Sunday, March 02, 2008 2:57 PM
at the beginning of 2008, i provided a
list of goals i had for the year. here is the second update, for the end of february, that reports my progress so far.
- setup a 529 account for my daughter (complete!)
this goal is complete and currently on "auto-pilot". a couple hundred dollars have been saved so far. i hope to increase it from the $25/week i currently put in once i get a better handle on my other de
- max out my roth ira contributions
i have yet to make a contribution for the first quarter of 2008, but when i do it will be a decent amount of change. roughly $400. unless i come into a significant chunk of money, i will not be able to reach this goal in it's entirety. in fact, i may discontinue putting away $25/week for this after the end of the 2nd quarter in order to build up other savings.
- maintain a $2000 emergency fund savings
i am still putting away $25/week into my emergency fund to rebuild it. it's going slow, and i may stop saving for my roth ira at the end of june to speed this up.
- increase my net worth by 50%
the end of february was rather interesting. a couple days before the end, i checked my investment accounts and they were doing very well. then today i checked again (figuring that the values there wouldn't change over the weekend), and they went down sharply. i still managed to come out ok, increasing my net worth 1.44% for february.
- cut my outstanding debt by 50%
i'm horrible at this. my debt only went down 0.02% in february. my credit card debt went UP 2.59%! i ended up spending some money on clothes because i had a gift card (of an unknown amount), which caused me to spend a little under $100. then i made a run to sam's club for food and that ran me over $200. but at least i have groceries for the next two months.
i accidentally made an extra payment on my furniture loan, which helped, but i ended up having to borrow an additional $300 from my mother because my bank account was compromised due to it being linked to PayPal. a few purchases were made and cleaned out my account. the first week of march, i will be repaying that money back.
- lose 35 pounds
well, i'm still around 201. so i only really lost about 2 pounds in february (compared to 13 in january). i wasn't too surprised by this. i've been doing a little bit of weightlifting as well, so that will slow down the weight loss.
- exercise at least twice per week
in addition to soccer 3 times a week (sometimes 4!), i've been doing some exercises with a resistence band and some body-weight exercises. i've seen a nice increase in my strength, which has hindered my weight loss goal. and i'm ok with that.
- join a golf club
two more weeks and i will have this purchase fully funded. i plan on sending in the check by april and hopefully golfing by mid-april.
- take golf lessons
nothing on this yet, and i don't expect any progress on it until spring/summer comes along.
- create a book of erie photographs
i haven't done anything on this as well, as i think i need to concentrate on actually going out and taking photographs first. i also haven't come up with a theme yet for the photos.
- bring in at least $1000 in donations for parents of autistic children
no progress has been made on this. i haven't been informed of the official information regarding the golf tournament this summer, and i feel that will be the biggest source of donations. there will be a board meeting in a week or so, and i will get more information then.
i did bring in about $50 from the candles i sold... and subsequently bought.
- enroll in the erie ambassador program
i've received the application for the fall program, and plan on filling it out shortly. i hoped to take care of this in their spring program, but classes currently conflict with my soccer schedule.
- remodel my basement into livable space
ha! yeah right. i'm planning on putting down some vinyl tiles where the washer and dryer are, so that i don't drag my clothes on the floor when i'm ironing and get them dirty again. i want to do it how i eventually want it, rather than hacking it together with a junk piece of carpet on the
- bring in $10k from freelance jobs and photography
i've booked my first wedding for 2008 (at the warner theater no less!), and i'm currently working on a decent sized project for a client. if this continues i may actually come close, but i still don't think i'll make it.
- become a microsoft certified developer
i haven't done anything lately on this. i've got 4 other books i need to read first and not enough time.
like last month, the financial goals have been slow. in fact, most of them have been slow. but that's what happens when you make large goals. perhaps i should break some of them down into smaller goals to make it look like i'm doing something (and keep myself motivated).