I hope everyone had a great New Year’s celebration (and recovery yesterday). My HB and I hung out with some friends, went to a comedy show, then did a bit of barhopping. I think the last time I bar-hopped or stayed out until 4 a.m. was when I was 19.
Waking up yesterday at noon made me remember why I don’t do that anymore: I’m just too old for that sh**. But it was still fun and I’m really excited to start off this New Year with some renewed enthusiasm!
As you may have noticed, on New Year’s Eve I got an early start on one of my big goals for the year. I was really sick of my blog design, it just seemed a bit dated, so I started looking at other WordPress template designs.
I chose to go that route instead of hiring a web designer because I’m not monetizing this blog, thus have no reason to spend $1,000 on a new design. So far, I’m really liking the template I chose. There are still some things I need to tweak (namely my banner image), but overall I think it looks pretty modern and is easy to navigate.
So, to start off my life and financial goals list, I’m going to go through all of my last year goals first to see how I did. Then, I’ll reveal all of my goals for this new year. Ok, here we go…
- Join a dance or yoga class (this year’s gonna be the year!). FAIL. I set this goal every year and I still haven’t done it!
- Get my full driver’s license (ugh, I hate this goal but it needs to be done). FAIL. But I am seriously going to get this one done in this year.
- Complete my certificate program. Achieved.
- Read 20 books. FAIL. I only read 6 books in total all year.
- Go to FinCon14 in New Orleans. Achieved.
- Complete a 5k or 10k run. Achieved, did a 5k run for Run for the Cure.
- Do at least one thing that scares me. Achieved, did the CN Tower EdgeWalk.
- Learn at least one new skill. Achieved, learned a ton of new digital marketing skills.
- Try at least 3 foods I’ve always been too afraid to try (this will be easy since there are a lot of foods I’ve been too chicken to try). FAIL. I think I tried 2 new foods but not 3.
- Sign up to be a volunteer somewhere. FAIL.
- Search engine optimize all of my 400+ blog posts. FAIL.
- Come up with an editorial calendar (I am so over writing posts the night before!). FAIL.
- Read at least 2 personal finance books. Achieved. Read Preet Banerjee’s Stop Over-Thinking Your Money!and Steven Zussino’s Travel Hacking for Canadians.
- Change my last name to my married name on all documents (I’ve still only changed it on my social network accounts and credit cards). Achieved! But it still took me a year and a half to do!
- Save up enough for half a down payment on a place with my HB. Achieved.
- Ramp up savings for my retirement and emergency funds. Achieved. I’ve signed up for my work’s pension plan and have reorganized my investments so their working for me better
- Come up with an investment plan with my HB that we can both contribute to Achieved. We’ve been meeting with our financial advisor all year and have a great plan in place.
So that’s 10 out of 17. Not too shabby. But I’m hoping in this year I can cross off all of them! I think this year I’m only going to set goals that I know I can achieve (and want to). I think I’m also going to pin this list to my bedroom wall or something as a bit of daily reminder to get these done.
And now for my life and financial goals:
- Get my full driver’s license.
- Read 15 books.
- Read at least 2 personal finance books and 2 digital marketing books.
- Complete a 10k run.
- From start to finish complete a workout program. (IE. P90X)
- Do at least one thing that scares me.
- Do at least 3 30-day challenges.
- Learn at least one new skill.
- Complete the Google AdWords and Analytics certifications.
- Learn basic HTML coding.
- SEO optimize all of my blog posts, get a new headshot and banner image, and make sure all posts are updated properly within my new WordPress template.
- Write blog posts at least a week in advance, and stick with the Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule again.
- Start a new stream of passive income that isn’t related to this blog or my current investments.
- Be more strict with sticking to my budget so I can save up as much income as possible.
I didn’t include buying a house as one of my goals because my HB and I are still in the very beginning stages of it all. We got pre-approved for a mortgage, and we have a realtor, but we’re still not a 100% set on buying a place yet.
We’re only going to buy something if it makes sense financially. This isn’t going to be our forever house; whatever we buy will be an investment first and foremost. If we don’t find anything that makes sense from an investment standpoint, then we’ll just continue to rent and wait to buy when it does make sense.
Last year sure was a trip, but I have a really good feeling about this year. My HB and I are more settled in Toronto, we’re both gainfully and happily employed, and I just can’t wait to see what positive things are on the way. Wishing you all a very happy, positive and fruitful New Year to you all!
What are some of your life and financial goals?
