2021 New Year’s Resolutions

Last updated on November 7th, 2021 at 08:30 pm

After thinking about starting a blog for a long time, I finally took the plunge last year and decided to share my financial life with the world. Being a personal finance enthusiast – often to my wife’s chagrin – I had plenty of ideas for posts that I wanted to write and knowledge I wanted to share. Now that it’s a new year, I thought it would be a great time to set some goals for myself and to share what I’d like to accomplish in 2021.

Now, this being a personal finance blog, you won’t read anything about “losing weight” or “attending a pottery class”. Instead, my New Year’s resolutions are all personal finance related. And while it’s hard to predict exactly what 2021 will bring, it’s still a good exercise to set some goals and have something to aim for. So, without further adieu, here’s my list of goals for 2021!

Get a Promotion!

Now, without revealing too much personal information, I have the opportunity to get a pretty decent promotion this year. I’ve been working hard to impress my manager and have been taking on responsibilities that put me in-line for a slightly more senior role. This has taken quite a bit of effort and concentration on my part, and sometimes I’ve had to skip writing blog posts and work extra hours at my job instead.

The promotion should come with a sizable raise in the $15,000 range, which would boost my take-home pay by about $800 per month. Adding $800 to my monthly take-home pay will be enormous and will help accelerate my progress towards financial independence!

Purchase a Used SUV

Being married and owning a home, my family – and extended family – have all popped the question: “When are you having kids?” This is something that’s been on our minds for a while, but we feel a little nervous about getting pregnant with the COVID situation mostly out of control. Despite that, we hope to start our family sometime in the not too distant future.

To prepare for this eventuality, one of my goals for 2021 is to buy a nice, used SUV. My wife especially cares about the whole “nice” aspect! So, my goal is to find something with less than 150,000 kilometres, newer than 2014, and with a few select features like automatic emergency braking. I’m still undecided as to whether I want to sell my current car or keep it in case we need two cars in the future.

Invest $30,000

When I started my blog back in June, I reported that we had $66,000 in liquid assets. That included our investment accounts, chequing, and our savings accounts. Since then, our liquid assets have since grown substantially to over $100,000.

My wife and I’s immediate goal has been to max out our TFSAs as fast as reasonably possible. Since starting AnotherLoonie, we’ve been able to grow our TFSAs by $38,600 and my RRSP by $4,500. Keeping my goal of buying a used SUV in mind, I hope to add another $30,000 to these investment accounts in 2021. That should keep us on track for maxing our TFSAs sometime in late 2022 or early 2023.

Hit 200,000 Aeroplan Points

This has been a goal I’ve been working on for a while now, ever since I surpassed 100,000 Aeroplan points back in September. The whole process of keeping track of your credit cards, keeping an eye out for promotions, and planning your spending to maximize your points is all so enjoyable to me. I’m already starting to think about which cards I’ll use next year to help me reach my goal, and I can’t wait to hit 200,000 Aeroplan points!

Be a Podcast Guest

As most of my Twitter followers know, I am a huge fan of podcasts as a medium. I love listening to podcasts while cleaning my house, driving, and playing the odd video game. Some of my favourites from his year have been Explore FI Canada, FI Garage, and the Maple Money podcast. Those are just a few of the dozen or so finance related podcast I’ve subscribed to over the years. Being such a fan, my lofty goal is to speak on one personal finance-related podcast this year!

Grow AnotherLoonie

Since starting AnotherLoonie I’ve had such a fun time writing articles, engaging with the community, and watching my mailing list grow each month. My main reason for blogging is to give me something creative to do that’s unrelated to my regular 9-5. And as a creative outlet, blogging about one of my passions – personal finance – has been so rewarding.

I started with two articles: a welcome post and my first net worth update. Next, I created my Twitter and other social media accounts to connect with like-minded personal finance enthusiasts. I have to give thanks to Chrissy over at Eat Sleep Breathe FI who recognized me as a new voice in the personal finance community and gave me a lift on Twitter. Many of my 300+ followers can be traced back to that day.

In 2020 I wrote 22 articles covering topics such as investing, real estate, credit card churning, and sharing my journey towards financial independence. In 2021, it’s my goal to write 30 articles and to share my journey with even more Canadians.

Thanks for Reading!

Thank you for reading this article and all other articles you’ve read over the past year. More than anything, I’ve had so much fun sharing my financial journey with you over the past many months. I plan to continue to do so in 2021, so please reach out if you have any feedback or any ideas on what you’d like to see from AnotherLoonie!

If you’re new to my blog and would like to read more, check out my article on the best gold ETF in Canada or learn my strategy to save money with CamelCamelCamel Canada!