Everything I Need to Do With My Money in 2018

By Nicole Dieker December 13, 2017

After realizing that I needed to set up a HSA next year, I started thinking about all the other stuff I should be doing financially in 2018.

Then I decided I might as well write it down. Like any good personal finance list, I divided it into “needs” and “wants.”

Need

Continue to set aside 30 percent of my income for taxes and 15 percent for savings.
Meet with a CPA to make sure that 30 percent estimate is accurate.
Make my 2017 $5,500 Roth IRA contribution before April 15, 2018.
Set aside another $5,500 for my 2018 Roth IRA contribution.
Set up a HSA.
Figure out how much money I should put into my HSA every month. (Do I want to hit the $3,450 max?)
Ask my CPA how my HSA contribution might affect my taxes. (Should I save 30 percent of my income after my HSA contribution?)
Switch from paper to digital receipts because I am tired of keeping boxes of paper receipts in my closet.
Split my Mint “groceries” category into “food” and “household/toiletries.” Then subdivide all of my 2018 grocery receipts so I have a better idea of what I’m spending in each area.
Calculate all of my irregular annual expenses (holidays, vacations, new bike, Amazon Prime renewal, Washington Post renewal, etc.) and divide by 12 so I can set aside that much money every month.
Figure out whether or not I’m going to get a car, and if so, how I’m going to get one.
Grow my income.

Want

Invest some of my savings.
Hire a publicist for my forthcoming novel, The Biographies of Ordinary People: Volume 2 (and, by extension, my previously published novel The Biographies of Ordinary People: Volume 1).
Set aside money for a book tour after Volume 2 publishes (assumedly) this spring.
Set aside money to attend conferences and other professional development events.
Do the math on whether I can spend enough money on my business to qualify for a health insurance subsidy (because Healthcare.gov determines self-employed eligibility after subtracting business expenses from gross income), and how that might affect my non-business discretionary income.

(I should probably do that last one before December 15, actually. Maybe it can be my Do 1 Thing.)

What I’m seeing, from this list, is that I need to get much more specific with my 2018 budget. Figuring out my 2018 fixed expenses will only get me part of the way there; I also need to calculate the rest of what I want to do in 2018 and subtract it from my anticipated income.

At least I still have a few weeks to add up all the numbers.

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