8 Finance Goals For A Wealthy 2024 (2024)

Making goals and achieving them is so much fun.

So many of you have made goals to pay off credit card debt, build a fully funded emergency fund, save for a house down payment, and have completed these goals.

Goals are so much fun and give you the confidence to keep going to create the life you want to live.

Today we’re going over the top 8 financial goals to make next year.

#1Start a side hustle and make $1,000/month from it

If you don’t have a side hustle yet, what are you waiting for?

Make this the year that you start a side hustle and earn some extra money! What’s even cooler is that your side hustle can take over your full-time job income.

Side hustles to start now

• Sell printables – #1 recommended side hustle for people looking for a low-stress way to earn passive income from home.
• Pinterest Virtual Assistant – Help businesses shine on Pinterest as a Pinterest manager. Create your own schedule, work for yourself, and work from anywhere in the world.
• Sell dog treats – Make up to $2,500 a month selling dog treats with this fun side hustle perfect for people who love dogs.
• Proofreading – Earn $20+ an hour proofreading from home. Be your own boss and set your own schedule.
• Surveys – Make money for answering simple questions. You can take as many surveys as you want and earn up to $5 per survey.
• Bookkeeping – Start your own virtual bookkeeping business and earn up to $80,000 a year from home.

Read this: How I Make Over $10,000/Month From Side Hustles

#2 Pay off credit card debt and student loans

Credit cards carry insane interest rates and get very expensive over time. If you have credit card debt, let’s knock that out this year so you can start saving and investing more money.

Student loans don’t carry quite as crazy interest rates, but they’re still charging interest and costing you money.

The best way to get started paying off debt is by listing the debts in order of highest interest rate.

Pay off debts in order of highest interest rate because you’re paying the most interest on these things, costing you even more money.

Let’s say you have a credit card with a $3,000 balance and a 25% interest rate.

You also have a credit card with a $3,000 balance and a 20% interest rate. It’s better to pay off the credit card with the $3,000 balance and 25% interest rate first and just pay the minimum on the second card until the first card is fully paid off.

Find ways to cut down on spending each month so you can put more money to your credit card and student loans.

The biggest ways to cut down on spending is lowering housing, transportation, and food costs, known as the big three.

Once you’ve done what you can on the big three, do anything else you can. I save money by meal prepping and using $5 Meal Plan, switching to a low cost cell phone plan like Mint Mobile, and using Rakuten and Ibotta for cashback.

Read this: 7 Step Guide To Pay Off Credit Card Debt Fast

#3 Stick to a budget for 12 months

A budget is giving your money a job. Every dollar you make gets assigned a job that is either going to be spent or saved/invested. Without a budget, you have no idea how much money you’re spending in certain areas.

I remember when I first budgeted, it made me sick to see how much I was spending on food and it was completely unnecessary. That money could be much better put to savings instead of spending hundreds of dollars on restaurant outings.

My budget was a huge wake up call.

I use EveryDollar’s free budget app and have used this method of budgeting for years now. It’s my go to and I find it exactly what I need for budgeting.

You may find that you prefer to use a budget planner, budget cash envelopes, or a budget excel sheet. It’s completely up to you. Just pick one and get started budgeting.

It is the best thing you can do for your finances.

Read this: How To Create And Follow A Budget

#4 Invest into 401(k) or Roth IRA

If you’re not investing yet, now is the time to get started. Unless you want to work forever, you need to be investing for retirement. The best way to get started is through your employers 401(k).

Likely, your work offers a 401(k) and you can get started investing that way.

If you have no idea how to invest and no one ever taught you how, join the club. Most of us were never taught to invest but it’s also our responsibility to learn how to.

Luckily there are resources to help you get started. I taught myself how to invest with the course called Build Wealth By Investing In Index Funds. It taught me everything I need to know to invest simply and successfully.

Read this: Beginner’s Guide For People Completely New To Investing

#5 Increase credit score to 750+

If you’re going to buy a new home or car in the next couple of years, now is the time to raise your credit score. The higher your credit score, the lower your interest rate will be.

For example, when we bought our house, our credit score was close to 800 and we got the lowest interest rate offered at the time, which was around 2.75%.

Someone in the 600 credit score range might see interest rates closer to 5% at the same exact time we bought our house. That amounts to tens of thousands of dollars more paid in interest just because of higher interest rates.

You can raise your credit score by keeping your credit utilization rate under 30%.

So say yourcredit is $10,000, you would not want to spend more than $3,000 on your credit card to keep your credit utilization rate lower than 30%.

Always pay your credit card on time. You can even set up autopay to keep things easy so you don’t have to remember to pay off your credit card. Take things a step further and pay off your credit card every single time you use it.

Read this: 10 Ways To Increase Your Credit Score

#6 Saving 20% for a house downpayment

Saving 20% for a house downpayment means you won’t have to get PMI (private mortgage insurance) which will save you thousands of dollars.

With a large down payment, you’ll also have a lower mortgage payment since you’re paying off a lot of the principal in the beginning.

Work on saving 20% for a downpayment by cutting unnecessary spending and lowering bills.

You can also increase savings by getting a side hustle, which we’ll talk about in this post. Save a little bit of money each paycheck into your house downpayment savings.

The best place to put your house downpayment savings is in a high yield savings account like the Ally Savings Account that I mentioned earlier. This is because this account has a high savings rate and offers easy access to the account.

Make sure to get the free house downpayment printable in the Free Resource Library here.

Read this: 10 Tips For Savings For A House Downpayment

#7Save 6 months emergency fund

An emergency fund is one of the best things you can do for you and your family right now.

With a lot of uncertainty going on around the world, an emergency fund is that one thing that gives you certainty and some wiggle room to survive the unknown.

Emergency funds should last 6 months, but if you have nothing saved right now, no worries, just work on $1,000 at a time. A healthy 6 month emergency fund can also cover you in case of job loss.

Let’s say your child breaks a bone and goes to the ER. Your emergency fund covers the deductible. Or your car breaks down and needs a new battery. Your emergency fund covers this unexpected cost.

If your living expenses cost $4,000 a month, a 6 month emergency fund would have $24,000 in it. If you have $0 saved right now, there’s no need to get overwhelmed.

This is simply a number you’re working toward that will take some time.

The best spot to park your emergency fund is in a high yield savings account like in an Ally Savings Account. This account gives you easy access to your money in case you ever need it, but it’s also building at a higher savings rate than a regular bank account.

Read this: 5 Step Guide To Starting An Emergency Fund

#8 Save for travel

Most of us love traveling and we want to do more of it. Make it a goal to start saving into a travel savings fund.

Each month, work on saving $100 into your travel fund. At the end of the year, your travel savings fund will have $1,200.

If you’re a cheap traveler like I am, this is enough to fund a couple of trips in the U.S. as long as you stay in cheap places and do free things.

Get better at learning how to travel on a budget. There are so many ways to see the world without spending a ton of money.

You can stay in low cost housing like hostels or renting a room out on Airbnb, and take advantage of doing free things instead of paid excursions.

Read this: 10 Travel Tips That Will Save You Money

My 2023 money goals

Our money goals are to invest $75,000! That’s roughly $6,250 a month between my husband and I.

We’re completing this goal by setting up automatic contributions into our 401(k)’s, Roth IRA’s, and HSA’s.

We’re also eliminating unnecessary spending and got rid of our old phone plan in order to cut down on costs. My husband and I want to retire early so we’re being aggressive with our retirement.

Final thoughts

Let’s go over the 8 financial goals we went over in today’s post.

#1 Save 6 months emergency fund

#2 Pay off credit card debt and student loans

#3 Make and stick to a budget for 12 months

#4 Invest into 401(k) or Roth IRA

#5 Increase credit score to 750+

#6 Saving 20% for a house down payment

#7 Start a side hustle and make $1,000/month from it

#8 Save for travel

Now that you’ve seen them all, which financial goal do you want to complete?

Helpful blog posts:

• 6 Things To Do This Year To Achieve Financial Goals
• 10 Best Personal Finance Books To Read In 2023

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Best side hustles to start right now

• Sell printables on Etsy – Selling printables is the #1 side hustle to make money. This can be done on your own schedule and turn into passive income! You can earn over $10,000 a year selling printables.
• Sell dog treats – Make $1,000+ selling dog treats from the comfort of your home. Be your own boss and make your own schedule.
• Proofreading – Earn $20+ an hour proofreading from home. Great for people who enjoy editing and working from a computer.
• Surveys – Make money filling out surveys. You can take as many surveys as you want and earn up to $5 per survey.