Today’s mission is to check up on ’em and really see what’s going on.
How are they doing? Have you been nurturing them and helping them grow? Is this the first time you’ve thought about them in 9 months? :)
To be completely honest, I’ve totally forgotten what mine even were! So I’m gonna to go back to my new years post right now and copy/paste them here, and then we’ll all see how awesome or not I’m doing – haha… I suggest you do the same! Unless, of course, they no longer apply, but usually they still do since we tend to pick really important and/or HUGE gargantuan goals every year.
Here’s what I had listed in January:
- To max out my 401(k)s AND Roth IRA again.
- To help Mrs. Budgetsaresexy max out HER Roth too.
- To reach a Net Worth of $200k.
- And lastly, to better manage my time! (Why is that always so hard?)
I gotta laugh on that last one :) I am in the EXACT same boat as I was when I wrote that, haha…. still not good at prioritizing, and still not good at sleeping more (in fact, I’m now averaging 4-5 hrs of sleep a night instead of 6-7 back in the day).
As for the others, it seems I kinda cheated and picked goals I’m always trying to do anyways! Which is good for completing them more and staying on track, but not so much in growing and aiming for something bigger. But what’s better than financial freedom, anyways? haha…
My progress so far:
- Maxing out 401k & Roth – DONE! Crazy early too since I front loaded my investments this year (to make sure I got all my matches and before I changed my mind ;))
- Max out the Mrs. Roth – 10% complete? We finally opened one up for her this year, and converted older Traditional IRA plans into the new Roth, but we’ve only thrown in a few hundred so far. I’m not sure if it makes sense to max this out yet until we figure out my 9-5 nonsense.
- Reach a $200k Net Worth – Slowwwwwwly getting there but it’s seeming more and more out of my control for the rest of the year. Most of my investments are now in (except for some outstanding issues I’m dealing with which I unfortunately can’t get into here), so it’s really up to the markets and any extra savings that hit from my side hustles. Ya never know though, we’ve still got 3 months left…
- Managing my time – yeah, pretty much a big fat goose egg. I’d say I’ll start working on it again but I just don’t have the time!!! :)
Overall, it looks like we’re doing okay (as long as you count 1 for 4 “okay”). So I’m gonna stay the course and wait to come up with some fresher/more interesting resolutions for next year. Now it’s your turn. What’s the status on YOUR resolutions? Are you still fighting the good fight, or have you lost all motivation? Let us know so we can give ya a high-five, or a down low – ” oops, too slow!”
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It is not surprising that you are not making much progress with the last goal. It is still too abstract to implement. You might want to think more on your time management problems and try to pick out one or two major actions you want to focus on instead. I deal with this myself, especially since I am freelance, and I am now starting to build a sort of checklist of things I have to consider before agreeing to taking on a new project.
I actually didn’t make any new year’s resolutions this year.
I did start this project:
http://www.dayzeroproject.com/ and so far with 773 days left, I’ve completed 15. There are a few on the list are in process.
My New Year’s Resolutions this year, was to give up making New Year’s Resolutions. So I’m right on track! :)
I would think that you’d need to get your last goal in order before you start working for yourself. Self-employment and bad time management don’t seem like a good combination to me.
I resolved to pay off all my debt (done!), start on a 6-month emergency fund (well started), and read 4 books per month (I’m now reading more like 10 or 12!). I’m definitely happy with my accomplished goals. I also resolved to make 10-20 goals for every month, which I’m still doing too. It’s been a productive, successful year!
Better manage your time was DESTINED to fail! It’s too general. There’s still time though. All you have to do is set a schedule. Write something down at the end of each day on the closest scrap of paper of how you’re going to spend your time that night and through the next day of work. After about a week or two you’ll be on your way to DONE with that one too. It will become second nature after a month or so.
So your goal could change from “better manage my time” to “keep a loose schedule to help me manage my time better.” I think you’ll be happy with that.
I should have written mine down, I honestly don’t even remember, except to lose 10 lbs by summer and I think I’ve lost 3, with summer now over :)
New Year’s Resolutions? Hang on, let me look for them them in all this stuff…
Nope, can’t find them. So much for that!
I had a few New Year’s resolutions.These are the ones I kept.Create and stick to a reasonable budget.Create an emergency fund.Menu plan every week.And only shop once a week (that was a hard one to get used to)Oh, and put in my first ever veggi garden.It went pretty well.Over all I did pretty well.Time management is a hard one for me too.You’re not alone on that one.If there were only more hours in the day,huh ;-)
I guess my New Years Resolution was to buy a house. More like “Out the door by 24,” I’ve started the house hunting process and am still waiting to find the right one. Here’s hoping it happens by the end of the year!
Well my resolutions are coming along pretty well actually. I wanted to start a personal finance blog which I just launched a few days ago and I wanted to max out my Roth IRA which I have almost completed. Im usually horrible at keeping resolutions but so far so good this year :)
Great job MoneyMan! I’m still a blogging infant (a little over a month in). It’s fun. And sometimes people will actually read your stuff!
Just checked out your site – you’re drfinitely more tech savvy than me! Good luck. I’ll be visiting. And congrats on the net worth – totally great at 21.
1. Make $6k in extra mortgage payments. $3k done, so $1k behind schedule.
2. Contribute $10k to retirement accounts in addition to 6% deducted at work with 3% match. $3k done so way behind on this, but I have until the end of February to meet the 2010 tax deadline.
3. Pay off $12k HELOC. $11k done $1k to go. Ahead of schedule.
4. Have new roof installed (all cash) before the snow flies. We had budgetted and saved assuming this could be up to $20k. Quotations so far are all over the map ($14k, 22k and $36k!). One quotation still to follow.
Number 4 is the reason 1 and 2 are behind schedule. I basically stopped making on those until I really figure out what the roof is going to cost. We’ve ruled out the $36k quotation which was completely nuts. We’re still waiting for one more quotation. If we spend $20k or less we’re on budget and I’ll then go back to working on #1 & 2. If we spend more than $20k the extra will have to be dealt with before we can go back to working on 1 & 2.
I realize that a lot of married couples still keep separate accounts – but to me it seems strange that you would still think of your retirement accounts as two separate things. I mean, I realize that they are – but to me it would make more sense to consider it one goal to max them both? I guess I’ve never really understood the whole split accounts thing – I get each person getting a “fun allowance” each payday, but it’s hard enough for me to figure out bills without feeling like I have to split everything up like a 19 year old college kid with roommates. Why add so much more confusion?
Maxing out your 401k early in the year may mean that you don’t get the maximum employer match, if your employer does this.
@Kat – You are right! I def. need to break it down more and track better. My way is certainly not working.
@Miss Jane – That is awesome :) I love lists like that.
@Techbud – Haha…you cheated. And I agree – I have to lock this time issue down before going on my own. On the plus side, I’m usually pretty good about knocking out the major important things each day.
@Sarah Fowler – CONGRATS! You are a BEAST at reading those books, crazy impressed!
@Nick – Ooooh i like that! can i write on my hand instead? that usually helps me pretty well when I remember. Would love to have it 2nd nature though, good lookin’ out.
@Karmella – Haha… well right something down NOW to accomplish until the end of the year :) You can do it!
@tom – Zing!
@Dena – LOVE the “shop only once a week” idea! It’s def. hard, you’re right, but you get used to it pretty quickly. I gave it up for 3 months once and never went back to the old ways ;) Good work on sticking to a budget too!
@Jenna – Just be sure to wait for the RIGHT one! No rush at all, esp in this economy :)
@MoneyMan – Sweet man! Clicking over as soon as I post this to check it out. You’re gonna love blogging!
@JMK – Getting rid of your HELOC would be amazing. We’re so far away from doing that ourselves that I can’t even fathom it. Keep rockin’ it!
@Rachel211 – We all work a bit differently, so as long as you’re sticking with what you’re comfortable with it’s all good :) I like separating some things out, while combining others. I’m sure over the years it’ll all mix into one big bag of awesomeness though. But for now we’re killin’ it so tally ho!
@vml – That’s true at some companies, I made sure it wasn’t at mine before doing it ;)
@J. Money – Yup, I’m taking my good time looking around and finding what I like (or what I can fix to what I like).