I dug up my 2009 goals on a previous post and thought I would comment on how I did with them
1. Pay off student loan.
PASS- had it paid off around the end of May 09.
2. Get in Shape
FAIL - didn't really do this at all. This is by far the one thing that I have the most trouble with.
3. Drink more water and make healthier food choices. Try to take food from home more often to work instead of buying food at work. This kinda goes with #2.
PASS - I still don't bring my lunch every day or eat healthy all the time, but the goal was to improve which I have.
4. Start an RRSP and maybe some other non-retirement investments.
PASS - I started an RSP with ING in the start of the year, and then I discovered that my work has an RSP plan, so now it's getting taken off my pay before tax, and the best part is I don't have to do anything, and its matched 25% by my work. Ok so 25% is not much but its still something! I also started mutual funds with ING which currently have about $400.
5. Keep tracking my spending and try my best to stick to my budget that I made.
PASS - I'm giving myself a pass on this one, even though I don't always stick to my budget, I have definately been keeping track of everything I spend my money on which was the whole point.
I think overall, I did really well with my 2009 goals!
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Monday, January 4, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
2010 Goals
I have finally decided what my goals for 2010 will be. I did a lot of thinking about these and I didn't want to have too many because I felt like I would overwhelm myself. So I came up with 3 and they are pretty simple.
1. Take better care of myself.
Instead of saying I am going to exercise X amount of times or lose X amount of pounds I came up with the idea of simply taking care of myself, mentally and physically. Recently I posted about how I am slowly starting to feel comfortable in my own skin, and this ties into that. I need to show myself that I love myself enough to take care of ME. So what does this mean exactly? It means I will try really hard to think about the foods I am eating and whether or not it's really good for me. When I have a craving for fast food, I will stop myself and think of what's best for ME. When I have free time and I am bored, I will try to motivate myself to go out and go for a walk, or put on John Mayer and do some yoga (atleast the poses that I remember). Of course this also means I am not going into super crazy diet mode and denying myself all the time, because that is going to backfire. I just need to learn to moderate myself better. I also plan to do some research about how to find meat that comes from farms that are feeding the animals organic foods/treating them better.
2. I will not pay full price for a single book!
( The exception is if it is a gift for somebody else, or if I received a gift card as a gift.)
I came up with this idea because I am an avid reader. At work we put all our breaks together so I am on break for anywhere from 45 mins to an hour. It does not take me an hour to eat, so I need to have a book to read. Having a book to read also prevents me from eating more! lol. So naturally, I go through a lot of books. So I will be mostly buying books from the used book store where you can also bring books in for store credit. So this rarely results in actually having to pay anything. I will also buy used books from Goodwill or Value Village. And if I have to have something that's brand new that I cannot find used I will buy only from Amazon where the books are SO much less money, and then it will be mostly with gift cards from Swagbucks.
3. Pay down my car to $9000.00
I calculated that after all my regular car payments at the end of the year I will owe about $9500 and change. I am going to try to pay down that extra $500 to make it $9000 even. This works out to be only about $47 extra a month so I hope I can do it! I used a free debt reduction calculator online and calculated that I will be cutting 11 months off my term and save me $330 in interest. ( This is using my current interest rate of course, which is variable so yes this can change and probably will) .
Another thing I wanted to mention is that if nothing changes with regards to my financial situation, by the end of the year I will have a fully funded $3000 emergency fund! That was the amount I decided awhile ago that would be about 3 months living expenses if I was to lose my job. So I am pretty stoked about that as well!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
March Goals
Here are my goals for March. They are very similar to the ones from February.
1. Have 8 no spending days.
In Feb I had 7..want to try for one more.
2. Bring lunch to work 10 times.
Managed 9 in Feb..I can do it if I try.
3. Work out at home 8 times (about twice a week).
I blew up my yoga ball again which was deflated for quite some time, I'm going to hopefully start using it again.
4. Go to gym 4 times ( about once a week).
5. Try a new recipe.
6. Put atleast 50% of my net income towards debt/savings combined.
1. Have 8 no spending days.
In Feb I had 7..want to try for one more.
2. Bring lunch to work 10 times.
Managed 9 in Feb..I can do it if I try.
3. Work out at home 8 times (about twice a week).
I blew up my yoga ball again which was deflated for quite some time, I'm going to hopefully start using it again.
4. Go to gym 4 times ( about once a week).
5. Try a new recipe.
6. Put atleast 50% of my net income towards debt/savings combined.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
One Goal Down..Started a List Book
I have already finished one of my February goals: Starting a list book! The book I bought is pictured above, its called a Xonex notebook, and I got it from Chapters. If you look at the green one on the bottom it shows how there is an envelope in the back cover of the book. I thought that was a neat little extra.
Honestly, the reason I picked this book is because it was pretty much the cheapest one at $5.99. I wanted something nicer than say, a dollar store notebook but I was not about to pay $12-$15 dollars that most of the nice notebooks there cost.
I really liked this idea of a "List book" right away because I am constantly making lists of things such as stuff I need to buy, things I need to do, books I want to read, and I am always writing it down on any piece of paper that is in front of me on my desk, and sometimes I end up losing it. So this is really something that will prove to be useful to me I think. I have already started writing a list of books to read.
And the best part is I used some more of my gift card that I got for Christmas (that I used to buy my portuguese book) so I didn't have to spend any money on it. Does this count as a no spending day if I spent a gift card? I say it does :)
February Goals
Ok everyone here are my goals for February:
1. Bring a lunch to work atleast 10 times.
2. Go to the gym atleast 4 times.
3. Start a list book (as mentioned on FB's blog)
4. Have 5 days of no spending.
5. Mail away my ING cheque for my first deposit to my account. Organize my money so I have a different account for each "fund" ie. emergency fund, portugal fund etc. Right now my savings is like all in one account and I just write down how much money is designated for what purpose. I need to decide how much I would need for an "emergency fund", put that money into its own account.
6. Go to the library! I haven't been in forever...mostly because its down town and I dont really like driving that way. I wanted to purchase some portuguese cookbooks, but I think I'm just going to get some from the library (if they have any good ones) and photocopy the recipes. I'm also going to see if they have any portugal travel books, then if I see a really good one I will go buy it.
1. Bring a lunch to work atleast 10 times.
2. Go to the gym atleast 4 times.
3. Start a list book (as mentioned on FB's blog)
4. Have 5 days of no spending.
5. Mail away my ING cheque for my first deposit to my account. Organize my money so I have a different account for each "fund" ie. emergency fund, portugal fund etc. Right now my savings is like all in one account and I just write down how much money is designated for what purpose. I need to decide how much I would need for an "emergency fund", put that money into its own account.
6. Go to the library! I haven't been in forever...mostly because its down town and I dont really like driving that way. I wanted to purchase some portuguese cookbooks, but I think I'm just going to get some from the library (if they have any good ones) and photocopy the recipes. I'm also going to see if they have any portugal travel books, then if I see a really good one I will go buy it.
Monday, January 19, 2009
January Goal Update
Since it's getting towards the end of the month, I thought I would update you guys on how I am doing with my goals for January.
1. Pay $500 towards OSAP.
I'm definately going to make this one. I've already set aside over half this amount, and with my pay coming this Friday I will be able to do it no problem.
2. Finally do my initial deposit to my ING savings account.
Not quite yet, but I finally made the first step and went to the bank and ordered cheques. It was cheaper than if I would of ordered them myself online too! I should have those sometime this week probably then I can send it in to ING.
3. Get my credit report. Never done this before, think its about time.
Nope, haven't done that yet.
4. Go to the gym atleast 4 times
Well, I've gone once so far! I still have lots of time to make it to my goal of having gone 4 times. But the idea was to go once a week, and I didn't go for the first 2 weeks :( It's so hard to get motivated!
5. Work out at home atleast 4 times.
Only done this once too! :(
So overall I haven't really done that well! And, I've only had one no spend day! But, on the bright side, I have brought my lunch/dinner to work 3 times in the past week.
1. Pay $500 towards OSAP.
I'm definately going to make this one. I've already set aside over half this amount, and with my pay coming this Friday I will be able to do it no problem.
2. Finally do my initial deposit to my ING savings account.
Not quite yet, but I finally made the first step and went to the bank and ordered cheques. It was cheaper than if I would of ordered them myself online too! I should have those sometime this week probably then I can send it in to ING.
3. Get my credit report. Never done this before, think its about time.
Nope, haven't done that yet.
4. Go to the gym atleast 4 times
Well, I've gone once so far! I still have lots of time to make it to my goal of having gone 4 times. But the idea was to go once a week, and I didn't go for the first 2 weeks :( It's so hard to get motivated!
5. Work out at home atleast 4 times.
Only done this once too! :(
So overall I haven't really done that well! And, I've only had one no spend day! But, on the bright side, I have brought my lunch/dinner to work 3 times in the past week.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
November Goals
Well I am officially under the $4,000 mark on my student loan. It has now been 2 years since I first started paying it off and I have paid off approx. $4900!! My interest rate has also gone down 0.5% in the last month or so. In total since I first started paying it off, it's gone down 2%. I am really excited that its under the $4K mark because I am hoping that with my next tax refund in the new year, and if I try really hard, I could possibly have this paid off by the end of 2009. Wouldn't that be great?
Anyways, I've decided to come up with a few goals for November.
1) Keep tracking spending. I bought a little notebook to keep in my purse so I can write down everything. I think I will keep tracking my spending for Nov and Dec and then make myself a budget for the new year. Along with this comes #2....
2) Keep track of my No Spending days. Each day that I don't spend anything, I mark it on the calendar. After this month is over, I will see how many there was and then set myself a goal for Dec.
3) Get a new gym pass. I got a monthly pass for the new gym near my house and it was up a few days ago. I need to get another one and keep going. I think I will eventually buy a yearly membership but I will probably wait until the new year, since I will be saving for Christmas.
4) Send in my first deposit for ING savings account. I really don't want to buy a box of cheques for $20 bucks just to use one and probably never use the others. But then again, they have the highest interest rate than anyone else. Probably worth it, I just need to get around to it.
Anyways, I've decided to come up with a few goals for November.
1) Keep tracking spending. I bought a little notebook to keep in my purse so I can write down everything. I think I will keep tracking my spending for Nov and Dec and then make myself a budget for the new year. Along with this comes #2....
2) Keep track of my No Spending days. Each day that I don't spend anything, I mark it on the calendar. After this month is over, I will see how many there was and then set myself a goal for Dec.
3) Get a new gym pass. I got a monthly pass for the new gym near my house and it was up a few days ago. I need to get another one and keep going. I think I will eventually buy a yearly membership but I will probably wait until the new year, since I will be saving for Christmas.
4) Send in my first deposit for ING savings account. I really don't want to buy a box of cheques for $20 bucks just to use one and probably never use the others. But then again, they have the highest interest rate than anyone else. Probably worth it, I just need to get around to it.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Goals
I thought I would write a post about my future goals to put them out there to make myself more accountable. Maybe if I am telling you all about them, I will strive more to accomplish them? Hard to say, I guess we will see.
Be better at my job.
Show up every day ready to learn and continue to learn as much as possible. Be a sponge! Remember to breathe and stay calm in stressful times and remind myself I love my job. ( I really DO love my job...I just get stressed easily.)
Make money with my blogs.
Try to post more often, network more and gain more readers therefore qualifying for more paid postings etc etc. Keep an eye out for new ways to earn.
Invest
Every time I get paid, whatever money is left over from the last paycheck goes into my savings account. Because of this, I have quite a nice amount of savings so far. Once I have a bit more I would like to go to the bank and talk to them about possibly investing some of my money in mutual funds, RRSP's etc.
Learn Portuguese
Most of my heritage is portuguese, therefore I would like to learn the language.
Go to Portugal
This goes hand in hand with the previous one. I would like to have learned some of the language before I go there, so as not to be totally confused when I'm there. I really want to learn about the culture of where I am from.
Be More Active
I know, everyone says it. I am slowly getting there, but I'm not there yet. I want to try to be more active not just for obvious purposes, but to be healthier and have more energy in general.
What are the timelines of these goals you ask? Well, I havent really set one. Most are just things to work on every day. The travelling? Well I don't have a specific time frame, I guess we'll say before I settle down and get married ;)
What about you guys? What are your goals for the future?
Be better at my job.
Show up every day ready to learn and continue to learn as much as possible. Be a sponge! Remember to breathe and stay calm in stressful times and remind myself I love my job. ( I really DO love my job...I just get stressed easily.)
Make money with my blogs.
Try to post more often, network more and gain more readers therefore qualifying for more paid postings etc etc. Keep an eye out for new ways to earn.
Invest
Every time I get paid, whatever money is left over from the last paycheck goes into my savings account. Because of this, I have quite a nice amount of savings so far. Once I have a bit more I would like to go to the bank and talk to them about possibly investing some of my money in mutual funds, RRSP's etc.
Learn Portuguese
Most of my heritage is portuguese, therefore I would like to learn the language.
Go to Portugal
This goes hand in hand with the previous one. I would like to have learned some of the language before I go there, so as not to be totally confused when I'm there. I really want to learn about the culture of where I am from.
Be More Active
I know, everyone says it. I am slowly getting there, but I'm not there yet. I want to try to be more active not just for obvious purposes, but to be healthier and have more energy in general.
What are the timelines of these goals you ask? Well, I havent really set one. Most are just things to work on every day. The travelling? Well I don't have a specific time frame, I guess we'll say before I settle down and get married ;)
What about you guys? What are your goals for the future?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
New goals for the near future
I started this blog around the middle of February. My intention was to be able to make money off my blog with those websites that pay you to blog about stuff. Some sites only require your blog to be 1 month old so I figured hey, ill be able to start earning by the beginning of April. Or NOT!
I'm not even going to bother to submit my blog to these sites yet because I am almost positive I'll get rejected or put on some probation status for lack of traffic to my blog. So, I'm going to do a lot more research and put more effort into getting traffic to this baby before I event think of submitting my blog to these sites.
Since I recently got a raise at work I've been thinking about investing. I still don't make a lot, but I figure I can put about $50-150 a month into investments. I think I am going to read some books first, maybe "Investing for Dummies" or something like that because I honestly don't know anything about RRSP's, mutual funds etc etc. If anyone out there has read any GREAT books about personal finance for beginngers, please recommend!
Another thing I've been thinking about is starting to save my small change in a jar. Whenever I have small change in my wallet I'm going to put it into my little money jar and watch it grow. Today I put about $1.00 or so into it.
Once again, I would appreciate any book recommendations!
I'm not even going to bother to submit my blog to these sites yet because I am almost positive I'll get rejected or put on some probation status for lack of traffic to my blog. So, I'm going to do a lot more research and put more effort into getting traffic to this baby before I event think of submitting my blog to these sites.
Since I recently got a raise at work I've been thinking about investing. I still don't make a lot, but I figure I can put about $50-150 a month into investments. I think I am going to read some books first, maybe "Investing for Dummies" or something like that because I honestly don't know anything about RRSP's, mutual funds etc etc. If anyone out there has read any GREAT books about personal finance for beginngers, please recommend!
Another thing I've been thinking about is starting to save my small change in a jar. Whenever I have small change in my wallet I'm going to put it into my little money jar and watch it grow. Today I put about $1.00 or so into it.
Once again, I would appreciate any book recommendations!
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