2021. So far I managed to save € 5.090,00, which means that I am on track. I almost reached this goal actually.
Sinking funds
I never used to use sinking funds, that’s why I decided to make it a goal for this year. I think I can say that I also completed this goal, even though my sinking funds are not fully funded yet. The sinking funds are there, and every month I am transferring some money towards them.
Expectations vs reality
In the table below, you can see what my expectations were and how I am doing so far. I exceed my expectations in all categories As you can see I paid less towards my student loan debt than expected, that’s because I had €1.200 saved for my debt before I couldn’t actually start making payments.
I am doing pretty good so far and I am really proud of myself.
| Expected | Reality | |
| Salary | € 19.000,00 | € 12.012,00 |
| Health care allowance | € 720,00 | € 391,00 |
| Tax return | € 0,00 | € 229,00 |
| Dividend | € 0,00 | € 2,90 |
| AttaPoll | € 10,00 | € 14,24 |
| Bills and expenses | € 12.000,00 | € 4.375,27 |
| Debt | € 3.220,00 | € 2.301,35 |
| Investments | € 120,00 | € 624,47 |
| Sinking funds | € 0,00 | € 320,62 |
| Savings | € 4.380,00 | € 5.090,00 |
The diagram below shows how my money was spent in the first half of the year. I am so happy to see that 40% of my income went towards my savings.
What now?
As I mentioned, my main goal for 2021 was to pay off my student loan debt. Now that I am debt-free, my main goal is to have a fully-funded emergency fund.
Since I am living at home I didn’t need a lot of money to save 6 months’ worth of expenses. I actually reached that goal already. I am currently working on saving 12 months’ worth of expenses. My new main goal for 2021 is to have €6.000 saved in my emergency fund.
As you can see in the diagram below, I already saved 59,2%. This is 7 full months’ worth of expenses.
For the rest of 2021, I will also focus on increasing my net worth. This year I am going to try to reach a net worth of €20K. I am saying “try” on purpose because this goal is a stretch, to be honest. For this goal, I am really counting on my investments. The table below demonstrates the growth of my net worth so far. In 6 months I grew my net worth by €5.546,91. That’s amazing to me.
My third goal for this year is to have €2.000 invested in the stock market. So far I have invested €1.595,05. This is a goal that I should easily be able to reach.
My final goal is so have earned €12 in dividends. This means that I will have a monthly income of €1 per month. To a lot of people, this might seem nothing, but to me, it means a lot. I can’t wait to till the day I earn an average of €100 per month, but we are taking baby steps. So far I have earned €2,90 in dividends.
To summarize my goals for the rest of 2021:
- Save €6.000 in my emergency fund
- Have a €20.000 net worth
- Have €2.000 invested in the stock market
- Reach €12 in dividend earnings
This is all I have for today. I really enjoyed reflecting on the first half of the year. Thank you for your precious time and until next time!
Love,
Color and Coins
