The Year of Saving

In an effort to practice what we preach, Amy and I sat down for our annual planning meeting in early January. I wouldn’t say it’s the most fun conversation we have each year, but it’s an important one, nonetheless. Like most people we know, our funds aren’t unlimited (though that would be nice, right?!), so the discussion involves a lot of back-and-forth about what’s important to each of us in the big picture and how we want to allocate our resources.

We do the boring, and sometimes embarrassing, review of our bank and credit card spending to see if anything stands out. This is not meant to be a judgmental or confrontational process; it’s simply an opportunity to “notice” where we’re spending our money. Then, with the benefit of hindsight, we determine if there’s anything we’d like to do differently moving forward, acknowledging once again that we haven’t found the infinite money glitch… yet. This is where we realized we spent more than we expected at our family’s favorite takeout spot, tallied up all the home repairs and maintenance from last year (not an insignificant number!), and were reminded, yet again, of how much we pay for water bills in Exeter Township (yikes!).

We determined that our next big focus is moving to a home better suited to our family’s needs at this stage. We bought our current house in 2018, and while it fit the bill at the time, there’s too much we want to change. Unfortunately, the layout and acreage don’t exactly allow for those changes. We now find ourselves in the same situation as many homeowners—we were lucky to buy before the pandemic, before housing prices and interest rates spiked, so we know our costs will increase when purchasing a new home.

Thus, our new mantra was born: the “Year of Saving!” Now, this doesn’t mean depriving ourselves of all the fun things we want to do, but it does mean making decisions with our bigger goal in mind. We now find ourselves answering questions with the standard response: Year of Saving!

• “Where are we going on vacation this year?” Not sure, but we should scale it back compared to past years—Year of Saving!
• “Should we replace the aging appliances?” Only if absolutely necessary—Year of Saving!
• I won’t name names, but some people in our house hate our living room furniture and would like it replaced—sorry, Year of Saving!

You get the idea.

There’s a well-known quote from Roy Disney (Walt’s brother) that says, “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” Our hope is to find our next home by the end of summer 2026. I’m sure that time will both feel like it’s crawling and flying by at the same time. 

Let the Year of Saving commence—wish us luck!

Investment Advice offered through Great Valley Advisor Group, a Registered Investment Advisor. Great Valley Advisor Group and Haas Financial Group are separate entities. This is not intended to be used as tax or legal advice. Please consult a tax or legal professional for specific information and advice. 

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