2011 was an amazing year for our family. I quit my job, my husband secured a post-doc position, and we began to aggressively pay down our debt. We are still deep in the financial trenches, recovering from my husband’s long haul to earn his Ph.D. and our decision to have two babies back-to-back. However, we both feel optimistic that our income will continue to increase and our lives will continue to improve. To help facilitate our progress, we are setting goals for 2012, which I will update monthly with our progress.
–Pay off our credit cards. On target, still progressing. Our goal is to be credit card debt free by October. Since I set these goals on January 4th, we have paid off another $2,233.52, giving us a current balance of $13,582.3. If we continue at this rate, we are on target to meet our goal.
–Pay off my student loan. Progressing. My student loan is currently at $6,010.80; we plan to pay this off no later than the end of 2012, although ideally sooner. I need to pay off all of the credit cards before I can begin attacking this debt.
–Make $30,000 in online income in 2012. On target, still progressing. I have joined the Online Money Bloggers and have made it my goal to earn $30,000 in online income this year. In January, I earned $3,811.33, so I am on target. In addition, last month I started my new blog, Fiscal Phoenix, and I have just released my eBook, Mom’s Dining Out Deals.
–Snowflake at least $750 a month on debt. On target, still progressing. In January we snowflaked $2,020.45! February might be a bit more difficult because we are saving for a conference my husband has to go to out of town. However, if we can hurry and get our tax refund completed, it might be possible.
–Sell $1,000 of stuff around the house. No progress. I have some items downstairs to sell, but I haven’t done so yet.
–Learn to use coupons strategically to lower our grocery bill. No progress. I have been so busy working and generating extra income, I just have not had time to do this. I still hope to do it, but right now I am more motivated to eat basic meals and work extra.
–Lose 25% of my body weight. In progress, needs improvement. In four weeks, I have lost 2.5 pounds. While that is something, I need to lose more than this monthly to reach my goal.
–Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Some progress, needs improvement. I have been getting 7 to 8 hours sleep a few nights a week, but I am still typically running on 6 hours of sleep a night, which is not enough. I must improve in this category or it affects all of the other categories.
–Send my daughter to Japanese school. At a standstill. As I mentioned previously, one motive for our big, hairy, audacious goal is to send our oldest daughter to Japanese school no later than June of this year. However, we are currently at a standstill on our decision. We really want to send her there because the education is excellent, and we sent our oldest child there. However, I am having a very hard time justifying the expense. We may be able to afford to send her there, but that would leave us little money to save for retirement, a house, and a replacement vehicle.
I’ll update these goals on a monthly basis, at the end of the month.
What are your goals for the new year?
Hi there,
Ambitious goals! You’ve inspired me to push my goals out further. My goals:
1. To graduate this year with a 1st in Economics
2. To find a nice but affordable place to live in London with people I know
3. To sell some of my shares with a 25% profit since September and buy new shares sensibly
4. To earn £500 selling things online
5. To get an informal summer job with flexible hours
6. To read 8 books that I WANT to read before September
7. To sell one of my global equities funds once it has made 15% profit (covering inflation and fees) and remember never to buy a product like that again
Good goals. Let us know how you are doing on them.
I certainly understand about clipping coupons. I have basically given up. I’m not sure it’s worth it, except for on big purchases. But that’s just me and I know others have been successful with this.
The problem is that I think that way too. I know I can at least save on toiletries though, so I should start.
As always, you’re doing great on your goals. Especially the $30K challenge! It’s very impressive!
Good goals! My main goal is a DIY renovation of both our tiny kitchen and bath at a combined total of $4,000, cash of course.
I am a little confused about your children’s schooling. Does your son still attend Japanese school or is the $480/monthly expense for another private one? Sending the oldest (or all children) to private elementary schools is a very expensive undertaking and hard on a family’s budget, in my humble opinion! Also, might there be some resentment down the road that one child was favored above another? Our four children all attended public elementary and high schools, and this did not prohibit them from gaining entry to excellent universities. I do think so much of a child’s education is what a parent does at home! 🙂
My son attends a parochial school and the Japanese school two days a week after school. The education cost is a reflection of tuition for both. We are thinking of dropping the after school Japanese lessons and now only sending him and the girls to Japanese school in the summer, which we can probably afford. I don’t know if the girls not being able to attend will cause resentment. Yes, it is not fair, but my son never got to have me stay home with him. I always had to work, which is how we could afford Japanese school. 🙂 Now, I work from home, so the girls get to be with me, but Japanese school is in turn less affordable for us.
Wow, Melissa, your progress is amazing. I am so impressed with all the goals you have set and how you are moving toward each. Very inspiring.
Thanks, Julie. I am still in awe of your progress.
Wow, great progress. I’ve been trying to sell stuff around the house too – mainly to reduce the volumne of stuff we have, but haven’t had much luck – no one wants my stuff!
We have some stuff like that too! 🙂
Paying off my student loans and saving to having 25% to put down on a home are goals that my wife and I have this year. I also am working towards making $500 per month per site that I run. Looks like you have being progressing well. Sending your daughter to a Japanese school just sound expensive.
Good goals! As soon as we pay off our consumer debt, we are moving to student loan debt and saving for a house too.
Our goal this year is to pay off al our debt but the student loans. Only about 20,000.00 but still alot for us. We are sticking to a tight budget to do this but the freedom in the end is the goal. I am also trying to lose 50lbs this year (getting my body ready for another surgery if needed) and we are going to send our daughter to Zoo Crew this summer. She wants to work in a zoo and ours has a program where she can do this. We have chuncked these into smaller goals so they don’t seem so big. I love hearing the honest reports on your progress and there are times that I am in awe of all you do. Thanks for the insipration.
Those are great goals! To pay down $20,000 would be fabulous and would certainly offer more financial freedom. Good luck on the weight loss goals; that is one area I struggle with! The zoo job sounds like fun and a good experience.
Making $1000 by selling stuff you don’t need? BRILLIANT! I might challenge myself to do the same. I’m also impressed with your student loan debt… I’ve got at least double that, it feels like I’ll be paying it forever.
It does feel like it will be forever until it is paid off, doesn’t it?