I set some lofty goals this year that, in all honesty, I am not sure that we can accomplish. However, I like to set the bar high because even if I don’t accomplish ALL of the goals, at least I have achieved more than if I had not stretched myself.
Also, these goals can’t be completed in a month or two. Most of them will require all of 2013 to complete.
Here is how we did meeting our goals in February.
Financial
Save $3,300 for children to go to Japanese summer school by June 20th: On target. I put Japanese school as a regular line item in the budget in February instead of something extra to fund if we had money, and we were much more successful in February. Now we have $1,181.97 saved, so this goal is 35.8% accomplished.
Save $7,000 for girls to go to Japanese school in the fall by September 1st: No progress. After we meet the goal of saving for summer school, we’ll move to this goal.
Pay off my student loan: On target. The current balance is approximately$3,618.51, so we paid off $331 in February. Since my husband’s student loans are currently in deferment, I am only paying the accruing interest on those and the rest of what would be the remaining payment I am applying to my student loan. I’m also paying the minimum on our credit card so the student loan can be paid off. I know some would advise paying off the credit card first, but I’m thinking from a cash flow stand point, and getting rid of this debt gives us $200 more a month to work with.
Reduce our credit card balance to $5,000 : No progress. I have this debt on 0% APR credit card which expires in March, 2014, so I would like to have this paid off by then. For now, however, I’m paying the minimum payment required so all extra money can go on my student loan.
Maintain an emergency fund of $3,000: Accomplished this month.
Complete our wills: No progress.
Apply for another life insurance policy. No progress.
Make several necessary car repairs (to the tune of $2,000 or so dollars): On target. We used several creative strategies to come up with the $634 required to replace all 4 of our tires. Now the last two big expenses are the spark plugs at $600+ and the brakes and brake fluid, which will run $500-$650, depending on the condition of the brakes. This month we are going to try to raise the money to get the brake replaced.
Read 24 books this year. On target. I am enjoying reading again so much! In February I read 6 books, bringing my total for the year to 10 books. This goal is 41% accomplished!
Watch 24 movies this year. On target. We watched four movies in February, bringing our total to 6 for the year. This goal is 25% accomplished.
Lose 20% of my current body weight: On target. This month I lost an additional 1.6% of my body weight, so I only have 14% more to go!
Exercise at least 3 times a week: On target. I’m continuing to walk at least a mile a day 4 to 5 times a week, but I do need to ramp up my exercise and work on toning.
Continue to follow my diet and heal my leaky gut. On target.
Work
Increase my freelance income by 50% over 2012: I was so busy in February that I haven’t yet had time to see how much I made for the month. I’ll update this post when I get the numbers.
Check e-mail no more than 4 times a day: No progress. I am still failing miserably at this. This might be the hardest goal to accomplish this year.
Treat my blog like a business: On target. I have been commenting more and also linking to linky parties, but there is still much more I have to do. (I blog because I enjoy it, but I do want to get more disciplined about my writing on this blog. I also want to grow the number of visitors who come every month.) To do this, I plan to do some behind the scenes work such as cleaning up old blog posts, making them more Pinterest friendly, replacing bad pictures, and fixing dead links. I also plan to comment more on other blogs and reach out more to other bloggers.
Stick to a regular blog schedule: On target. I had a few lapses at the end of February when my freelance schedule got very busy, but overall this is on target.
Do you set goals? If so, how are you doing on yours?
I shared this post at Money Saving Mom.
I think you are doing great so far. That credit card debt is going to be a very high priority pretty soon though.
Looks like you’re off to a great start this year!! You’re on target with so many of your goals, I’m sure you’ll have them completed by the end of 2013.
It seems like you are doing pretty well considering we are just entering March. I got sidetracked on my goals in February but have already started March out with a bang so things are looking much better.
Good luck with March!
Good luck getting back on track! The hardest part about year long goals is the beginning of the year when you don’t feel like you’re making much progress. It gets easier a few months in.
I am really impressed with your goals! I love your goal of checking email no more than 4x per day. I feel like I need to do that for my computer time. It is so easy to turn on the computer to avoid doing other things I should be doing….Maybe I would complete more goals if I did this! 🙂
Given how long it is taking you to pay off your student loan, do you think it is wise to continue to only pay minimums on that credit card debt? March 2014 is in 12 months – how much would you need to put toward your credit card over those 12 months to have it paid in full before interest starts accruing?
Paying down 0% debt automatically saves you money, as you are not also paying the interest. Is your 0% interest the type where, if it isn’t paid in full by the end of the period, you get hit with ALL of the accrued-but-not-charged interest?
Well, the good thing is that if there is any remaining balance on the credit card, we only pay interest on what remains. However, you have a good point about all of the money going straight on principal now. I’ll have to reconsider my strategy.