January 1, 2018.  The first day of the second official year of our five year plan!  Feels like only a few months ago we were sitting down at the kitchen table, laying out our road map to guide us into making our dream a reality, and, somehow, it’s 2018 already!  The new year promises to bring us lots of new opportunities, new challenges and, of course, a new list of goals to focus on.  Josh’s job is to pick the mantra for the year and, for 2018, he decided on “learning as we go.”  I think it’s going to be a great mantra for the year because not only are we planning to expand our horizons with learning some new skills but we’re also going to be learning what it’s like to be debt-free.  Here’s what we’re going to be working on:

• Continued major focus on paying down debt. No big surprise here. Feed the debt monster, often!
• March 2018 – Plan to pay off PSECU loan for Kubota tractor. When we first put our five year plan together, we originally thought this was going to happen in July 2018. Thanks to our progress throughout 2017, we’re now looking to make the final payment 4 months ahead of schedule, in March 2018. This will be the second to last debt we have to settle!
• August 2018 – Finish paying off all outstanding debt (except for mortgage) by paying off Josh’s Silverado. Our original five year plan called for paying off the Silverado in January 2019. Fast forward to now, we’re on track to get this final debt paid off in August 2018! It’s likely that we may end up doing even better than August, knowing the finish line lies just ahead, but, we’ll see how life goes.
• Celebrate being debt-free! By not accruing more debt, obviously! Hopefully this will involve some food and cocktails! This will be a huge step for us in making our five year plan become an achievable reality for us. And, we kind of can’t wait!
• Beginning September 2018 – Take monthly debt payment (estimated $3,000 per month) and pay our savings account. We plan to use the money we stow away in the savings account from this goal to use as part of a down payment on the purchase of our boat. So, once the debts are settled, saving will be our focus. It will be interesting to see how we do with money readily available and not spending it.
• Throughout 2018, continue to purge items that we don’t need / want that won’t impact daily living. Specifically, ensure the basement has been cleared of anything that we don’t use or see ourselves using between now and when we move aboard. We know this is an achievable goal for 2018 however there are some pretty large items that we’ll be needing to make plans for. We’ve got confidence that we’ll get it done, but it’s probably going to require some blood, sweat and probably some tears! This is definitely not one of the goals we’re looking forward to in 2018, but, it’s got to be done. So, do it we will!
• Winter 2018 – Complete renovation of kitchen in our current home. I guess we better start stockpiling blood, sweat and tears because this one’s going to be a doozy, too! Part of the anxiety associated with this goal is that we really don’t have a plan for what we’re going to do once it’s time to crack this one open. We’ve got ideas that we’ve been batting around for the past few years so we really just need to make some decisions and get going with it.

We’ve got some additional goals for 2018 that didn’t make our original five year goal plan.  Hell, most of them weren’t even really on our radar until just recently!  But, it’s never to late to add more experience goals to our list.  So, we’re adding getting our scuba diving certifications, going to Maine for a family vacation in June 2018, completing the ASA 101 and 103 courses and making sure to make it to Ocean City’s Bike Week to our 2018 list, too.

Holy shit, 2018’s going to be a busy, BUSY year!  Those are some pretty hairy, scary goals that are going to require some serious motivation and commitment.  Hopefully we’ll be able to muster up the focus and determination we’re going to need to be successful!  Cheers to an awesome 2018 and having only three more years left on land!