Category Archives: goals

Cutting Out Time Wasters

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We all find ourselves at some point in time stressed for time. Often that is due to overloading your schedule, having too many priorities, or as is often the case.. wasting time on things that are not that important.

One of the things that I waste much of my time on is TV and Hulu. Even though I only have basic cable, Hulu more than makes up for all the shows I missed. I’m addicted to TV you might say. I just love the feeling of sitting on my couch, dinner in hand, and watching a show. That being said, I often go beyond what one would consider normal. I watch TV and watch TV and watch some more.. In the end I neglect the important priorities in my life such as sleep, school, exercise, and friendships, just by watching TV. It is a huge waste of time, and starting today, I’ve decided to remove TV and Hulu from my life for a month. It’s already hard and it hasn’t been a day. However, I believe I can do this, and I’m putting it out there to keep myself in check.

I hope to see more time to actually do things that have priority and a significant improvement in my exercise plan. I’ll keep updating on the status of this new adventure.

The Making of a Budget – Part 1 – Write Everything Down

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Well I am a week into getting a budget together. This part involves just recording everything that you spend your money on. I started with a small notebook, but that was  impractical as I didn’t have it with me always. Instead, I created a memo entry on my BlackBerry and I keep track that way. Each day I enter more information starting with the date then underneath all of the expenses for that day. Something like this:
2/1
3 – bfst
10 – lunch
…
The hard part has been to actually write down the expense. It takes some getting used to write it down, but once you get a hang of it, it becomes almost automatic.
I will update this post with the first weeks numbers.

Setting Up SMART Goals

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I’ve seen quite a few blogs out there that have set SMART goals, meaning Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound. There are different variations of what it means, but what it comes down to is creating goals that you can ultimately reach and helping you reach them by answering some crucial questions. This is similar to how I setup my 50, 30, 20 split of my income. Once it was set, it was easy to achieve because I knew how much to focus on them. I also put by each goal whether or not I am automating the process. I feel that is very important, it makes not seeing the money in the account much easier. I found this quote by Lord Kelvin, a famous scientist, to be quite useful – “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.” So here we go..

My goals for 2010 (starting on Feb 1st 2010)

1.) Establish a $12,000 emergency fund by December 2010. Right now I’m at $4,300 and with bi-weekly $250 contributions I can reach this goal. (Automated)
Specific – Yes, an exact amount.
Measurable – Yes.
Attainable – Yes. I laid out the entire plan.
Realistic – Yes. I can save that much per paycheck.
Timebound – Yes. I set a deadline of Dec 2010.

2.) No Credit Card Debt
Specific – Yes. Currently I managed to payoff all of my CC debt with the exception of a self payment for previous.
Measurable – Yes. Pay off every month.
Attainable – Yes. Spend within my means and budget.
Realistic – Yes. I will always check for my balances and maintain to budget.
Timebound – Yes.. always by the end of the month “zero” out balances.

3.) Contribute 6% of my income to 401k Retirement Accounts (Automated)
Specific – Yes.
Measurable – Yes.
Attainable – Yes.
Realistic – Yes.
Timebound – Yes.

4.) Save $4,800 towards the eventual downpayment for an apartment/house (5 – 7 year goal) (Automated)
Specific – Yes. ($200/paycheck)
Measurable – Yes.
Attainable – Yes. Spend within my means and budget.
Realistic – Yes, at least according to my budget.
Timebound – Yes, 1 year then revisit. (this number might change according to how I can budget these numbers further.)

5.) Enjoy life and build some memories by taking some trips (total planned expenditure $2,000)
Specific – Yes.
Measurable – Yes.
Attainable – Yes. Budgeted, also “if” I do get a bonus this month then I will use a portion towards this goal. well no bonus.. guess I’ll have to find another way.
Realistic – Yes. I will always check for my balances and maintain to budget.
Timebound – Yes. By end of the year allocate $2,000 to a trip. *I already spent $1,000 of this money on a recent trip.*

6.) Create a budget, trim where necessary, and follow it starting April.
Specific – Yes.
Measurable – Yes. I will track my expenses thoroughly for the months of February and March to figure out the best allocation of money and where to cut back.
Attainable – Yes. As long as I always write down my cash expenses. Otherwise the rest of the purchases will be categorized on Mint.com
Realistic – Yes.
Timebound – Yes. By the end of March I should have a clearer view of my budget.

Anyway, these are my financial goals for 2010. I’m sure I’ll add some more goals as we move through the year, but I think it’s a good start.

What are your goals for 2010?