Goals Check-In

Posted on August 21, 2011 7 Comments

It’s mid-August and I’ve been feeling a little antsy about my finances since man-friend still doesn’t have a lawyerly job (he’s doing part-time research for a professor while he job hunts), so I thought perhaps a goals check-in would make me feel better and give me a truer picture of whether I really need to sweat my financial situation. We’ve been doing REALLY good with our savings this month, mostly by avoiding lots of unnecessary expenses like dining out and clothes/vacations/athletic equipment. But rather than guess, let’s see where I compare to my 2011 goals.

FINANCE

1. Savings Account – Save $1,000/month. I’ve put more than half of my goal amount into my savings account this year, which means I have 4 months to save the rest And with no big trips planned between now and then, this should be doable. I also have some side project work coming up in October that should help move me toward this goal. I really have to stay focused in order to meet this, but I’m still right on track.
2. Retirement – Continue to invest at 10% all year. I fumbled in January due to a technical glitch with my HR team — not my fault — but I did make up for the difference by saving 15% for two months straight. Thankfully I found the problem quickly and fixed it. I’m back on the 10% per month train and have been able to hold steady at this rate since fixing the issue in early spring.
3. Auto loan – Pay $300/month. No problems here, been doing good on this.
4. Attend a home buying 101 class. Did not do this yet. Kind of forgot I listed it. Must do this at some point!
5. Complete a free online tutorial for investing  (@ Kiplinger). Did not do this yet.
6. Create a new budget and stick to it! Didn’t really create a new budget, but I did update some categories in Mint so I think that qualifies. I haven’t really been sticking to my clothes budget at all this year, but I did in July and (so far) in August. $150 per month does NOT go a long way for clothes and shoes anymore. Must do better.

FITNESS

1. Stay healthy! No injuries in 2011. So far so good. No new injuries, though I was seeing a chiropractor to get weekly massages for my IT Band in May/June, and I will probably go for a few weeks once my half-marathon training really increases. But I made it through my 10-miler and Olympic Distance tri with lots of injury prevention tactics such as strength training, stretching, and foam rolling.
2. Complete an olympic distance triathlon. Done! Loved it!
3. Complete a half marathon. In progress. Set for October 23rd in St. Louis, Mo. Just completed week 3 of training and it’s going well.
4. Add strength and stretching to my workout schedule EVERY WEEK. With few exceptions, I’m on top of this. I feel extremely guilty if I don’t get my strength work in, whereas before my big injury last year strength was the first to get dropped if I was lacking for time.

BLOG

1. Connect with more finance bloggers in 2011 via comments, link love, and twitter. I have made more connections, but there is more work to do. It’s hard to find the time to read all the blogs I like. But I need to get better about using my Google Reader to stay updated on everyone’s work. There are some great PF blogs out there.
2. Post every week, no excuses. Clearly I have fumbled on this goal, but I’m still posting so that’s progress
3. Research how to get ads on the blog. Have not done this yet. I’m not sure what my problem is.

Well, now that I have reviewed my progress, I do feel better. I have really no reason to feel anxious about my own finances. We are doing fine, and as long as we stay frugal through man-friend’s unemployment saga, we should be OK. I really need to keep saving though, so that after this period ends we can throw a wedding and maybe even buy a place, wherever we end up. Now that I can see I’m doing OK, I just need to stay positive for him and support him mentally where I can.

Category: Life, Money
   Tags: goals

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