2026 Goals and 2025 Goals Review

Spend 5% less – Failed

In 2025, we wanted to spend 5% less before taxes than we did in 2024. In 2024, we spent about 5670 CHF per month. Therefore, we wanted to spend 5387 CHF or less per month. In 2025, we spent 6099 CHF per month. So, instead of spending less, we actually spent more and increased our spending by 7.56%. Therefore, we failed our goal.

There are two reasons for this failure. First, we simply spent too much and were not careful enough. We are not always as careful as we should be.

The second reason is moving to our new house. At the beginning of 2025, we did not plan to move to another house. Moving into our new house meant some significant bills, for instance:

• 1300 CHF for cleaning the house
• 1070 CHF for the CECB certificate
• 1500 CHF to replace the shower in the old house
• And many more small pieces of furniture and appliances

So, overall, even though we failed that goal, we did a relatively good job with our expenses.

Increase Income by 2.5% – Failed

In 2025, we wanted to increase income by 2.5%. Unfortunately, we only increased our income by 1.53% this year. Again, we failed this goal.

There are two things that increased this year:

• My salary increased slightly
• Our dividends increased

On the other hand, we reduced the salary from the blog. Additionally, in 2024, Mrs. The Poor Swiss was still working, which she is not anymore. So, the other income went down. We should have planned properly for that in our goal.

We failed this goal, but we increased our income, which is already a good result.

Increase Total Savings Rate by 2.5% – Success

In 2025, we wanted to increase our savings by 2.5%. In 2024, our savings rate was 47.86%, so we needed to reach 49.05% to reach our goal. And in 2025, we managed to save 49.54% of our income, increasing our savings rate by 3.51%. We have therefore met this goal.

If you have a keen eye, you will have noticed that we are spending more and only earning slightly more, so you may be wondering how we managed to increase our savings rate so much. In fact, our total expenses have gone down slightly. Without taxes, we are spending more, but with taxes, we are spending less. The reason is that we have started to contribute to our second pillar to reduce our taxable income.

I think we did a fantastic job with our savings rate. This is a financial metric that we are excellent at.

Optimize 3 bills – Failed

In 2026, we wanted to optimize three bills. We only reduced two bills, so we failed this goal.

Recurring bills are important to optimize since they come regularly. In 2025, we managed to save 60 CHF per month by optimizing our complementary health insurance. We also managed to save 72 CHF per year by changing our main bank account.

The good thing is that we already optimized 2 bills, which is great. We will try again next year.

Workout strength 10% better – Success

In 2025, I wanted to improve my strength workouts by 10%. In 2024, I did an average of 48.67 circuits a month. So, my target for 2025 was 53.53 on average per month. In 2025, I did an average of 64 circuits per month, an improvement of 30.65%! So, I met my goal by a nice margin.

I have been able to be quite consistent with my workouts this year. Even when going back to the office, I took a gym membership. As long as I have a good routine, I am able to keep working out in good condition.

I am happy about my workout habit and need to keep it on track in the future.

Workout cardio 50% better – Success

In 2025, I wanted to improve my cardio workouts by 50%. In 2024, I did an average of 3.5 cardio workouts per month. So, I needed to reach 5.35 cardio workouts per month to reach my goal. In 2025, I did an average of 8 workouts per month. So, I met my goal by more than doubling what I did last year.

I am aiming for one longish workout and one shorter but more intense workout per week. Sometimes, I can get two longer workouts, but not always. While I am able to do some of them, I do not yet fully enjoy them.

I am thrilled I have met this goal. It is great to maintain this habit for the long term for my health.

Walk 5% more per day – Success

In 2025, I wanted to walk 5% more per day. In 2024, I walked an average of 11,617 steps per day. This year, in 2025, I reached 14,943 steps on average, an improvement of 28.63%. I passed this goal with a significant margin.

I believe that walking is very beneficial to health. And since I spend most of my time at a computer, it is quite important that I focus on physical activities. Since I do not walk enough during the day, I try to spend time at my walking desk.

I am happy about reaching this goal. I do not do a fantastic job every day, but on average, I manage to spend enough time walking.

Use 5% less water – Success

In 2025, we tried to reduce our water consumption by 5%. Last year, we used 9.48 cubic meters of water on average per month. In 2025, we used 8.37 cubic meters per month. This is a nice reduction of 11.71%, significantly more than our goal.

To achieve this goal, we were more careful with our showers and reduced the number of baths. I think the most efficient change was to slowly switch to more showers for our son instead of baths. We also opted for a water-saving showerhead, but it is difficult to quantify the impact of that.

Overall, I am happy that we managed to save some water in 2025.

Use 5% less power – Failed

This year, we wanted to use 5% less power. Last year, in 2024, we used 490 KWh per month on average, so our goal was to reduce this to 465 KWh. In 2025, we used an average of 697 KWh per month. So, we did not reduce our power consumption; instead, we increased it.

We failed this job entirely, but it was not for lack of trying. When we set this goal up, we did not know we would buy a new house. And the new house has a heat pump, so it consumes power for heating, while the old house had a separate bill for the heating. Additionally, the new house has a pool, which is also heated by a second heat pump. So we are using more power than before with the new house.

This extra power needed reinforces our intention to go with solar power in 2026.

Even though we failed that goal, we still saved power while we were living in the old house, so this is a good result.

Spend 5% less

In 2026, we want to spend 5% less. We have had this goal for multiple years and failed it consistently. We are still making some progress on some of our expenses, but we can do better, and I think we need a goal for this.

There are some expenses that we are not going to count on this goal:

• The installation of the solar panels
• The price of the new terrace if we do it in 2026
• The land register and notary fees for selling the house

Overall, I think we can achieve this goal, but we have to be more careful than usual.

Increase Income by 2%

In 2026, we intend to increase our income by 2%.

In 2025, we tried to increase our income by 2.5% and failed, reaching about 1.5%. I think that aiming for 2% is a good target. We do not have a plan in place for this. We mostly count on salary increases and dividend increases as well.

Next year, we do not intend to change the salary from the blog, so we should have a stable base for this goal.

Increase Total Savings Rate by 2%

In 2026, we want to increase our total savings rate by 2%.

Our savings rate defines the speed at which we can reach financial independence. For me, it is the most important metric. This metric goes hand in hand with the previous two goals. Additionally, reducing our taxes (not included in the expenses goal) will also help towards that goal. But our expenses may not go down this year.

Any increase in savings rate is a good thing, so if we manage to increase it even below 2%, it would be great!

Optimize 3 bills

In 2026, I want us to optimize three bills. By bill, I mean a recurring bill that we have to pay often. In 2025, we failed that goal, so I want to try again.

This is likely going to be the last year we can use that goal because we are running out of bills we can optimize.

Workout strength 5% better

In 2026, I wish to improve my strength workouts by 5%.

In 2025, I did a good job with my strength workouts, and I worked out a good habit. I would like to strengthen my workouts slightly more and make sure I stay on track.

An improvement of 5% on my strength workout will already be great.

Workout cardio 10% better

In 2026, I hope to improve my cardio workouts to make them 10% better. This means I have to do 10% more than I did in 2025.

In 2025, I significantly improved the number of cardio workouts already. But I can still do better on that count. The cardio workout is the workout I miss the most times. I should be more motivated to not skip them.

Walk 5% more per day

In 2026, I want to walk 5% more per day (on average).

In 2025, I walked significantly more than I expected. But I still feel there is some possibility to do better. There have been some days when I have lost the habit of walking on my desk. However, since I now have to work two days per week in the office, it will be very difficult to meet that goal. We will see how I fare.

Install solar panels

In 2026, we would like to install solar panels on our house.

Since the new house has more things dependent on electricity (two heat pumps), it makes a lot of sense to install solar panels. We were thinking of waiting a few more years. But since the tax deduction will be gone after the imputed rental value change, it makes more sense to do it early. In the future, we want our next car to be electric as well, so it will be even more interesting to have solar panels.

There are multiple steps for this:

• We need to design the installation we want.
• We need to get multiple offers.
• We have to choose one offer.
• We have to wait for the installation.

Once all these steps are done, we will be at 100% of this goal.