Kicking off my financial goals for 2025

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For 2025, I’ve set myself an ambitious financial goal: paying off the remainder of my student debt. A whopping €12.500,-. As I outlined in my start-of-year post, achieving a zero-debt status is a big milestone that I hope to achieve in pursuit of my overarching goal: Becoming more financially free this year. It’s a big milestone, and while it won’t be easy, I’m determined to make it happen.

No, I’m not chasing the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) dream here. I’m also not looking to dive into sketchy side hustles or unrealistic get-rich-quick schemes. My focus is simple: Take back control of my finances, strike a healthy balance between saving and spending money, and eliminate my debt. If I hit just two or three of these goals already it would put me well ahead of the curve—and set me up for a more secure future.

Reflecting on 2024:

Last year was, surprisingly, a positive year for me financially. I had a good salary, earned some bonuses, and managed to cover my daily and monthly expenses with ease. I even saved a decent amount, despite indulging in a few pricey trips.

But when I sat down to review my year-end finances, reality hit me: I could, and should, have saved a lot more than I actually did. On paper, I was doing everything right—or so I thought.

Smaller expenses, such as work lunch, social drinks and birthday gifts where slowly chipping away at my monthly budget. But I also had larger, recurring expenses such as streaming services, digital subscriptions and the occasional splurge on a new video-game. These expenses often took large chunks out of what should have been disposable income reserved for savings.

This realization made one thing clear: I needed to dig deeper into my spending habits and refine my approach for 2025. To achieve my financial goals for 2025, I’d need a clear view of my overall expenses and a tighter grip on where my money was going.

Budgetting for the new year

I’ve mentioned it in a previous post, but I’m a big fan of budgeting. For the past three years, I’ve been using a tool called You Need a Budget (YNAB) to plan and track my finances. It has given me a much clearer understanding of where my money comes from and, more importantly, where it flows out. However, while YNAB has been a great tool for financial awareness, it hasn’t yet helped me build the discipline to aggressively pay off debt or save significant reserves. That’s about to change by setting my financial goals for 2025..

As I mentioned earlier, my main financial goal for this year is to pay off my student loan in the next 12 months. To give you a sense of how impactful this shift is, take a look at the loan payoff simulator in YNAB.

In my previous repayment plan, I was only paying the legally required €120 per month, which would have stretched my payoff timeline all the way to December 2035.

In my updated plan, I’m committing to paying €399.23 per month, which brings the payoff date forward to September 2027—saving a massive 7 years on repayments. And that’s only by upping my monthly payment. This new plan doesn’t even include the one-off payments I plan to make, such as directly depositing my Annual Bonus and Holiday Allowance (a typical Dutch perk, where 8% of your yearly salary is being paid out in May each year as a bonus).

Together, these bonuses amount to roughly two months of additional salary, which, after taxes and setting some funds asides for saving, still gives me about €4,000. By using this directly to pay down the principal, I can shave off an additional 33 months of payments (€4,000 / €120 = 33.33 months). This puts me well on track to achieve my zero-debt goal much sooner.

Of course, this plan relies on avoiding any major financial setbacks. Think of things like unexpected car repairs or the dreaded dishwasher breakdown. But with careful budgeting and a bit of persistence, I’m optimistic that I can stick to this plan and finally achieve the financial freedom I’ve been striving for.

Closing off

As part of my financial goals for 2025, my financial journey is all about focus, discipline, and progress. With a clear plan to pay off my student debt within the next 12 months, I’m determined to take full control of my finances and move closer to true financial freedom. By leveraging tools like You Need a Budget (YNAB), sticking to a realistic budget, and making strategic use of bonuses, I’ve set a solid foundation to achieve this ambitious goal.

If you’re looking for a powerful budgeting tool to help you take control of your finances, I highly recommend YNAB. You can sign up using my referral link here to try it out for yourself, they offer a free 34-day trial.

For my own situation, I know it won’t always be smooth sailing, so far life has always found a way of throwing unexpected costs my way. But with careful planning and a commitment to staying the course, I’m confident I’ll reach the finish line. Here’s to a debt-free 2025!

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