We’re just a few days away from the end of 2020. And I’m quite happy to see the back of it and move into 2021. We were quite lucky in 2020 that due to the self-employment grant that covered Luke while he couldn’t work, we were financially okay. And I feel truly thankful for that. What with buying our house and me changing jobs during lockdown it could have gone the opposite way for us. My 2020 financial goals were mainly around house renovations. And while we’ve been behind physically doing some of them, financially we did okay.
But I wanted to look ahead to my 2021 financial goals and think about what I’d like to achieve this year.
Increase my investments in 2021
I’ve had a pension for quite a while, but never any additional investments. But in 2020 I opened a small stock and shares ISA as a starting point. I only pay in £75 a month to this account, but the great thing is if I leave it in for 10 years (which I plan on doing), it’s guaranteed to be worth at least what I put in. So if nothing else it will have £9,000 in there. But I’d love to increase how much I pay in each month. Or open another investment ISA to go alongside this.
These investments will be used for our future when we’re much older alongside the pension I already have.
One financial goal for 2021: Start Luke up with a LISA
I have a pension, but as someone who is self-employed, Luke doesn’t have one. So I’m keen to get him set up with a Lifetime ISA (LISA) as there’s one you can cash out when you retire. This will act as Luke’s own pension and he’ll earn a bit extra from the government. You can put in up to £4,000 a year, but I’d like to start small with many £100 or so a month to get used to another outgoing. But the eventual plan will be to max this out each year to make the most of it.
Save for garden renovations
We have the money aside for the main renovations we have to finish inside our house (the main bathroom and the garage). But we know we want to do some work in the garden. This will include overhauling the front garden, new gates (and making them electric), re-landscaping the back garden, new fences and new decking. So there’s quite a lot we want to do. And we know we won’t do it all within one year.
The plan will be to start small and save for one thing at a time. We want to change the back gates first as they’re falling apart. Then we’ll focus on the front garden as that’s the one everyone sees (plus it should be a smaller job). So this one will probably span over a few years.
Continue saving for our wedding
We got engaged in January 2020 and due to COVID we’ve not even started to think about booking anything, and we’ve saved just a small amount towards the day. But we want to continue saving (and increase our weekly contributions if poss). We really need to start thinking about exactly what we want to do and then how much it may cost so we’ll have a better idea how much money we’ll need.